Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently use a dimmer with my UTH, but with colder weather approaching, I'm planning on getting a thermostat (BAH-1000SC or Alife). Here's the issue I'm having...

My house temp has been staying around 79 degrees (for now), but once it gets colder (my house stays around 65 - 68 degrees during the winter), I'll need to add another heat source to bring the ambient temp up. What would be best to use in order to achieve this?

And another question: with two heat sources attached to the tank (one for the hot side, one for ambient temps), will I need TWO thermostats? Can I use a dimmer for one of the heat sources? If I ever get another snake or a lizard, will I need to buy two more thermostats?

Does the cool end of your enclosure usually stay right at what the ambient room temprature is? It may be possible that even the cool end of the enclosure will stay a few degrees above the ambient room tempratue.

Depending upon the location of your enclosure I see two possible options. 1 run another heat source off of a dimmer that you have although if room temprature goes up so will the heat on the cage. 2 If enclosure is in small room run a space heater for the room with a cheap thermostat from menards (for example) to raise only that rooms temprature up to the 72-74 degree mark or desired ambient temprature. (this is what we do with good sucess. Snakes are in small 10x10 room)

Racks and enclosures that have a covered top usually disperse some heat to the colder end of the enclosure. If you have a screen top terrarium try covering it with some sort of insulating material (except near the heat source to avoid burns or fire). It does affect the air circulation of the tank which is a problem for some species but it should work fine. It might save you some money and worry to try this.