Best heating for my situation?

[kshrubb]

Hey folks. I live in the mountains of NC, and during the winter it gets pretty cold. Right now it is like 1* F outside, and my room doesn't stay very warm. We have a single UTH that we were told by a couple vendors would suffice, but we forgot to factor in how cold my room stays. We don't yet have an ambient air temperature thermometer for either my room or for the tank (we are getting one tonight). I would very much prefer not to have a heat lamp.

We have temporarily moved the setup into the living room where we have a monitor keeping the room at 70-72 (still to cold probably, but way warmer than our room).

I think there are a couple options at this point:
1) Get another small UTH for the other side of the tank.
2) Get a bigger UTH for the other side of the tank and make that the hot spot such that the other heated side is warm enough enough to be the cool spot.

I don't think I missed anything. Thanks all.

 

[Neon Aurora]

70-72 doesn't sound like an issue to me. That sounds about right, actually.

What is the floor temperature over the heat pad? You want them to be able to regulate their own temperature, so the warm area should be about 90 degrees F and the cool side around 70-75 (although mine often gets colder at night and it's not an issue).

How cold if your room? If it's too cold, than you could use a ceramic heating element to raise the ambient air temperature in the tank. Honestly, though, I've lived in places where I didn't have central heating and it would get pretty cold. As long as the UTH was running properly at 90 degrees, I never had to use any additional heat and my geckos are perfectly healthy.

I actually think it's a bigger problem when there isn't enough of a gradient. If the cool side was over 75 degrees, than I would try to find a way to cool it down. Just my two cents.

 

[OhioGecko]

70-72 doesn't sound like an issue to me. That sounds about right, actually.

What is the floor temperature over the heat pad? You want them to be able to regulate their own temperature, so the warm area should be about 90 degrees F and the cool side around 70-75 (although mine often gets colder at night and it's not an issue).

How cold if your room? If it's too cold, than you could use a ceramic heating element to raise the ambient air temperature in the tank. Honestly, though, I've lived in places where I didn't have central heating and it would get pretty cold. As long as the UTH was running properly at 90 degrees, I never had to use any additional heat and my geckos are perfectly healthy.

I actually think it's a bigger problem when there isn't enough of a gradient. If the cool side was over 75 degrees, than I would try to find a way to cool it down. Just my two cents.

Good info above. What size is your habitat and what are you using for a substrate?

 

[kshrubb]

70-72 doesn't sound like an issue to me. That sounds about right, actually.

What is the floor temperature over the heat pad? You want them to be able to regulate their own temperature, so the warm area should be about 90 degrees F and the cool side around 70-75 (although mine often gets colder at night and it's not an issue).

How cold if your room? If it's too cold, than you could use a ceramic heating element to raise the ambient air temperature in the tank. Honestly, though, I've lived in places where I didn't have central heating and it would get pretty cold. As long as the UTH was running properly at 90 degrees, I never had to use any additional heat and my geckos are perfectly healthy.

I actually think it's a bigger problem when there isn't enough of a gradient. If the cool side was over 75 degrees, than I would try to find a way to cool it down. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the information.

@OhioGecko

It is a 30 high, 36"x12"x16" I believe. Unfortunately I could not find the carpeting that we are using online, but it is a 36"x12" (approximately) carpet. We have already thrown away the box, but I'm pretty sure that it is Zilla.

I know this is the wrong place, but my gecko hasn't eaten yet. We got her Sunday. When should we be concerned and contact a vet? We are trying to feed her mealworms that are covered in a calcium supplement.

 

[Neon Aurora]

I wouldn't worry yet about your gecko not eating. It can take a couple of weeks. The best thing you can do is leave the gecko completely alone (no handling outside of necessary maintenance stuff) for at least 2 weeks.