Get a temperature gun. Ambient air temp with those cheaper thermometer options is not that useful to measure in well ventilated tanks or bins and probes are limited or the one I have doesn't suction cup well and gets knocked around so it's not always in the hottest spot. Belly heat matters and temperature guns will measure the temp of the surface of objects. You can do a heat pad (amazon doesn't have good options so either buy larger than suggested or find a reptile site) or a heat lamp but controlled heat pads are the preferred for most setups. They may require purchasing a separate thermostat if they don't have a built in control in order to keep them at the right temperature. Heat lamps are more often used for basking lizards or in bioactive where you use thick layers of natural soil, sand, and clay to make a mini ecosystem. The bottom is too thick or may even have a drainage gap built in so heat pads on the bottom become pointless. Belly heat is still what you aim for by pointing your heat lamp at rocks and other objects that will absorb for them to lay on. It also follows the concept that in the wild you'd have the heat from the sun on objects, differences in shade, and the deeper you go in the ground the damper and cooler it is. Especially interesting for burrowers but often more important for your cleanup crew. 2 different approaches. Mine are mostly bioactive so I just have one of the amazon heat pads that gets used as emergency or backup. It's under a sick gerbil and my culture of powder blue isopods right now.
A cheap amazon temperature gun works for testing both methods of heating.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can hold the trigger and move the gun around then push the max and min buttons before the display shuts off to see the extremes if necessary. It has adjustment to different materials for better accuracy. I just set mine for rock since usually rock or mostly sand is what I'm measuring with only occasionally soil and wood in locations where it matters less.
If you want a constant temp display or even alarm I suggest buying weather testing units. They often also do humidity and connect to a base station where you can check all of them at once. That whole system will probably cost you the same as one quality temperature readout that's labelled for reptiles with the same accuracy. Slap reptile on it and the price goes well beyond what the materials or accuracy are often worth in other hobbies or uses.
Hybrid Mode
