Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello...I just installed a exo terra 10.5x11 UTH on a 20g long tank..I do have it plugged into a dimmer..I have a small desert king..My question is, w/the probe ontop of the aspen bedding it reads roughly 85-86...but if i touch the glass directly w/the probe under the bedding, its around 103..now I know this is too be expected, but what is the temp to avoid him burning himself? what is the max glass surface temp to avoid? If i drop the dimmer down, and get the glass to around 90, it drops the bedding to around 79-80...at 103, I can lay my hand down on the glass, and it feels warm, but doesnt feel scolding hot...Please any epinions...Im brand new to using UTH....what are you glass temps at? thanks, Pete

I have a Cal King in a tank where the cool side is 78.4, and the glass temp on the uth is 124. I have a rock on top of the glass there and in reads at 104. That's in a 10g tank - how's that for a temp gradient?

The snake will only put certain parts of it's body on the hot spot at any given time. She is my best eater....
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Diego

SWCHR

wow. maybe 104-105 on the glass is not too bad....its not real hot to the touch....I guess thats normal.... You dont have problems with your cal King getting burnt if he borrows and touches that 124 degree spot? thanks, Pete

She'd have to get under the rock. I suppose she can, but I don't think she'd do that.

If you take a temp gun out in the field, you'd be surprised to see the temp extremes in these animals' environments. I've seen rock temp at 140 plus degrees on mild days, just from sitting in the sun. I don't worry about wild snakes burning themselves...
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Diego

SWCHR

I set mine on a dimmer, its turned down around 1/4...and glass temp is around 95 right now, and on top of bedding is around 85....but one inch above bedding is around 75...is this ok? is the bedding temp more important then air temp? thats the one thing i dont like about a uth, and why i held off getting one, they never seem to raise the air temp,

Don't worry about air temps. You want to measure the surfaces they come in contact with.
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Diego

SWCHR

That sounds like a pretty good range right there.
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Todd Hughes

A snake will not burn itself if it has access to the temps that it needs. They are not retarded. They can feel pain and won't hurt themselves if they can avoid it.

The reason you hear about reptiles burning themselves is because people provide ONLY a scalding hot spot and nothing else. The animal is left in a position to burn itself or die from incorect temps. sounds fun...

Your set up sounds fine in terms of temps. Much better than the original set up. If I could make a suggestion I would only use about half of the pad under the tank. That will still give you the same temp hot spot but it won't heat up the whole tank as much so the cool end will stay cooler.