Hey Guys,
I built myself a new rack system to be prepared for breeding season for my Leopard Geckos. The rack has 4 shelves containing 12 Iris 6qt tubs (3 per shelf) and then an additional 3 shelf's with 13qt Iris tubs. The top 4 shelves are powered separately through a HydroFarm thermostat and the bottom 3 are also on separate power also controlled by another HydroFarm thermostat. I am using 3" flex watt tape to heat the shelves and the are running in series one shelf after another. I have kept my joining wires (from shelf to shelf) as short as possible and running 12G wiring to ensure there was no safety issues.
The issue I am having now is the thermostat is constantly turning on and off and heating and cooling that tape from 86 to 93 degrees about 2 times a minute. I have the sensor of the thermostat connected directly to the heat tape on the third shelf (power coming in on the first) and I have thermometers attached to all the shelves in roughly the same distance to the one end of the shelf (just wanted to measure the heat from the same spot on every shelf). Also, I find some shelves are getting hotter than other and not starting from the power source and working your way down but rather jumping (ex... Shelf 1 (power source shelf) will be at 90.8, Shelf 2 89.6, shelf 3 94.5 and the last shelf comes in around 85). All these temps were noted once the thermostat was at the top end of 91 degrees.
Is that variation of temperature normal?? This is my first time with dealing with a rack system. All my other tanks all have UTH in them and they do warm and cool but they retain there heat a lot better that the heat tape (obviously).
I also wanted to know where you guys think it would be best to place the Tstat probe? What temp would be best for the babies.
The rack is fully enclosed (2 sides and a back) to ensure minimal heat lose. Just looking for an suggestions about improving the heating or is this completely normal.
Thanks everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I built myself a new rack system to be prepared for breeding season for my Leopard Geckos. The rack has 4 shelves containing 12 Iris 6qt tubs (3 per shelf) and then an additional 3 shelf's with 13qt Iris tubs. The top 4 shelves are powered separately through a HydroFarm thermostat and the bottom 3 are also on separate power also controlled by another HydroFarm thermostat. I am using 3" flex watt tape to heat the shelves and the are running in series one shelf after another. I have kept my joining wires (from shelf to shelf) as short as possible and running 12G wiring to ensure there was no safety issues.
The issue I am having now is the thermostat is constantly turning on and off and heating and cooling that tape from 86 to 93 degrees about 2 times a minute. I have the sensor of the thermostat connected directly to the heat tape on the third shelf (power coming in on the first) and I have thermometers attached to all the shelves in roughly the same distance to the one end of the shelf (just wanted to measure the heat from the same spot on every shelf). Also, I find some shelves are getting hotter than other and not starting from the power source and working your way down but rather jumping (ex... Shelf 1 (power source shelf) will be at 90.8, Shelf 2 89.6, shelf 3 94.5 and the last shelf comes in around 85). All these temps were noted once the thermostat was at the top end of 91 degrees.
Is that variation of temperature normal?? This is my first time with dealing with a rack system. All my other tanks all have UTH in them and they do warm and cool but they retain there heat a lot better that the heat tape (obviously).
I also wanted to know where you guys think it would be best to place the Tstat probe? What temp would be best for the babies.
The rack is fully enclosed (2 sides and a back) to ensure minimal heat lose. Just looking for an suggestions about improving the heating or is this completely normal.
Thanks everyone and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!