Thermostat placement

[Dani04]

Hi there
We are working to ensure temperatures stay optimal for our new BTS. We plan to use a thermostat for the ceramic heater— and then timers for the mercury bulb and basking light.
Is is best to put the sensor on the warm side set at 95-95 or on the cool 75-80? The heater is currently over the warm side and only comes on at night.
Thanks

[ThatOneReptileNoob]

I want to be sure I understand; the thermostat will control the ceramic heater, right? And it is a thermostat, not a thermometer? If yes to both, then you see, the thermostat can only properly control the heater if the probe is placed underneath the heater. Say you wanted the hot spot to be 93 degrees exactly. The thermostat reads the temperature through the probe, so if you placed the probe on the cool side, away from the heater, that wouldn’t be very useful, would it? Did I understand you properly, or have I answered a random question that you didn’t care about?

[Dani04]

I am confusing us both. We have had a hard time keeping the enclosure warm enough so have added a ceramic bulb for nighttime. I figured this would be the best heating element to connect the thermostat to as the other two devices also supply light. But not 100% sure my assumption is correct. I have them all on the warm side but thinking of moving the ceramic bulb to the middle or the cool side. My guess is the entire enclosure benefits from the heater but am new to this. I was trying to get sense of better to try to keep the warm side to a certain temperature or the cool side knowing both will be affected— unless that is quite logical:)

The only other place the thermostat makes sense is on the basking surface controlling the spot light because the mercury vapor bulb would still be giving UVB. Then I would just run the ceramic bulb all night—- last night I did this as I did not yet have the thermostat and my daughter had shut the door to the room so the room stayed warmer and the enclosure was actually warmer than expected (85 on cool side 95 on warm).

The enclosure is 48x18x18 and our skink has been burrowed and hiding for about 25 days— about 2 days after we brought her home.

[ThatOneReptileNoob]

Well, I don’t know a load about ceramic heat emitters; but I do know that loads of people use them. I believe they’re good for any time of day (or night). It would be a good way to keep temperatures up at night. If the tank temperatures as a whole are getting too low at night (or any point) you may want to invest in more heaters to put around the tank, and either turn them off when you don’t need them or have them on a timer. That is, if the heat emitter doesn’t heat everything well enough from the center (or wherever you put it).

When you say it’s been hiding for that long, do you mean it hasn’t been out AT ALL this long? As in, you haven’t seen it, and it isn’t eating? If so, might aughta check on it. It’s probably fine, and just in brumation, but still good to check.

You should probably do more research than just what I say, though. I’m still real new to this, TECHNICALLY I don’t have a reptile, but I HAVE been researching for about a year now. Still better to double check whatever I say though.

[Dani04]

Thanks! She has snuck out a few times to eat (total of maybe 3-4 times) and my daughter did go in a few times to check on her and got hissed at
We have had the enclosure temps much more regulated for about 3 days so praying she comes out soon to eat.

[ThatOneReptileNoob]

Hope it all works for yah.

[IvanDanko]

Hi again Dani,

Agreed with ThatOneReptileNoob's points and as they explained above, the probe should be placed near the ceramic heater in the area it is operating - I am assuming you are moderating the air temperature, in that case placing the probe on the wall maybe an inch or two above substrate level would work. For nighttime I am not sure where your skink predominantly sleeps, but if it is the warm side I would keep the ceramic heater there. If it sleeps all over your enclosure, perhaps the middle (this would likely raise the temperature across the warm and cool sides somewhat 'evenly' depending on the wattage but would still be warmest in the middle).

In regards to what should be connected to your thermostat - any device which provides heat. As you are limited to a single thermostat without a timer module built in, personally I would prioritise connecting the heat lamp to the thermostat in the day time to precisely control the temperature of the hot side/basking spot. Depending on the conditions of where you live, if it gets hot in the day time seasonally then using a timer is unsafe as your enclosure can very easily overheat.

What you could try is connecting the CHE to its own separate timer for nighttime and setting it to run in intervals depending on what kind of timer you have (assuming a manual timer with the 'click' tabs) and keeping the enclosure from dropping too low that way. You could try 45 minutes on/15 minutes off over the course of the night cycle i.e. 11pm-10am depending on how long the individual intervals are on your timer (mine is 15 minutes per interval).

Hope this helps and wasn't too confusing!

[ThatOneReptileNoob]

Depending on the conditions of where you live, if it gets hot in the day time seasonally then using a timer is unsafe as your enclosure can very easily overheat.

I never even considered that possibility. Good point! I’ll probably keep that in mind setting up my own enclosure!

[Dani04]

Thank you! Yes very helpful. Sounds like its best I get another thermostat for the basking area and keep this one close to the ceramic heater.
Currently our skink is still burrowed on the cold side (maybe brumating). If we warm up that area to keep it 75-80 will it encourage her to come out of brumation? It had been dropping under 70 we discovered but have corrected that with the additional heaters.

[mb606587]

So thermostats work great for heating sources like heat tape and heat mats. Those sometimes can overheat to dangerously high temperatures directly over the source. I had heat tape once spontaneously heat up to 170° when the thermostat malfunctioned. Bulbs are fairly reliable and don't fluctuate much. With a bulb, you can honestly put the probe in either spot. The basking area in case it for whatever reason gets too hot (again rare with bulbs if the proper wattage is used) or even dangling in the cool zone and set to shut the source off if the temperatures there creep up into the 90° range. Remember, the cool zone is prpbably most important to regulate. Even if the basking area is too hot, the skink will always instinctually retreat towards lower temperatures.

[Dani04]

Thanks! I was trying to keep a warm and cool side at night and realized that if all heat sources and lights are out, likely the enclosure will be around the same temp all night. As long as that temp is between 70-80 I am good right?

[mb606587]

Right. 65°-80° overnight

[Dani04]

Great thanks