Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Got my thermostat today for my UTH. Was wondering how most people set these up. I use Paper Towl for substrate, so i would guess most people would place the probe directly on the floor of the aquarium, under the paper towl, and tape it there?

You can put it underneath..
.. if you have a temp gun to read the temps inside.

Just remember to check the "hot spot" (the very hottest point on the pad area)and set the thermostat according to that.

To be quite honest you need a temp-gun.
I use one and i dont know how i ever got by without it!
Considering they cost a mere $25.00 it is still the number one piece of herp equipment i own.

If you havent seen them ..just use a search engine for "Temp gun",but dont pay over $25.

That's fine - except I would advise against putting tape anywhere inside the tank. Too many people are finding their snakes stuck/tangled in the tape when they thought it could never happen. Just sit some piece of deco on top of it to hold it in place. You will still however need some better thermometers - the stick on analogs are usually unreliable and they don't allow you to measure surface/belly heat. Instead they measure the area on the glass where you have them stuck to - this is not where you bp is so those temps aren't helpful. Ditch them, and get a digital w/ probes and/or a temp gun. The digital with probes are nice because it stays in the tank.
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I use paper towel as substrate too. Just put the probe on top the the paper towel. I put the probe inside the hide. This is the hot side. The other side of tank is heated by human heating pad set on low. It's usually 80-83 degrees on cool side and 90-95 on hot side. I agree with other posts, use a temp gun.

Don't ever use tape inside your set-up. This can lead to other problems that you don't want to deal with. I make the mistake of doing this when I first started out. Fortunately, I was able to peel the tape off the underside of the snake without harming it.