Temp's won't stay down!!!

Kiko112016 · Feb 24, 2017

OK so for the first 2 or 3 days I had a perfect basking spot temp of 105 but when I checked it again today it was up to 118!!??? I moved the probe and put it back in the same spot and it read 105 again??? Also if I move the probe a little bit to the left or right it drops from 105 to high 90s. What am I doing wrong? my bulb is 90watts so should I go to a smaller bulb like a 60 or 75 watt bulb to compensate for the increase in temp over a few days??? Also should I just make the temp to 105 and whatever the surrounding temps are just ignore them??? Cause I know the center of the beam of light is gonna be hotter of course and when the probe is moved moved out of center its gonna drop pls help!!!!! :angry5:

Gormagon · Feb 24, 2017

I use a 75w bulb in a 4'×2'×2' and it does fine. I simply adjusted her basking height to get proper temps.

Rankins · Feb 24, 2017

Depending on what type of heat bulb you are using you could just use a lamp cord dimmer switch to adjust the output of the bulb. The dimmer cords are about $15...
It won't work on ballast bulb though.

Kiko112016 · Feb 25, 2017

I switched to a 40 watt halogen flood and it seems to be working better. Plus I bought a temp gun too so I can keep track with a probe and that. So we'll see what happens!!

CooperDragon · Feb 25, 2017

It can be tough to keep the temps stable sometimes, especially when the weather outside changes. It's good that the halogen is working better. Using a dimmer is a good way to fine tune the output and you can take it a step further and get a programmable dimming thermostat to automatically control the output to keep it within a range. I wouldn't worry too much about small fluctuations as long as you still have a good gradient across the tank though. Just try to keep accurate readings of the basking site and the cool side surfaces so you know where the gradient stands.

Rankins · Feb 25, 2017

As Cooper mentioned the proportional thermostats are really nice. I have three of them for each one of my incubators. I can set them to pulse proportional, proportional, or on/off. But the cheapest one of mine was $99, my most expensive was $250.

Temp's won't stay down!!!

Kiko112016

Member

Gormagon

Extreme Poster

Rankins

Gray-bearded Member

Kiko112016

Member

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko

Rankins

Gray-bearded Member

Members online

Still Needs Help

Discolored/Mottled Spots

Early brumation

Latest resources

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Forum statistics

Share this page