Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry for all the question here latley guys/girls.

Ok I bought a mini UTH yesterday from petco. Made and hour drive for it, but I;m sure it will be worth it. Ok I bought it and all but im not sure what to do with it. After I got home a read the information and all but yet a read some stuff that people put on here and they say not to attach it to the terrerium. Is this true. I just bough tone for allys 10 gallon tank to test it out. I know I should put it on the warm side under her humid hide. That I understand, but I dont understand this rehstate people talk about and so forth, what is it and where can i get one. Her tank only has papertowels as substrate so I know that would prpbaby get to warm... right?

You can get a Zoo Med Rheostat at Petco...its just got an outlet for the UTH plug and a control device with a nob. Mine cost be 20 bucks.
Take the UTH, and stick it under the warm side on the bottom of the terrarium (make sure you put the little rubber tips on the bottom corners of the tank first!!!). Then just plug it into the rheostat and turn it on. It'll take a few minutes to heat up.

Cleo
1:1 leos (6 eggs cooking)

I heard that it is bad to actually stick the adhesive to the tank is that true? Also I might stick her in a bigger cage later on so how would I be able to move it to the other one? Also will I have to change her off of paper towel. dont want her to ger burned.

I went to petco.com to llok to see what the Rheostat was and it is not there the only thing that they say they have is this.
petco

You can find a better price at Reptil Depot. Go here and click on Thermometers. You want a thermostat

http://www.reptiledepot.com/

I bought that thermostat off the internet and tried it for a while and wasn't really happy with it. It seemed like it would work good sometimes and other times the temperature would get way too hot all of a sudden or too cold.

I decided to try a light dimmer I bought at Lowes. It was 10 bucks, and you just slide the dimmer switch to where you want the UTH to be, and it won't get hotter or cooler when you find the sweet spot. It's been great and I wish I would have just got that in the first place. Just make sure it could handle the wattage of your heater, but I'm pretty sure most heaters are very low wattage anyways.

Its not bad to put it directly on the tank...she won't get burned if you have a temp control device...wait until you can get one and then put the UTH on. I am using 3 UTHs (all on rheostats) and my leos are doing great!!!

Cleo
1:1 leos (6 eggs cooking)

I don't stick the UTH right onto my tank because you can't really peel it off once you stick it on the tank. If you peel it off you risk breaking the heating elements inside the pad and also the adhesive doesn't work well once it's peeled off. What I do is stick the UTH on to a small piece of tamper-proof glass then put it under the tank this way I can move it from cage to cage and has worked well for me so far. Rheostat or a light dimmer both will work to control the temperature.

this is what i did and it works great.

1 get a dimer switch from home depot ( they make the kind that plugs in not just a hard wire kind)

2. peal it off stick to a piece of tamper or thin plexi and than duct tape the plexi glass to the bottom of the tank. so if you ever want to move it all ya got to do is pull the duct tape of the piece of glass and reduct tape it anthor tank

i made a platform for an UTH just a week ago to go inside my Wood maple cage. i just screwed little one inch blocks to a piece of 1/2 plexi stuck the UTH to the plexi and put it inside my enclourse and covered it up with my carpet it works perfect!!!!

inside the cage

finished product

You are quite handy. You should be proud of that project! Nice work.

thanks here is a better pic although it is outdated i have chnged a few things

mat

I'm not saying in anyway you won't damage a UTH by removing it once attached to a tank but I have removed about 4, one twice and never had a problem. You must be careful and not bend it too much and it helps if its warm(unplugged). I just grab two corners and pull straight out and downward slightly. gets spendy leaving them on a tank you no longer will use or dont need that kind of heat source for anymore.
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My posts and replies are my experiences only
1.2.5 Tokays
1.4.0 Leos(3 albino)
0.0.2 AFT's