Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i dont know where else to turn. i have two bp's and i thought i had my tank set up pretty well, i have 20 long and a uth with a home depot type dimmer, measured 157f at the pad and mid 80's at substrate with a digital probe (hot area), ambient measured 6" from top middle of tank around 72f, cool side low 70's, all thermometers are dedicated to a specific area and not moved around, hot side and cool side probes are mounted in the hides. water bowl is in middle of tank covered with cork bark to serve as a wet hide. humidity is holding steady at 50% i know i really need to get the temps up but am unsure what to do. i would prefer not to use lights for heat if at all possible, as i would like to have a more natural looking setup, and at night i dont want to upset the day/night cycle, but am using a 100watt incandescent bulb for emergency heat right now. THE ODD THING is that both snakes prefer the cool side hide, and have ever since i got them several days ago. either that or the water, but rarely the hot side hide. both have been inspected for mites, and none are visible. both are very friendly and like to be handled. but am very worried about the temps. any help appreciated
thanks
mike

Are you using a screen lid? If so you need to cover that as much as possible, not to include the lights. It will help hold in the heat and humidity. Towels, plexiglass or even a painted piece of plywood with a hole cut for the light, with screen covering the hole are some ideas for covers. Then you can readjust the heat as necessary.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

If you have a screen top. Covering 3/4 of it will help with keeping in the heat and humitity.
That 157F makes me nervous. Are you sure the hot side is only 80 ? Maybe your snakes are staying off it for a reason . Try putting your probe under the substrate and see what you get.
Do you have a hide on the hot side ?

thanks for the replies, let me clarify a bit. I have a towel covering about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the tank lid. and the 157 temp was taken directly on contact with the uth pad under the tank, not in the tank i was curious about how much heat the pad put out vs how much actually was transferred into the tank. i guess the word i'm looking for is efficiency. and to be honest its not very good, it appears that over a third of the heat produced is lost. i might try to use some styrofoam insulation under the uth and possibly some aluminum strips as heat sinks to transfer that waste heat into my tank, obviously i dont want my "hot spot" to be at 157f . I may make a new thread about how inefficient the uth's really are, and if i get good results will post. but thats for later, my main concern now is getting my tmp gradients right.
thanks
Mike

The inefficiency of the UTH seems to be specific to your setup. I've NEVER had to set one over 100 to maintain 92-95 on the hot end. Point a temp gun at the hot side as you stir up the substrate. You may find it's getting a lot hotter than you think.

for the hot side. Cool side should be high 70s to low 80s. In Africa snakes avoid temps above 86 or so by hiding in burrows and termite mounds. I had a simmilar problem getting the cool side up when I was using a glass tank. First thing you might tri is turning up your house temp. I have found that UTH can't compete with a house temp below 69 if you don't have great electricity (Old house?). If that isn't the problem or you don't want to spend the money on heat you can try what I did at the time which is a second smaller UTH on the cool side.
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I eat human infants. They, like everything else, taste like chicken. What?