Confused by UTH and thermostat

[James1496]

---

LOG IN TO CLOSE THIS AD   

---

I have a Zoo Med UTH and an iPower thermostat that i got off amazon. I put the UTH on the underside of the glass tank. I have Eco Carpet as the flooring. I check the temperature of the flooring with a heat gun which will roughly stay between 83-90 degrees F. My confusion is i have to set the thermostat to 100-105 degrees F for it to stay between 83-90 on the floor. I have the probe between the glass and the Eco Carpet. Would this be a correct way of doing this because of the heat loss when transferring through the glass and carpet? I have always used the overhead lights for heat but am switching over to the UTH because i have read that it is better for the leopard gecko's. Any advice is appreciated. Also, my new baby likes to poop inside his warm hide which is very annoying to me after i have moved his poop to a different area multiple times lol

[Elizabeth Freer]

I have a Zoo Med UTH and an iPower thermostat that i got off amazon. I put the UTH on the underside of the glass tank. I have Eco Carpet as the flooring. I check the temperature of the flooring with a heat gun which will roughly stay between 83-90 degrees F. My confusion is i have to set the thermostat to 100-105 degrees F for it to stay between 83-90 on the floor. I have the probe between the glass and the Eco Carpet. Would this be a correct way of doing this because of the heat loss when transferring through the glass and carpet? I have always used the overhead lights for heat but am switching over to the UTH because i have read that it is better for the leopard gecko's. Any advice is appreciated. Also, my new baby likes to poop inside his warm hide which is very annoying to me after i have moved his poop to a different area multiple times lol

Please relocate the probe to the warm hide. Place the probe directly on top of the carpet. That's the temperature your leo feels when he lays inside his warm dry hide.

Even though I have a temp gun and digital thermometers, I prefer digital thermometers. Zoo Med makes a good digital for $10 that's sold at many pet stores.

Temperatures - A temperature gradient from warm to cool maintains your leo's health. Here's a temperature guide for all leopard geckos as measured with the probe of a digital thermometer or a temp gun (and controlled by a thermostat set at 91*F/32.8*C).

Tape the thermostat's probe and a digital thermometer's probe together, but offset a little. Place them right on top of the substrate underneath the warm dry hide. If you use a UTH + a CHE you'll need 2 separate thermostats, because ground and air temperatures are substantially different.

• Warm dry hide ground temperature: 88-92 F (31.1-33.3 C) inside a leo's warm dry hide.
• Warm humid/moist hide: Place the humid hide 100% on top of the heat mat. Keep temperatures similar to the warm dry hide.
• Cool dry hide ground temperature: 70ish-75 F (21.1-23.9 C) Usually the cool end ground temperature matches the room temperature where the enclosure sits.
• no greater than 82ish F (27.8ish C) surface temperature - 4 inches (10 cm) above ground on the warm end
• no greater than 75 F (23.9 C) surface temperature - 4 inches (10 cm) above ground on the cool end

Leave the heat mat/UTH on 24/7. If you wish, during the night turn off overhead lighting/heating (~12 hours on and ~12 hours off) unless ambient room temperatures drop lower than 67ish*F (19.4*C).

Here's how Odinsmom successfully trained her leo Sobek to poop outside his warm dry hide: Poop in hides/ sleeping in poop

[SpottedDragon]

Is the iPower thermostat the "on-off" kind or a "proportional"?

for example: The on-off kind with reach the set temp of 105 and turn off. Then when the sensor reads that the temp has cooled off, it will turn back on and heat up. Depending on the device it may not turn back on until it reaches say...90. A proportional thermostat adjusts how much power is going to the mat keeping it within 2 to 4 degrees of where it is set.

Also, I find my thermostats to be more accurate if I put the probe on the outside of the tank BETWEEN the mat and the glass like a sandwich. Even when I had the on-off kind.

For all 3 of my setups, I have to keep the thermostat between 90 and 95 in my plastic cages to keep the surface of the floor at 88, but in the glass tank, I have to set it at around 85. I have overhead supplemental heating since my house is cold, and in the glass tank it seems to create a feed-back, where the mat gets hotter than I want it to with the overhead heat on that side.

Heating and temps can be picky depending on what equipment you are using and the room temperatures. Some also have a greater accuracy range (the thermostat will say accurate within +/- 5 degrees for instance). So just play with it.

[babyboo]

---

LOG IN TO CLOSE THIS AD   

---

Sounds like you have the temperature probe for the thermostat between the eco carpet and glass. SO it is measuring a higher temp than the top of the eco carpet. I would move the probe to the top of the eco carpet instead.