Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well,
I was excited to see my package from Outback Reptile sitting on my porch last night. Finally, the UTH and various accessories I'd been waiting for. Now I could get my tank set up in preparation for next weekends arrival of the 2 leos. I put the 8" x 18" UTH on the bottom of my 55 gallon (48"W x 12"D x 19"H) tank and waited for it to warm up..............and waited.....and waited some more. I have it hooked into a thermostat with the thermostat bulb located on the warm side of the tank near the bottom, almost touching the tile substrate. The thermometer (located on the warm side about 2" from the bottom) only registered as high as 78 degrees last night. I thought it would just take time for the glass bottom and the tiles to absorb the heat and then begin to radiate it up, but no luck. It was at 72 degrees this morning, which is barely above room temp.
I have read many posts here of people using ONLY UTH's for their tanks. I know the 55 gallon is large, but some of the other ones I've read about were fairly large as well. My question is, do you think it's a faulty heater? Would you expect it would heat the tank better than that? I don't mind adding a ceramic heat emitter or other non-light-producing bulb as an overhead heat source, but I was really hoping the UTH would do better than this.
Any suggestions or advice would be most welcome. I'm glad I have time to tweak before the little darlins arrive.
Thanks, Dean

Okay, the more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm kicking myself. I purchased the Zoo-Med Repti-Therm UTH. Looks like a great product. Well-built, etc. And, it says right in all the descriptions for the product that it will raise the air temp. inside your aquarium by a full 5-10 degrees. So, I'm reading all these posts from people that use only an UTH and thinking that it will keep the substrate toastier than that, but only raise the actual air temp. to around 80 degrees. Perfect.......except it doesn't seem to be doing that.
Here are my choices: 1) buy a Cobra UTH that claims to operate at a constant 100 degrees (translates to less inside the tank I'm sure, and/or can be controlled to produce a lower tank temp. with a thermostat). or 2) use a supplemental overhead heat emitter along with the UTH. I'm not crazy about this option because I know that it's preferable and mor natural to have most of a leos heat produced from underneath.
please forgive my rant. I just want to make sure all is perfect before I put these little guys (gals actually - I hope) in the tank. I know they've been well cared for by the breeder and I don't want them moving to the gecko ghetto.
HELP!!

Did you make sure the the uth is not faulty, cuase thats the first step. If it is you need to send it back.

That's my next step when I get home. I'll feel the glass on the bottom of the tank. The difficult thing will be to tell if it's heating enough. If it's warm, it means it's heating, but it could still be faulty by not heating to the proper level. I'll give it a shot and see.
Thanks for the input, Dean

I use a zoo-med UTH for my leo.It doesn't really warm the air up,just keeps the substrate nice and warm.I use a 40 watt night time bulb for extra heat,I leave it on 24/7 except in the summer when its really hot.
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Thanks Waldo. Maybe I'll move one of the tank thermometers to the substrate temporarily to see what that temp. is. I would think it would radiate up, but maybe not.

Sounds like you have a faulty UTH..i would sedn it back. Mine heat up pretty quickly so if yours hasn't changed temps yet I would say it's broken. You might have also plugged it up to bad plug. I did once and then when I changed plugs it worked. Hope this helps!
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Katie
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

Katie,
Thanks for the input. I will try some things tonight. I know the receptacle (plug in) is not bad because the thermostat into which I have the UTH plugged, is powered up. Either it's the UTH or it's the thermostat. I'll plug the UTH directly into the wall and see if it changes things. How big is your terrarium? How big (size or wattage) is your UTH? What brand?
Does anyone know if the Cobras put out substantially more heat than the Repti-Therms by Zoo-Med?
From what I'm hearing, I should have seen a much quicker and definite rise in temp, at least at the substrate, than I did.
Thanks again, Dean

I have a 20gal long tank. I use the Zoo-med uth also. It seems to give off enough heat and then some so when you finally get it working make sure it isn't too hot.
Good luck!
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Katie
Peach State Geckos
Breeding Mealworms
My Email

Cobra heatpads don't get nearly as hot as the Zoomed UTHs do.

You need to be measuring the temperature on the floor of the tank, not 2 inches above it. That means keep the thermostat probe directly onto the substrate where the hottest point is.

Rest your hand on the substrate. Does it feel warm to you at all? If it feels more than slightly warm, it's probably above 90 degrees. You probably wouldn't even be able to feel any warmth at all if it's truly 80 degrees, unless your hand is cold.
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chickabowwow

Xelda and Katie,
Thank you both for your posts. I went home last night, checked the thermostat and cranked it up a bit. I also moved one of the in-tank thermometers directly onto the tile substrate above where the UTH is adhered. The actual temp of the substrate is 90 degrees at that spot. The thermometer mounted on the side tank wall at the warm end is measuring about 77 degrees. I think that there is some heat loss through the glass on the side of the tank. I guess since the leopard geckos are terrestrial and they can get to warm enough temps. in the tank, I should be okay. I'm going to have a 50 watt blue bulb for night-time viewing. This will probably raise the air temp. a bit. I think I'll check the substrate temp. at the cool end too. This should be around what?.....75-80 degrees?
Thanks again, Dean