Newbie Needing Temp Help

[theblueofnoon]

Our family just adopted two leopard geckos yesterday. The person we bought them from included a 100W red bulb, but we tried it out last night and it made our 20L tank way, way too hot - about 94 degrees. Today, I went to +++++ and got a 50W day bulb and 50W night bulb. We tried the 50W out. It was not as hot, but still warmer than it should be - 92 for the warm side, but there isn't really a cool side as the other side measured at about 85 or so. I assume part of the issue is the surrounding room temperature. We don't have central A/C, only window units. The room the tank's in is a bedroom which hits about 80-84 during the day; at night, we use the window unit to cool it down. I'm lost as to how to manage this. Help would be appreciated.

 

[acpart]

Welcome to GF! The best way to manage it is to ditch the lights and get a heat mat or heat cable. The heat mat (Under Tank Heater: UTH) is a coated piece of heating element with an adhesive on one side so you can stick it to the bottom of the tank and the heat cable is a rubberized cable that you can tape on to the bottom of the tank in a sine-wave pattern (that's included in the heat cable instructions). ZooMed makes both of these products. The advantage of the heat cable is that it can be removed and re-taped as needed. You will need a thermostat with these. Check amazon.com for these products. The thermostat made by Zilla or ESU is reasonably priced and works fine. You should be measuring the temperatures with a probe on the floor of the enclosure, not in the air. Of course a heat gradient is good, but on really hot days (I don't have AC either and don't want it) the whole tank will be hot and they, as we, will all be fine. Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.

Aliza