Regulating the Temp with a UTH

[Tango-n-Toads]

I'm getting my first leopard gecko this weekend which also means that I will have to purchase my first UTH. Honestly a UTH makes me a little nervous.

How exactly do you regulate the temperature with one? I have been told about rheostats (or something) but if I have to buy that AND the UTH it's going to cost me close to $100.

I know there HAS to be another way to do it.

I will be housing my leo in a 10g and I plan on using slate tile as the flooring. If I get the smallest UTH and place it under one half of the tank will the slate help to distribute the heat? Will I have to worry about it getting too hot?

This is why I prefer to use bulbs with my other herps...you can just change the wattage with those.

Ugh.... so nervous. I want everything to go well for me.

[Auskan]

The rheostat is necessary to avoid overheating. However you can make one quite easily with a dimmer, for under $10. Most all the materials are available from Walmart. Do a search in this forum and you'll find links to instructions (sorry, I don't have the links saved in my favorites).

[sapphire_moon]

or you can use a lamp dimmer for like 8 bucks from wal mart and not mess with all the wiring crap. lol. I use one, have used the same dimmer for over 1 year and it still works great!

But it IS necessary! so get one, get it set up, and measure temps for a few days until you are ABSOLUTELY sure the temps are stable!

[Tango-n-Toads]

Thanks a lot! I knew that some sort of dimmer was necessary but the one that I was told about originally costs over $30 itself. I was about to crap! LOL

I will definately get one of those lamp dimmers from Walmart. I like going cheap if I can safely do so. The initial set up of a tank is sooo expensive so I try to save where I can.

Would you recommend that the UTH go under one side of the tank or in the middle? And if i'm going to have a basking light as well do I put that on the same side as the UTH or on the other side?

[tequila]

yes i told you to use a lamp dimmer ;D. also you should have all of your heat sources on the same side of the tank that is used for basking. the tile will distrubute the rest of the heat.

[Auskan]

You want the UTH on one end so that you have a heat gradient from hot at one end to cool at the other.

[Justcage]

A dimmer or rheostat is the least you can get by with. A thermostat is what is truly needed to regulate the animals cage without temp flux....

[Tango-n-Toads]

I went out and got a lamp dimmer tonight. It's working well.

The UTH cost me $35 and the dimmer was $25. It was more than I wanted to spend but I did what I had to do.