BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

For my Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skink, I'm seeing I'm getting a temperature of 88F on the hot side and 70 on the cool side.

I'm happy with the cool side, but I'd like to raise the ambient temp to around 95-100 on the hot side. His basking surface temperature gets anywhere from 100-115 (I usually turn down the light when it gets to 115.)

I'm running a Par38 Flood light that's on a dimmer, and a CHE they're about 11in-12in away from the basking area and is on top of a screen.

It's a glass tank with a screen top (both screens are mostly covered by foil to attempt to retain humidity)

Dimensions of the glass tank are 48Lx18Wx16H with about 4 inches of substrate. I'm a bit weary of using a UTH as my skink likes to dig/borrow and the tank only allows for about 4-5 inches of substrate. I'm just afraid of him getting to close and burning himself.

I tried my best to provide as much info as possible. I'm in the midwest and my house runs about 66 degrees which may be contributing to the lower temp, but I'd like to keep it there just for the sake of my gas bill.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.

I’ve found that halogens provide a good basking spot temperature wise but not much ambient heat but if you’re running a CHE as well it should provide a good basking area and temperature gradients across the tank? What are you using to measure temps? Are both the heat sources on the same end of the enclosure? If you’re temps on the cool side are the same as the hot side then the basking bulb is producing to much heat and my insight on halogen floods not creating much ambient heat is wrong lol. What wattage of par38 are you running? I use one par30 longneck 39watt and a 50 watt Arcadia DHP in a 4x2x2 enclosure and my hot side stays in the high 80’s low 90’s and my cool end is 75ish normally. I’m using both digital thermometers and temp gun to measure. The only other thing I can think of is you may need more vents in the enclosure?

Shorty1212 wrote:I’ve found that halogens provide a good basking spot temperature wise but not much ambient heat but if you’re running a CHE as well it should provide a good basking area and temperature gradients across the tank? What are you using to measure temps? Are both the heat sources on the same end of the enclosure? If you’re temps on the cool side are the same as the hot side then the basking bulb is producing to much heat and my insight on halogen floods not creating much ambient heat is wrong lol. What wattage of par38 are you running? I use one par30 longneck 39watt and a 50 watt Arcadia DHP in a 4x2x2 enclosure and my hot side stays in the high 80’s low 90’s and my cool end is 75ish normally. I’m using both digital thermometers and temp gun to measure. The only other thing I can think of is you may need more vents in the enclosure?

Hey, thanks for the response. For measuring temperature I have a temp gun as well as two digital hygrometer/thermometers on each side. My Par38 is a 90W. I'm thinking a DHP may be the right choice, maybe I'll finally invest in a thermostat and run that and then getting an arcadia UVB strip.

Yeah I really like the DHP it really provides a lot of ambient heat and I’ve found my skink loves to use it to bask as well as an alternative basking site. Give it a week to kind of burn in and it gets a little stronger as the first few days go by? Not sure but I read about them a lot before purchasing one. I have a 50 watt about 15/16 inches above a thick piece of slate and temperatures reach 102ish. But my enclosure is melamine and really retains heat well and no screen on top so with glass and a screen top I’d get the 80 watt. Do some research on the DHP there’s a lot to read and they really benefit the reptile. I know all about this stuff costing a lot! I just bought a new enclosure a t5 pro kit 12% Arcadia a DHP and had an electrician install some recessed ceiling light fixtures on top of viv!