ackie heat

[blakehose]

I'm going to be getting a pair of ackies whenever I have got the enclosure ready to go but i've got whats probably going to be a stupid question about the heating. I know that I have got to give them a 55-70deg basking spot and keep the floor temp at around 25 or so. But my question is, how do I keep a constant hot basking area without overheating the enclosure. I know a thermostat seems like the simple solution, but I would have thought that the temperature on the thermostat would switch it off before the basking temp got high enough, and with a dimmer the whole enclosure would overheat ?.... I probably sound pretty noob right now but hey, my pythons don't like it that hot ! so i'm a bit stuck.

any pictures of setups and advice will be appreciated

Cheers

 

[Costa]

hmmm tricky one.
depending on what thermostat you get, you can put them past the 30C limit. all you have to do is take the cover off. pull the knob off and put it back on so its past 30C

 

[sweetangel]

i dont bother with a thermo. if you have alot of ventilation and a bit of spare time u can work out how hot the cage will get. i have learned that on hot days i using a 100watt globe in my cages, if the room temp gets up to 30 then the cage will be at the maximum heat that i want it to get. so i was almost thinking of setting up a thermostat outside of the cage so when the room hits 30 then it dims the light..... just a thought. other wise u will just have to be carefull and work out what wattage globes work best ackies are pretty good at with standing high temps, but i dont want to cook them to much!

 

[imported_Varanus]

I had a 75W halogen flood in a 4x2x2.5 and achived temps of 50-65c without a thermo with my Ackies without any problems.

Like
sweetangle said, just allow some time to experiment before you recieve them; it's just a matter of adjusting the heat source to achive a suitable gradient. Get a temp gun if you can afford one as I find them invaluable for checking temps.

 

[blakehose]

alright, sounds like i'll be doing a bit of trial and error. where is the best place to get a temp gun ?

 

[Serpentes]

I use a 60 watt spotlight in this tank and it gets up to 65-70 degrees directly below. The monitors will pile up on each other to get closer to the light. The light is only 15cm above the substrate to achieve this temperature. I use a thermostat away from the heat source to make sure the ambient temperature stays below 30 degrees. You need to ventilate really well as suggested above, notice the mesh lids on this tank:





Make sure your logs can't be moved and get near the lamp


But they do like it hot!

 

[imported_Varanus]

I got mine a few years ago from The Herp Shop, use it all the time!