# Thermostat probe placement?



## BobbaRoss (Jan 27, 2016)

Hi! this is my setup for my nearly 2 year old female Western Hognose. Its a 3ft wooden viv. Ive got a hotspot around 31-35 degrees. its fine in the day however around 6pm-7pm the basking spot goes to 27-29 degrees and dims very low.. Im currently using a 75w Arcadia Halogen and a Exo Terra dimming thermostat set at 23 degrees to get the hotspot i want. 
Does this sound/look okay? any suggestions are great, TIA!


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## NickN (11 mo ago)

I'm very new here but my two comments (which may or may not help or be correct, so take with other advice too) would be that an infra-red heat bulb would be preferable to avoid any normal spectrum light during night hours if the temperature drops lower than you want, and that I have the probe located about halfway between the top of the substrate layer and the underside of the lamp, on the side of the vivarium.


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

NickN said:


> I'm very new here but my two comments (which may or may not help or be correct, so take with other advice too) would be that an infra-red heat bulb would be preferable to avoid any normal spectrum light during night hours if the temperature drops lower than you want, and that I have the probe located about halfway between the top of the substrate layer and the underside of the lamp, on the side of the vivarium.


Hogs don't need heating overnight.

OP, if you have set the thermostat to 23 then that's what it will control the heat at. And that is WAY too cold. The thermostat probe measures the air temperature where the probe is sat. You should have the probe just off from under the bulb, so that you have a slightly elevated basking spot, a warm area and then a thermal gradient away from the hot spot.
How you have described your set up doesn't make much sense. If the stat is set to 23, I'm struggling to see how you are controlling a basking spot of 33 to 35. You should have the probe just off from under the lamp, and set at about 30.


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