Help with heating/heat mat thermostat

[cmserene]

Hello!
I really hope someone can guide me in the right direction here. My 7 year old girl was recently egg bound which has caused a lot of stress for her AND me! She has been in a quarantine tank for 3 weeks now and before I put her back in her permanent enclosure I am trying to make sure it has the correct heating, which I recently found out was not adequate and caused this nightmare to begin with. I've tried asking for help on FB and, well, it didn't go well. Everyone has a different opinion on sub, heat mats, overhead lighting/heating, etc. Her current set up is as follows:

- 20 gallon glass aquarium
- Excavator clay sub
- Cool side digging area composed of play sand and eco earth
- Dry and humid hide on the warm side (left side of the pic)
- Dry hide on the cool side (right side of the pic)
- Water dish in the middle of the tank
- Calcium dish closer to the cool side
- Arcadia ShadeDweller Pro T5 UV-B lighting kit in the center front

The problem area is a warm side corner with no excavator clay, only a thin layer of sand, eco earth and leaf litter, and underneath is an 8w UTH with thermostat. The thermostat probe is positioned in this corner. I initially covered it with the thin layer of sub but the temps reached 102 degrees! I then uncovered the probe thinking that was throwing off the thermostat but it is still ranging between 98-102 degrees. I have the thermostat set to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Am I doing something wrong?? Even though the thermostat is set at 90, the temp never goes lower than 98. Is it a faulty mat or thermostat???

I am stuck here and not sure what to do.

I also have a dual light dome that I plan to put ceramic heat emitters in. I have 2, 50w heat emitters. Should I put one or both on the tank?? Do I need the heat mat with the overhead heat? I am so confused!!!

Any and all professional advise is very much welcome and appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[acpart]

Sorry to hear your gecko is having problems. Here are my suggestions, with explanations about why I'm making them:
--dont' add a CHE. All you'll do is raise the heat more and dry out the air
--keep the thermostat probe on top of the substrate. What you want to know is what the temperature is on top of the substrate where the gecko is sitting.
--try turning the thermostat down to 80 or 85. It may be that the lower setting will lead to lower temperatures and you need it to be at 80 or 85 in order to achieve 90 on the surface of the warm side.

Aliza

 

[cmserene]

Sorry to hear your gecko is having problems. Here are my suggestions, with explanations about why I'm making them:
--dont' add a CHE. All you'll do is raise the heat more and dry out the air
--keep the thermostat probe on top of the substrate. What you want to know is what the temperature is on top of the substrate where the gecko is sitting.
--try turning the thermostat down to 80 or 85. It may be that the lower setting will lead to lower temperatures and you need it to be at 80 or 85 in order to achieve 90 on the surface of the warm side.

Aliza

Hi Aliza, and thanks for your reply! I actually did try lowing the thermostat to 90 and then 8 and the temps are still hovering around 100. I got a temperature gun yesterday so that was the reading on top of the sub this morning. I am beginning to think the thermostat is faulty so I'm going to return it. I've been told by a few people to not even use a UTH. Should I just use the CHE?

 

[acpart]

In my opinion you should stick with the UTH. That way you're providing belly heat without drying out the cage.

Aliza

 

[cmserene]

In my opinion you should stick with the UTH. That way you're providing belly heat without drying out the cage.

Aliza

Thank you very much for your assistance )