Question about temperatures/heating

[Dollyhorse]

---

LOG IN TO CLOSE THIS AD   

---

Quick question about temperature maintenance.

The UTH for my leo maintains the floor temperature between 91-95F according to the temperature probe. I also have a heat lamp to maintain the ambient temperature of the tank to above 70F because my room is quite cold. The problem is that when the heat lamp is on the floor temperature reads 96 or more on the warm side. I've tried fiddling with it by turning the heat mat temp down so that when the lamp is on the floor temp reads about 95, except then at night when the lamp goes off the floor temp drops to 88 or less...

What do I do to balance this out so that the ambient temperature will be high enough but the floor temp still remains around 90-95? Or do I even need to worry about this and is this expected to happen? What does everyone else do to maintain their temperatures? Thanks for any advice.

[acpart]

Welcome to GU! This is how I feel about things (which will not necessarily be how everyone else feels about them):
As long as the ambient temperature in my house is suitable for humans, meaning that in the winter when we're not home, it may get down to the low 60's, I feel that the UTH and the warm hide with the warm air that it traps are sufficient for the geckos. If it's on the cold side, the leopard geckos will either go over to the cold side and brumate (sleep) or they'll stay in their warm hides and be warm. I'm more concerned about the enclosure getting too hot and dehydrating them than about it being a little colder than ideal.

Aliza

[Dollyhorse]

---

LOG IN TO CLOSE THIS AD   

---

Welcome to GU! This is how I feel about things (which will not necessarily be how everyone else feels about them):
As long as the ambient temperature in my house is suitable for humans, meaning that in the winter when we're not home, it may get down to the low 60's, I feel that the UTH and the warm hide with the warm air that it traps are sufficient for the geckos. If it's on the cold side, the leopard geckos will either go over to the cold side and brumate (sleep) or they'll stay in their warm hides and be warm. I'm more concerned about the enclosure getting too hot and dehydrating them than about it being a little colder than ideal.

Aliza

Thank you for the reply! That's a good way to look at it, thank you. Maybe I'm getting too caught up in the temperature of the air. Today I went out and bought a dimmer and plugged the heat lamp into it, dimming it down about half way. That seemed to maintain the tank temperature at around 70F while the heat mat was still reading 95. While the air temperature is not quite as high as I'd like it too be (wish I could keep it at 75), I think this'll do and my gecko will be perfectly content!