Heat issue

[Herpaderpa]

Where the heck do you live that its only 17degC in your room!? lol

I would say thats the problem there, 17 is really cold! I mean... its pretty much summer now. The ambient temperature in my house is about 26-30 and I live in the mountains in S/E QLD.. its considered fairly cool here, we are practically in a valley surrounded by rainforest. With aircon on the temp drops to 24-25deg.

Those ceramic heat emitters have a very small range before the heat disipates in a mesh top enclosure. I would suggest that if your ambient room temp is so low you probably wont be able to use a mesh top lid for an essentially tropical species.

There are a couple of things you could try... a heat cord may work to keep an area warmer than an emitter would... as will a spot light. But I think the most important thing would be to get the top of the mesh closed in. What is the ambient temp in the tank? If its 17 at this time of year then thats a bit cold.
In your situation... I would get myself down to bunnings and build a box to put over the top of the tank that will fit the light fitting inside to keep heat in but has a door in it to vent a bit of heat if needed.

 

[littlemay]

I get what everyone's saying but i'm not sure if it holds true in practice... it's 20 degrees in my room right now (very cold rainy day today) and the basking spot in my enclosure, which is exactly the same as Matty's, is sitting at 32 degrees at the moment. I'm not saying to rule it out completely, but to me the fitting/inaccurate temp readings sounds far more suspect, especially since a 100 watt heat emitter isn't getting a reading past 26!

 

[Chris1]

The probe is about 15 cm under the emitter and the temp only reaches 26.5 frustrating would be a major understatement lol

so its attached to a thermostat?

if it is move the thermostat probe 5cms away frlom teh heat, wait an hour and check ur temps using a thermometer.

 

[Bluetonguesblack]

Is the power source actually reaching the correct voltage ? Test for voltage loss, maybe.

 

[Matty_k]

Haha yea it's freezing lately. I live in Wollongong on the south coast of NSW. The emitter is put through a thermostat. I have the majority of the mesh top covered in. I've got the thermometer gun we use to measure bearing heat when we boil them in oil and it's acurate to 0.1 of a degree. I'm going to go buy a new light fitting at lunch time and go home and use the gun to check the temp of the basking area. If it is at 30 and my thermostat is out I'll just leave it but if not then I'll change the fitting. Also going to get some styrofoam sheets and try and insulate 3 sides of the tank and see if that helps.... If it docent then there is a good chance my tank will be taking the long 2 floor drop out of my window lol

 

[Schnecke]

I had that issue with smaller ceramic globes. I now have a 200w globe running via a dimming thermo (which means that the thermo is efficient and not running all the time) and easily reach basking spot temps for my Jungle with the thermo probe being 35cm(ish) away from the globe.

I started with a 100w globe and it was nowhere near big enough (and that was with a sealed enclosure)

I personally like the globes as they create a nice smooth gradient from basking spot to the cool end of the enclosure and my Jungle uses the entire thing when he explores (only lives in the warm hide during nap time while the "sun" (daylight globe) is on.

 

[snakeynewbie]

I would check your thermometer because I also have the same set up and I'm on the south coast and with the tank sitting in the garage so ambient temp is basicallyy outdoor temperatures the tank was sitting at 30.5 degrees. I can touch the mesh without burning my hand which suggests to me that maybe your tank is actually warmer than you think.

 

[ashisnothereman]

dude i use a 50w light globe for my lizards and it heats 40+ directly under. im sure 100w ceramic heater would be scorching, directly under

 

[Chris1]

yeah, my beardies have a 45C spot in a 6x2 foot enclosure from a 100W globe, (light, not CHE)

have u run the 100W flat out without a thermostat attached forl a few hours to see if it is the actual globe that wont heat up?

i still think ur probe is in the wrong spot,..

its all good and well buying the hottest possible heating device just incase, but when ur thermostat fails you will end up with a cooked snake, not a slightly overheated snake.
ive recently moved my 75W heat panels out of teh smaller cages and replaced them with 40W panels,...just to be safer.

ive had 2 thermostats fail in the last 2 years,...good brand names, between 2 and 5 years old,...fortunately they just stopped the device from heating, but ive heard of animals and eggs being cooked by failures.

 

[Mister_Snakes]

Maybe get a 100w globe from bunnings and see what happens, cheaper than a new fitting.

 

[snakeynewbie]

I agree Chris, not exactly the same but recently had a thermostat on a fish tank fail, one cooked beloved pet fish later

 

[Matty_k]

I just bought the new fitting and a cage. I decided I'm going to fit the globe inside the tank instead of being on the top. So I have the thermo gun, the new fitting and the cage plus the screws etc to fit it to the top of the mesh top.
As for placement, where would you all advise placing it?

 

[littlemay]

And you've checked the surface temp of your basking spot with the temp gun?

 

[Matty_k]

Nope not yet. Still at work unfortunately lol

 

[longqi]

If its not your temp probe it is probably a 'dry joint' in your wiring
dry joint is basically a poor connection somewhere
Usually at either plug or fitting connection
There will be a much bigger chance of this rather than a faulty fitting

 

[snakeynewbie]

If the mesh on the top of the enclosure is burning hot thought then the emitter is obviously working, mine raises the tank temp easily to over 30 degrees and the mesh isn't burning hot. *shrug*

 

[Matty_k]

Ok so daughter fed and bathed, dinner done, new light fitting/cage/emitter fitted to tank, probe in place now time to sit back and watch the temp rise

 

[Leeloofluff]

I Had that isSue with a glass tank with mesh top, it never got over 24 in the baking spot under a 150 watt bulb, the heat just got zapped out the top by the cold glass and mesh, so I swapped for a solid wood enclosure and it works heaps better. Glass just sucks at keeping warm air, and the mesh isn't doing any favors either. Hope it works out!

 

[Matty_k]

Well in 10 minutes the basking spot has gone from 20.2 to 25.7 and still climbing I'll sleep easy when I see it hit 30

Ok il would seem my thermostat is out by about 5 degrees. My thermostat displays 27.4 but the basking spot is actualy 34.4 might have to get myself one of these temp guns they are great. The only bad thing is they won't read a temp through glass they just give u the glass temp

Boo ya lol 34 degree basking spot holding strong. Saweeeeeeeet, thanks everyone for the responses and ideas