High ambient heat? To hot for skinks?

[Toxique]

Well, Wisconsin is having one hell of a heatwave and dry spell for the past week, and isn't likely to break for another two. I've likewise just moved into a new apartment which I had fears would stress my two reptiles out (ball python Nero and my IJ Bluey, Mortimer). They seem to be settling in fine, however, but I don't have AC in this house and it is /HOT/ in my room where they are. Mortimer's tank read 111.2*F yesterday and I moderately freaked out and clicked off the light. WIthout a heat light on we're running at about 80-85*F ambient heat.

Should I keep the heat light off and just let the ambient heat do it's job? Would that be to cold for him? I'm honestly not sure what to do and so far I've got my BP's and Mort's heat lamps off in fear of them baking in their tanks.

[Fatal_S]

When the hot end was 111, what was the cool end? Personally, I would try having the light on for a few hours each day. Especially if you're feeding them. 80 is warm, but not really enough for good digestion. But they also need a place to retreat. Consider a large dish of cool water, or fill a waterbottle with cold water and leave in on the cold side. Anything to give them a good gradient.

[Bird_Brain]

I personally would have done the same as you and turned the light off. It is much easier to heat up a cage if need be, but much harder to cool it off. If need be, just switch to a small wattage bulb (even if it has to be a compact fluorescent. They dont put off much heat, but they still produce some). Or use a dimmer switch and restrict the output of your current bulb.

[Richard.C]

i just kill the lights in hot weather,if ambient temps arm quite warm,adding heat can easily cook them,hot cages rule out the option of escaping the heat,goal is to cool them if room temps get so high,adding water might cool it for a bit,but it will quickly warm up,in heat waves,i kill all lights and have a couple of fans on the cages to try cooling them

[Coomassie]

I had the same problem last year. Our A/C went out and I totally freaked because we keep Crested geckos. I turned off all the lights to keep the temp down (I only had to deal with it for about a week). I kept fans going to move the air around and misted a lot. I also took frozen ice packs and placed them in moist socks (you could also use towels) and put them in the cage. It helped cool things down quite a bit. If the reptiles got too hot, they would just go lay next to the ice pack for a while to cool off. Also, make sure they always have water and to fill the dishes with cold water. If a reptile overheats (in my experience), it will go for a swim in the water dish to cool off.

[iLoveMyLizard]

Maybe try a dimming thermostat on the bulb? That will reduce the basking spot temps and if the ambiet temps are ok then you could leave the light on for him to bask on.

[Kurt]

Maybe try a dimming thermostat on the bulb? That will reduce the basking spot temps and if the ambiet temps are ok then you could leave the light on for him to bask on.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I've always been in an air conditioned/heated house that was kept at 70-75 degrees F my whole life. Therefore, it was extremely easy to keep the proper temps for my other reptiles (leopard gecko, bearded dragon, red eared slider). Now my collection is down to just my bts and I live in an old apartment with an awful heater and no AC. Luckily, Portland is fairly mild and my tank holds heat pretty well.

This summer my basking temps have mostly been about 101-105 degrees F directly under the light and the cool side has been about 80-83 degrees F (some days its slightly hotter, around 85-87 degrees F, so I open front of the tank to allow for better ventilation and it drops the temp of the cool down to normal).

In the winter, my basking temp drops to about 92-95 degrees F (so I put a half log hid on the basking spot so my skink can climb on top and be closer to the light for a higher basking temp) and the cold side is 70-74 degrees F during the day and drops to about 65 degrees F at night.

Anywhoo, I have had pretty solid temps for my bluey, and its mostly been by luck. When I first got him I wasn't checking temps, but when I got a digital thermometer it happened to be pretty close to the right-only making minor tweaks to get everything right.

My question is about the thermostat. I was hoping to be able to have more control over the temps. Can someone give me some advice on how to achieve this? From the research I've done (watching youtube videos) it seems that the best method is to get a high wattage ceramic heat emitter and plug it into a thermostat/rheostat/herpstat? and put the temperature probe under the basking spot and the thermostat/rheostat/herpstat thing will measure the temp and adjust the wattage output of the heat emitter to whatever was set on the thermostat/rheostat/herpstat? Is that correct? Is there a better method? What are the differences between the thermostat/rheostat/herpstat or whatever other types of dimmers there are? Can you have a day setting and a night setting that will keep the heat emitter running at a lower temp at night? If anyone uses this type of method, what brands do you use? I have 2 tanks that I would like to control, not sure if its possible to do so with one set up?

Sorry for the long post and tons of questions. I just want whats best for my bluey, and I can't keep relying on my luck of achieving good temps forever so I think it's time to look into a more controlled heating option. Thanks in advance for the advice!

[donkeybuff]

I had a zoo med repti temp 500r thermostat for my leo. It is basically like a power strip that is controlled by temperature. You plug in your heating devices (bulbs, heat emitters etc.) and put the probe on the basking spot. You to a certain temperature, and at that temperature, the power to the devices is cut. When the temperature drops about 5 degrees, the power flows to the devices again. Rheostats keep a constant temperature by "dimming" the devices. They use resistors to supply less power to the heating devices. In turn, they put out less heat. When it's colder, the rheostat will increase the power flow. However, some products (like MV bulbs) are damaged by rheostats. If you want to use a temperature control device, I recommend a thermostat.

Edit: Some thermostats that are higher quality than the repti temp do have day/night functions and can manage multiple cages at once. The Helix DBS-1000 can do day/night by time with the timer adapter or day/night by light changes with the photoelectric adapter. You can use any thermostat for multiple cages that require the same temperatures if you are controlling identical heat setups. I'm not sure about thermostats with multiple probes.

[AnnaMonroe]

DonkeyBuff - What would you recommend for users of repti sun mercury vapor bulbs ?
I read in your post just now that rheostats can ruin an MV bulb, and I wouldn't want that since each bulb is $50.00 ! Lol

[skeetersmom]

Fear not Toxique - the heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow I am in Milwaukee, and when the temps get high, I just turn off the heating elements, especially in the evening. I don't have AC either, so I feel your pain.

As others have asked - what is the temp on the cool side of the enclosure? When I feed Skeeter, I kick the heating element up for a couple of days so he can digest well. However, my tank is 6' x 2' so his cool side easily gives him an escape from the heat.

Just wondering - where are you in WI? Just wondering because you are the first WI-ite I have seen posting here. Send me a PM if you like.

[Richard.C]

if the air temp is to high,u dont want a dimmer to lower basking temp,you need the light off,if its tjat hot they probably wont want to eat,if room temps so high,even for a week or 2 having lights off wont bother them,just as wild ones hide from heat in cooler dark areas,ive had times its been to hot even with lights off,so tub them up and bring them inside