• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

UTH or HEATLAMP?

4drbeemer

New member
I was wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are of having one or the other, maybe both but that seems like overkill what do you think?
 
Hey mate

In my opinion, you should only get both a UTH and a heat mat if your tank is very large OR the area that you live in is very cold. For example, in my Royal python's tank, I have both a UTH and an infrared heat lamp. The UTH is the warm side, and the lamp is the cool side. However, in my Corn's tank, I only have a UTH. This is because of the difference in size of the tanks. Also, my Royal has much more specific heat requirements that an average house can't accurately maintain, so unless this is the case with you, I would stick with just a UTH.

UTHs are better than heat lamps for terrestrial (ground-dwelling) snakes because they heat from the bottom up, aiding digestion. This means that the ground is kept at the required temperature without making the surrounding air swelteringly hot.

So, IMO, I'd get a UTH.

Hope that helps

David
 
Last edited:
Hey mate

In my opinion, you should only get both a UTH and a heat mat if your tank is very large OR the area that you live in is very cold. For example, in my Royal python's tank, I have both a UTH and an infrared heat lamp. The UTH is the warm side, and the lamp is the cool side. However, in my Corn's tank, I only have a UTH. This is because of the difference in size of the tanks. Also, my Royal has much more specific heat requirements that an average house can't accurately maintain, so unless this is the case with you, I would stick with just a UTH.

UTHs are better than heat lamps for terrestrial (ground-dwelling) snakes because they heat from the bottom up, aiding digestion. This means that the ground is kept at the required temperature without making the surrounding air swelteringly hot.

So, IMO, I'd get a UTH.

Hope that helps

David


any particular brand. I heard not to go with Zoo med. But I think my tank is something like 20L but thats only what im told. its 30inch. x 12 inch. so??? I'm not quite sure how many gallons that is. I was told 30- 35 by the lady at petsmart but I got the tank from my mom so?
 
Yeah, just a UTH for a tank that size should be sufficient, provided that it covers 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank (1/3 is preferable).

I'm not entirely sure if you can get them, but if so, I'd recommend them. That would be the HabiStat range. I use them for all my reptiles, never had a problem and link up to a thermostat really well.

Oh and thanks for the rep lol :p

All the best

David
 
and where could I find one of those? Petsmart only carries so much. And there hides suck by the way. I think I would have been better off trying to find my own. But I didnt see any Habistat range??????
 
I googled Columbia, SC. You certainly look big enough to have a reptile store or 3 but none came up on the business listings. I would try googling any other large cities close to you and see if you can find a reptile supply store since they will give you a better selection. Or you can always order on line.

I have a ultratherm UTH and a Zoomed 500R tstat and my temps are staying pretty stable. It took a bit of fiddling to get it set where I wanted, but I get at most a 1 degree swing to either side of 83F. My mat was $24 and the stat was I think $45. I've heard of a lot of people having trouble with the Zoomeds. But I've been happy with mine so far and will continue to knock on wood.

Eventually we're building custom display vivs and will most likely upgrade tstats to something more reliable and digital with an alarm.

Best of luck :cheers:

Shannon
 
I googled Columbia, SC. You certainly look big enough to have a reptile store or 3 but none came up on the business listings. I would try googling any other large cities close to you and see if you can find a reptile supply store since they will give you a better selection. Or you can always order on line.

I have a ultratherm UTH and a Zoomed 500R tstat and my temps are staying pretty stable. It took a bit of fiddling to get it set where I wanted, but I get at most a 1 degree swing to either side of 83F. My mat was $24 and the stat was I think $45. I've heard of a lot of people having trouble with the Zoomeds. But I've been happy with mine so far and will continue to knock on wood.

Eventually we're building custom display vivs and will most likely upgrade tstats to something more reliable and digital with an alarm.

Best of luck :cheers:

Shannon

Thank you so much. I appreciate all of the help that you have offered to me.
 
Well for the best selection I'd consider ordering online.

For most my major necessities (e.g. thermostats, UTHs, hides) and shop online. For F/T and livefood (for my gecko) I shop locally. I also bought my vivs from there since they come ready made and they're high quality (one's an exo-terra and the other is a wood and glass custom viv).

Search reptile supplies or HabiStat on Google. I'm not sure if HabiStat is a purely European company. If that's the case, then ask one of the American members to direct you, they know their stuff. :)

All the best

David
 
Yea order online if you can prices are much cheaper online, i got UTH gor 36 at petco, found it online for 11, also the 500R can be found for 25 online.
 
Thanks you guys. All of you I appreciate all of your time and effort. I think I'm going to go with the heat lamps. I bought two. One that has UV light and another just for heat today. Bought another hide and a nice bowl for him to get into and splash around in. lets see: one UV bulb, 2 lamps, another regular heat bulb, a pool/water dish, lid clamps i think it all came out to like 80 bucks at my local pet store, i think i got jipped but now they know me and they supposedly set me up with all of these discounts because they sell mice and all.
 
Just a quick point - a UV light isn't designed to give out heat. The point of it is to give off UV light, which Corns don't need because they don't bask. Even if it did give out heat, there's no way you'd need two heat sources for one tank.

You will also need a way of regulating the heat given out by the remaining heat lamp. Without a thermostat to control them, they can get way too hot.
 
Just a quick point - a UV light isn't designed to give out heat. The point of it is to give off UV light, which Corns don't need because they don't bask. Even if it did give out heat, there's no way you'd need two heat sources for one tank.

You will also need a way of regulating the heat given out by the remaining heat lamp. Without a thermostat to control them, they can get way too hot.

well i'm not quite sure where i can get a dimmer for my light. But I'm taking the UV light back to the place that I bought it. which pisses me off that he would sell me that owning corns himself, which means he was just trying to make a buck but whatever. then i'm going to get the UTH but i need to know where i can get the source that regulates how much light that comes out of the lamp and heat comes out of the UTH. so what do i do?
 
i need to know where i can get the source that regulates how much light that comes out of the lamp and heat comes out of the UTH. so what do i do?

Well, I'd say that you only need one heat source, so decide on either the lamp OR the UTH. Them buy the thermostat appropriate for that single heat source.

Corns don't actually need light in their tank as long as there's natural daylight in the room where they're kept. You could safely do without any of the bulbs if you go for a UTH.
 
Back
Top