Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Damn UTH.. no matter how much thickness I put between the UTH and the bottom of his hot hide, it ends up being too hot. I've tried towels, paper towels, etc. I was able to take it down from 110 degrees to about 95, but I still think that's too hot. I can't afford to go get a thermostat right now and my gecko comes in tomorrow. I am just thinking about not even using my UTH until I can afford a thermostat, freaking thing...

your leo will need the UTH for digestion... my UTH is hot too, but i put a few folded layers of paper towels on top of it and my leo loves to lie down on it... i'm also saving up for a thermostat coz i just spent extra cash today for my two fire bellied toads and am starting up hermit crabs, so bought a bunch of stuff for them dang i need to get some mealies tomorrow! hehhe

[aimEe]

>>Damn UTH.. no matter how much thickness I put between the UTH and the bottom of his hot hide, it ends up being too hot. I've tried towels, paper towels, etc. I was able to take it down from 110 degrees to about 95, but I still think that's too hot. I can't afford to go get a thermostat right now and my gecko comes in tomorrow. I am just thinking about not even using my UTH until I can afford a thermostat, freaking thing...
-----
1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Melvin)
1.0 Black Lab / Pitbull mix (Mikey)
1.0 Blue Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)
1.0.1 Fire-Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
http://aimee.i8.com

Yea, heh if only thermostats weren't so expensive. =/

Generally they're cheaper than thermostats. They cost $20.00 at Petsmart, or you can order it online for $11.00ish plus shipping. reptiledirect has them for the cheapest. petguys.com just a few cents more.
-----
chickabowwow

3.2.2 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
and 1 more egg a' cookin'

The thing with rheostats and dimmers is that they only control the eletricity and not the heat. While they would probably be good for now, I think I'll just stick with that cardboard idea until I can save some cash. The reason that I don't think the rheostat would work out is because the temp in my house kinda fluctuates, seeing as I don't run the AC all day long.

>>The thing with rheostats and dimmers is that they only control the eletricity and not the heat. While they would probably be good for now, I think I'll just stick with that cardboard idea until I can save some cash. The reason that I don't think the rheostat would work out is because the temp in my house kinda fluctuates, seeing as I don't run the AC all day long.

I use Rheostats for all of my tanks and i don't have any trouble maintaining the proper temps. Even with the temps dropping alot (winter is well on its way) theres been no trouble. I just check the thermometers daily and adjust things IF necessary. Waiting for the money to buy thermostats is good, but theres nothing wrong with Rheostats or dimmers. My concern is that even with all the posts suggesting methods of controlling the extreme heat of the UTH INSIDE the tank without a dimmer/rheostat, that allowing the heat to build up like that on the glass poses the risk of the glass cracking. This of course applies mainly to any UTH that sticks to or is right up against the glass. In my opinion and experience, even with a space under the tank, having a UTH stuck to the glass and reaching temps of 110 degrees is to risky.

Red
-----
Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)

...the corrugated kind where it's got two layers and an air gap in between. Not the kind your cereal boxes are made out of. I'll spare everyone the thermodynamic explanation of why corrugated works a LOT better than regular cereal box cardboard (hint: the air gap), but try a layer or two of it.

Here's what I do: I put down a piece of cardboard that's a little bigger than the UTH, and then I put a sheet that fits the tank exactly above that. I wrap the exact fitting piece in paper towel, and just have to pull out that piece along with the paper towels for the weekly cleaning. It's easy, and cheap.

If you don't have corrugated cardboard around the house, you can pick it up at the grocery store for free. They're always happy to get rid of boxes. Especially discount grocers who leave boxes out for people to use instead of bags. Nobody every takes the huge boxes they put out, so just grab one of those.

Hopefully a layer or two should do the trick. If it doesn't, stack a little more. I have a UTH that was getting my tank up around 105-110, but now it's comfortably around 88-90.

Hope this helps.
-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

I found the dimmer switches from Home Depot work better than any reptile ones I've paid more for. You just plug it in, plug your UTH into it and it has a slider switch on a cord thats very conveinent. You can control your temps with whatever substate and thickness of it you use. They cost about 15.00 though.
-----
My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.10 Tokays
1.4.10 Leos(13 albino)
1.2.0 AFT's(amel male)
0.2.0 Stenodactylus Petrii(Dune Geckos)

That actually sounds like a good idea, I'll have to try it out asap, Thanks.

I've never done this before with a heat pad, but many of my racks are heated from the back and I don't see why it wouldn't work with your heat pad.

If you are still having problems getting your temps down until you get a rheostat/thermostat you might want to drop using the heat pad to supply back heat. It should be fairly easy to create a suitable thermal gradient in this manner.

And you will want to be carefull about stacking cardboard on top of the heat pad. All heat pads are meant to have some breathing room. If you have the heat pad sandwiched inbetween the floor and the cardboard you increase your risk of a fire hazard. Just something to consider.

Good luck with your new gecko.
-----
-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's

When I discussed putting cardboard layers in, I meant that the setup I have now uses an UTH mounted on OUTSIDE of the tank (it's got a sticky back that goes on the outside of the bottom glass). The cardboard in inside the tank on top of the glass bottom, so the heater isn't exposed to the cardboard.

Obviously UTH's should never come in contact with cardboard and need breathing space. Make sure you're using the little 'feet' that came with the heater (hopefully) to lift the tank off the ground and provide ventilation or you've got some way of allowing airflow under the tank so the UTH has some ventilation.

Just clearing this up.
-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

For some reason I was thinking that you were talking about placing the cardboard directly on top of the UTH... Putting the cardboard directly under the paper towel sounds like a great idea.
-----
-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's

The cardboard worked really well when I was feeding her crickets. They were getting under the paper towels, but what I did was use 3 paper towels (still together) and wrap them lengthwise over the cardboard and tape the paper towels around the backside of the cardboard. It only took a second to do and the tape job wasn't anything extravagant, just enough to hold the towels on when I put it in the cage.

Since the cardboard was the same size as the tank, the crickets had no place left to hide. Just had to make sure the tape was on the backside only so there was no way for the leo to get to it and get hung up.

This worked great for a 10 gal. as the paper towels were just wide enough to wrap around the edges of the cardboard.

An unexpected perk is that the heater dries out the tape over the week and when i pull the whole thing out, the paper towels 'fall' off the cardboard into the garbage now that the stickiness is gone. Good thing I got cheap masking tape at the dollar store...
-----
Blaine

0.0.1 HY/Patternless/Normal Leo (Echo)

I use cardboard myself, and it works great....I don't even tape down the paper towels anymore since I don't use crickets that often and the rocks and stuff in my tank hold it down just fine. But, as you said, it works great at keeping the UTH temps down, and it's really easy to clean. I also have extra folded up paper towels in the area where my leo goes to the bathroom so I can easily spot-clean.