Trouble regulating heat in Wooden terranium

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Newbydragons

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I have a Pygmy dragon in a pine wooden terranium with glass front which I got my son for Christmas. It is a 90cm(L) x 45cm(D) x 51cm(H). I am having trouble regulating the temperature with the heat white basking light. I have gone from a 75W bulb to a 50w and the temps where the thermostat should be soar up to 38-40degrees Celsius by then he middle of the day and I end up manually switching off the heat lamp. The temp at that point of the tank according to all I have read should be 32-34 degrees. I tried using an Eco Tech Advanced Reptile Thermostat with electronic dimming, timer and day/night function. All was working well yesterday when I set it up. This morning the heat lamp will not turn on through the unit but checking the lamp through a normal power source works fine. Reading further on these eco tech thermostats I see these are prone to failure and have caused fires. Any recommendations on what I should do? Should I drop the wattage of the heat lamp to 25W and forget the thermostat; or is there a different type of thermostat I should be looking at?
 
Where are you in Australia? A photo of your set up will help us to give advice.
Without knowing your location or your set up, I would have thought 75W would give you the right temps. How are you measuring the temp?
 
Gidday mate ,first off dump the thermo and buy a timer,actually buy 2,1 for the heat lamp & 1 for the UV. 12-14 hours for the UV depending on time of year.
38-40 is fine for the basking spot,Pygmies will take up to 42C.
I have my heat lamps set up to run about 10 hours minus a siesta which is adjusted to the days temps,if it is say 35C I give them a 2 hour siesta,if it's 40C a 3 hour,
over 40C the heat goes off from about 1PM and stays off.Some days they get no heat at all,just UV.
 
+1 for timers over thermostats. I use timers on my heat supply and aircon in the reptile room. The only thermostat in my entire setup is on my 2 egg incubators.
 
+1 for timers over thermostats. I use timers on my heat supply and aircon in the reptile room. The only thermostat in my entire setup is on my 2 egg incubators.
Gidday mate ,first off dump the thermo and buy a timer,actually buy 2,1 for the heat lamp & 1 for the UV. 12-14 hours for the UV depending on time of year.
38-40 is fine for the basking spot,Pygmies will take up to 42C.
I have my heat lamps set up to run about 10 hours minus a siesta which is adjusted to the days temps,if it is say 35C I give them a 2 hour siesta,if it's 40C a 3 hour,
over 40C the heat goes off from about 1PM and stays off.Some days they get no heat at all,just UV.
I believe the thermostat he’s using has 2 plug system, 1 for heat items, 1 for lights (or both if you use an doubl adaptor, I guess) both can run on timers using settings :)
 
I believe the thermostat he’s using has 2 plug system, 1 for heat items, 1 for lights (or both if you use an doubl adaptor, I guess) both can run on timers using settings :)
I think most thermo's have the 2 outlets you mention,but the OP asked for opinions,and this is mine plus many other people I talk to on this and other forums,get rid of thermo's and use timers.I only have thermo's on incubatators.
 
If you get the temps right, you don't need thermostats, especially with lizards.
 
Anyone got any ideas on this thermostat set up I bought it a year or so ago for my green trees set up and bow for the life of me I can not find the instructions on it.. yeah I checked Google but it's more confusing than ever it seems to program it. [emoji856]
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Instagram: murph_BTK
 
New to know the set up procedure I just youtubed it also so I got the basics.. I just havnt used this set up before.. it came highly recommended.. do you like yours smitti?


Instagram: murph_BTK
It does the trick, not bad for a switching thermostat, and certainly lasts longer than any other digital thermostat I've bought, so yeah, I like mine. I'll send you a PM.
 
I am just going backwards a bit here… Wood is a poor conductor of heat and as you know, Melamine is essentially MDF. So that explains why putting a heat source outside a melamine enclosure will only waste a lot of heat that doesn’t get through the wood. It needs to be inside the enclosure.

Slate and ceramic tiles are much better conductors than wood. At the same time they are nowhere near as good as metals as heat conductors. However, there is an advantage in this - by the time the heat gets through them it is evenly distributed across the surface of the tile. These tile materials also have quite a high specific heat, which is the amount of heat required to raise their temperature by 1oC. So while they are slow to heat up, they are also slow to cool down and will maintain a stable temperature for some time once the heat source is turned off. So if the heating source is thermostatically controlled, the thermostat will not be rapidly switching on and off all the time.

Instead of routing the base of the enclosure, an alternative idea is to rout a thin sheet of MDF - about double the thickness of the heat cord. This also acts as an insulator to direct most of the heat into the covering tile. The grooves can be cut with a simple hand held saw and then it can be sealed to make it waterproof. Once the heat cord is in place a few dobs of Blu Tack will hold the top and bottom together. Using Blu Tack allows you to easily adjust the amount of cord placed in the base to get the desired temperature on the tile.

This method provides an easily moved unit for cleaning etc. You can change the base to accommodate a different wattage heat etc. The only permanent effect on the enclosure is a small hole (usually in the back corner) just large enough to thread the heat cord through.
[doublepost=1517128640,1517127631][/doublepost]There’s one very important thing I forgot to mention. If you are using a thermostat to control temperatures, then you should cater for the possible event that your thermostat fails. Excessive heat will kill reptiles very quickly. So always use the minimum wattages needed to achieve the maximum temperatures required.
 
New to know the set up procedure I just youtubed it also so I got the basics.. I just havnt used this set up before.. it came highly recommended.. do you like yours smitti?


Instagram: murph_BTK

Hey Murph those are my fav thermos and I find them so great to use as they have a timer option as well as 2 heating options!! :)
But I can’t buy them anymore [emoji24][emoji24]


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