using a digital prob thermometer?

[H3RB]

i bought a digital probe thermometer off of amazon but i have no idea how to use it, yes i no it sounds daft.
when i set it up it said my living room was at 68°f so i put it in my dragons tank not far from the heat lamp and its only gone up by 4°f yet inside the tank it feels way way hotter then my front room. is there any certain way to do it? ive had it in for an hour now and its still roughly the same any help is great thanks

 

[Buggsy]

Have you left it at least 45 min to read the temp? it will take time for it to stop going up and give the actual reading.

If it still doesnt work, just pop the end into some very hot water to check it can and does go up to hot temps.

buggsy

 

[sara24354]

The probe needs to be right on the basking spot directly under the lamp where your dragon sits to bask. That way it reads what the exact temp is where your dragon basks,basking temps need to be 100-110 depending on the age of your dragon. What type of lamp are you using for basking and what tyoe of UVB are you using? This wil help us to help you,if we know where you are taking temps and what type of UVB you have.

 

[H3RB]

i have a 75w infa red heat bulb for basking and a 24inch reptisun 10 for uv, the tank is only 30"long and 15"high untill i get a new one next month. ive put the probe at the bottom of his log which is where he basks the most as the top of his log is towards the cooler end.
my tank is glass and ive been thinking about getting a 100w bulb to make sure its hot enough but the guy at the store said 75w would be fine.
the probe has been in the tank for an hour and half now and is reading 78°f

 

[tyryce]

This happened to me when I first got mine. Do you have a switch on the back of the probe that says inside and outside. If you do and the probe is plugged in then the switch has to be turned to outside.

I had mine turned to inside but when you hook up the probe you have to switch to outside then it will read the temp from the probe. I had bought two from the hardware store and when I first set them up I was so mad because I thought they were not working but i finally figured it out :wink:

 

[H3RB]

you sir are a genius, theres no switch on it but after playing around with the buttons ive changed it to read from the probe and it jumped straight up to 104° thanks alot. i would have been stuck for ever with this thing lol

 

[tyryce]

No probelm! glad I could help out.

 

[Buggsy]

Glad your all sorted, but as a side note the basking bulb should not be red, but bright white, a household bulb is brill. I made this mistake the first few months!!

Beardies thrive under white light, so see if a normal bulb will give you the right temps! lol

 

[H3RB]

so ive got my probe sorted now but now i have a new problem.
most the day its been reading at 118°f-121°f, so ive took the infer red bulb out and put in a 60w house hold buld (highest wattage i have atm) but now the temps are sitting around 95°f so they are about 10°f short and my dragon doesnt seem to like the bulb at all, he's been going crazy for the last few mins trying to climb the tank and jumping at the glass etc.
any ideas?

 

[Buggsy]

He is probably getting used to the change, and at such high temps they can scramble to get out! lol

I would just get a higher wattage tomorrow, and you should soon see a difference.

 

[H3RB]

yeah my heat bulb was a 75w so im gonna get a 75w and a 100w tomorrow and see what happens. never owned a dragon only geckos so takes some getting used too lol

 

[Buggsy]

Well you couldnt have found a better place to learn! I learned alot from just reading the forums here, as many others before me have!