Newbie struggling to regulate temperature!

[BeccaS]

Hi everyone! Really hoping someone can help me. We brought our lovely leopard gecko home yesterday. She is around 7 months old and is an albino gecko. We set her viv up a few days before we got her but I’m really struggling to regulate the temperature. We bought a habitat starter set so we’re using the equipment provided with the kit. So we have a heat mat one side and I have put the temperature probe under the substrate on top of the heat mat and set the thermostat to 30c. The thermometer is showing 35/36c but when I turn the thermostat down to try and bring the temperature down it then falls too low. Could I have a dodgy thermostat or thermometer or am I doing something wrong? She seems happy and is spending time in the hide on the warm side of the viv but from what I’ve read 35/36 is too warm. The cooler side of the viv is around 22c.
We put some mealworms in her tank last night but she didn’t eat many, we’re planning to pop some crickets in tonight.

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks,
Becca

 

[acpart]

Congrats on your new gecko. Try putting the probe on top of the substrate since the gecko is sitting on top of it. See how that goes. Check the temp every 15 minutes for an hour or so. That's because the cheaper thermostats are on/off thermostats. They go on when the temp goes below what it's been set for and they go on when the temp gets above what it's been set for. There's some time when even though the thermostat has gone off, the temp may still be going up and vice versa. If this doesn't work, you may be able to put another layer of whatever substrate you're using to lower the temp on top of it.

Aliza