Reptile & Amphibian Forums

*sigh*.....I'm having a hard time getting a good temp going in my leos cage.....The UTH does NOT do it during the day alone....W/ the UTH and a 40 watt light bulb I can get the tank 90 on the hot side and 78-80 on the cooler side during the day....is this ok for daytime temp???....last night I didnt have the UTH totally warmed up yet (it takes at least 6 hours to get a good reading)....so we will see tonight what kind of temps I get....whats the best nighttime temps???...He or she seems to be staying in the dry hide on the cooler side of the tank.

What are you useing to do it and where are you measureing it from(ground, air or what?)?

In my experiance under tank heaters generally get too hot and need a thermostat/reostat to bring it down.

If you aren'y measureing the temp from the ground right ove the UTH with a prob then I would bet your temps are too high.
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Sarah H

I've got 2 thermometers on the back wall of my tank....one on the cool side and one on the warm side....do I need a thermometer on the ground also??...I'm useing carpet btw not sand or anything

Are you using those stick on ones? If so those are worthless. You need to go to someplace like walmart and get a digital thmometer with a probe or a temp gun if you feel like ordering online(lllreptile has a pretty cheap one).

You need to measure the temp on the ground right obove the UTH using the probe from the digital thermometer.
The temp on the wall is just the air temp You don't need to worry about that as much. It is the belly temp you want around 88-90 degrees on the hot side on the carpet right over the UTH. Cool side is fine at room temperature.
I would bet that your temps are well over 100 degrees especially with a lamp(I have tested mine).
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Sarah H

I was using those thermometers that stick to the tank, and they were reading 82 on the warm side and 74 on the cool side...this was with a UTH and a daylight bulb. She would not eat and would only come out of her humid hide long enough to get to another hide, the H2O was evaporating quick, and it was obvious that her food items were uncomfortable as well lol, so I got a digital and found out that the temp. on the warm side was actually around 120!! and 100 in the cool side! Luckily we got it as soon as we did and thank god we didn't overheat her! We no longer use the UTH, just a 60 Watt daylight bulb and a infrared night light, and the temp. is where it should be. She's doing much better ( as is her food lol)