I'm using a heat lamp and......

Hi all,
Another quick question. I am using a heat lamp like I preveisoulsy stated. The pet shop sold me the red bulb. Anyways, I turned it on last nite for a few hrs and the temp was bout 82 f and tried again today and it was bout 85/86 f. Which I know is good. But they told me that i needs more heating source set up on the tank. But i am afraid that if i do it will get to hot for my lil corn. <No name cause i dont' have it picked up yet.> So should i get more heating or just keep it the way it is.

Whatever heat source you use needs to be controlled by a thermostat.

If you're going to stick with the lamp, then you need to buy an appropriate stat to control it. That will prevent it from overheating the tank.

Remember to measure the temperatures at floor level inside the tank, as that's where your Corn will spend most of its time (unless you give it lots of climbing branches and it likes to hang out higher up).

bitsy said:

Whatever heat source you use needs to be controlled by a thermostat.

Click to expand...

Tks fer the tip. I will get one when i picks up my snake next week. Are they very expensive?

I'd suggest that you don't need a thermostat. They are nice, but not the only way to go.
There a few ways to easily control basking lights. A dimmer switch is a great way to go. It's way cheeper than a thermostat and lets you regulate the light to get optimal temperatures.
Moving the light closer or farther away will also let you regulate the temperature.
The advantage of a thermostat is that you can set it and leave it. done.
I've never used a thermostat because they are too expensive. Dimmers have always work superb.

Well I can understand how if havin lots of snakes how you wouldn't want to spend the money on all of those thermostats. But as you said yourself, thermostat is set it and forget it. I would rather pay for the convience then have to worry about constantly adjusting the dimmer, and worrying that if I go away for the weekend something could potentiall happen to my snake. :shrugs:

true, I'll agree that a thermostat is idea, but I've be able to get very constant temperatures using under tanks heaters or lights. I usually can set it and forget it when it comes to the dimmers. With lights it's easy to just find the right wattage of bulb to get a nice 80-85 you never have to make adjustments after that. You should be checking with a thermostat from time to time but it usually stays at the correct temps. I've been able to go away for over a week and my digital thermostats ($6 at wal~mart) that have up to a 5 day memory of min and max temps have shown no more than 2°C change.
Go with a thermostat if you can afford it, but don't be afraid of making a set up with out one.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I really appreciate it. As i said before, its costing me over $400 for the basic setup. So money is starting to get tight now. lol. So if I can do without the thermostat i will for now.

I ment to write "digital thermometers" ($6 at wal~mart).
If i found $6 thermostats I'd be selling them on ebay!

Not using a thermostat means more frequent checking and tweaking of the dimmer to get the proper temperature. You ought to set the light so that it produces the desired temperature at the hottest part of your day. If you set it at any other time, it may get too hot as the room heats. The benefit to this is that once you set it, you can leave it (thoug it still needs to be checked occassionally) and the tank will experience a natural cooling at night.

I have mine set to produce an air temperature of about 83-85 degrees at midday. At night, it drops to about 80 degrees.