Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I made this post in the Corn Snake Forum and thought it came out very well, so I figured I'd post it in another forum or 2 since I believe it will be informative to some.

The cheapest and easiest rheostat you can find is a simple plug in light dimmer. All rheostats, whether made for animals or not, simply control the amount of electricity going to a device. In our case, more or less electricity going to a heating device = more or less heat generated. A rheostat allows for manual control of the electricity flow.

For 20$ Can, (I'll bet 10 usd), you can go to Home Depot and get a plug in light dimmer. Just plug your heatpad into the dimmer, and the dimmer into the wall. Use a (good, and preferably digital) thermometer right over the pad and continue adjusting the dimmer over the course of a few hours until your temps are right.

A thermostat, on the other hand, senses the temperature by itself and automatically adjusts the amount of electricity running to the heating device. Thermostats will allow you to pick a temperature and, using a probe connected to the thermostat and placed over the heatpad, will monitor the temp for you. (I always check with a digital thermometer since I don't trust the thermostats.)

Now, about thermostats. I hate the ESU Reptile Thermostat. It was recommended to me by someone on one of these forums, and I used it as part of an incubator. Within 3 weeks of use, it broke and my temp shot up to 110 degrees. I lost 20 leopard gecko eggs, about 1000$ worth of potential income and 20 little lives lost because its a cheap piece of ... pie.

I do like the ZooMed Repti-Therm (maybe its Repti-Temp) 500R. I've used several of these for years without a problem. However, the temperature indicator doesn't actually show degrees, but, rather, shades of color. So you'll need a digital thermometer to verify.

Hope this helps.
Joel
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2.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Ball Pythons
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.0 Blair's Phase Gray Banded Kingsnake

Thats good to know......i've actually been looking to get one of those thermostats so i'll go with the Zoomed one. I actually would like to have all my tanks UTH on one or two thermonstats. Right now theres one Rheostat for every two tanks which is fine but with the extreme cold we have i'm having a heck of a time keeping the temps up high with just the rheostats. Even with all of our heaters going the only room in the house thats really hot is the one with the fireplace. Actually it gets a bit to hot there.....they designed this house really badly!!!

I've been freaking out about my one male Boo. He used to be a huge eater but now he's not. He hasn't lost weight and is still active in the evenings...climbs all over his tank, but the not eating thing made me start to worry about him being sick....and with all the talk of crypto i really started to freak out...

Before loading him and some poop up for a vet visit i tried upping his temps...he's more active and i've noticed the rest of my geckos aren't eating much either so i believe it to be a temp issue. All of the rheostats are cranked but i'm still only getting 85-88 on the hot side and thats only if the room temps are above 75.

To fix the problem i scheduled Sunday off work and my brother and i will take all the tanks out of the unit, completely close off the back and install hotter lights (i was using the tube lighting but it doesn't give off any heat).

I was very upset this morning after checking on Dot....her thermometer said 68 and i was beside myself.....until i realized she's moved the probe off of the UTH altogether, i need to find a way to stick it down so she can't move it lol.

The point of my babbling i guess is that rheostats are great....but a thermostat would be better... lol

Red
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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)

It's completely natural for them to slow down this time of year when the temperatures drop.
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

I know Its just weird how it happened all of a sudden...when the temps really dropped here. I can't seem to keep the temps up in the correct range at all. I said if the room temp is above 75 then the hot sides of the tank are 88 but usually the room is colder than that, even with the heater on full. I'm not concerned that they aren't eating as much, most still will take a few mealworms but i am concerned that without the temps high enough they won't be able to digest the food.

Red

>>It's completely natural for them to slow down this time of year when the temperatures drop.
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>>chickabowwow
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>>
>>3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)
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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)