UTH What gives?

[Fishma]

Hello all,

I am brand spanking new to this forum, I joined up to get some help caring for my Leopard Gecko (Gabby - She's a she) . Prior to owning Gabby I was breeding Cresties, once I had gotten out of the hobby (going to university, moving out of town, etc.) I ended up inheriting Gabby from a distant relative who no longer wanted her. So I have experience caring for reptiles, but I have 0 experience working with UTHs.

Gabby currently is housed in a 20 gallon glass aquarium (24 1/4" L by 12 1/2" W by 16 3/4" H). She has a hide on a cold and warm side of the aquarium (my cold side measures at 77 F, my hot side is the issue - more to come). Her substrate is Repti-Carpet.

Prior to the UTH I was running 2 bulbs, 1 was 150W and kept her warm side in the area of 89-91F, I used a 75W to keep her cool side at around 77-80F. Since bulbs are pricy on both accounts I purchased a ZooMed Repti-Therm (10-20) Gallon UTH, I think it is like 8W. But the silly thing raises my temperature from 75 (room temp) to a max of 81F, and I don't get why. I've left the UTH on for more than 48 hours, and the best I can get it to is 81F. I use a digital thermometer to measure my temperature and I double checked with a lazer thermometer. I have the aquarium propped up with the rubber feet it gave me on a dresser. I have followed the instructions given to a T. I will post pictures of her habitat below. If anyone has any tips to give I would be incredibly grateful as I am a little annoyed at how poorly the UTH has been functioning within her habitat.

 

[JessJohnson87]

It could be defective or just not big enough. I would get the one for 30-40 gallons to use on that size of an aquarium. I had the 10-20 on a 10 gallon and it still barely got the heat up past 85* so I returned it and ordered a different UTH.

 

[Fishma]

Hey JessJohnson,

Thanks for the response. I have purchased the 30-40 gallon UTH and hopefully that helps out (it has double the wattage so I see no reason why it can't produce 10+F). My planning is to keep both running as currently the other UTH is keeping the tank in between 78-81F, and hopefully this next UTH will bring the warm side up into the 90's. I just basically hate running heat bulbs/lamps as I burn through them pretty quickly haha.

 

[ballpythoncrazy]

Hello! It sounds like what you need, and what you don't have yet, is a thermostat! When you connect the UTH to the thermostat you can set the temperature and the thermostat will keep the UTH at that temp. It was also prevent the UTH from over heating and burning or cooking your little gecko.
(I tried plugging a UTH directly into the wall without a thermostat once and the UTH got to 170 degrees!)

Hope this helps!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fishma]

Hello! It sounds like what you need, and what you don't have yet, is a thermostat! When you connect the UTH to the thermostat you can set the temperature and the thermostat will keep the UTH at that temp. It was also prevent the UTH from over heating and burning or cooking your little gecko.
(I tried plugging a UTH directly into the wall without a thermostat once and the UTH got to 170 degrees!)

Hope this helps!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey,

Thanks for the response . I have a rheostat hooked up to my UTH, and even with it allowing maximum wattage it only brings it to 81F. If a thermostat is better, I will for sure save up for it. I do think the issue is that my current 8W UTH is just at it max of raising the temp by 8F. Do you know where I can get a cheap thermostat in Canada, none of the good ones ship to Canada on Amazon.

 

[JessJohnson87]

Have you tried looking for the Hydrofarm? It's a decent inexpensive thermostat to use.