# Placing of a habistat sensor?



## pauln (Jan 24, 2007)

Hi,

I have just got a Habistat temperature thermostat to use with my 11"x11" habistat heatmat. It is heating a plastic enclosure(a faunarium I think), which is 46cm x 30cm ish and contains a corn snake. The heatmat is underneath half of the enclosure. 

Where would be best to place the sensor, is it best to have it up at the warm end and set a max temp, or in the middle and set an ambient temp knowing that one end is hotter and one cooler?

Any ideas and theories gladly accepted. Thanks


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## mask-of-sanity (Dec 27, 2006)

set iton about 84 and have probe at the hot end on bottom of tank


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## mark67123 (Jun 11, 2006)

I'd tape the sensor directly to the mat, and (ignoring the temp settings on the stat) set the level by monitoring the temp in the tub.

Works every time for me!


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

and i wouldn't use one at all!!:smile: 

but if i did it would be at the cooler end...always cool so you get an ambient temp with a warmer basking spot...


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## pauln (Jan 24, 2007)

I love the diverse opinions on this forum. :lol2:. I guess people do it different ways, I will experiment. I had thought of drilling a hole and fixing the sensor to the bottom of the tank directly above the mat, so I know what the hottest point in the tank is. I got the thermostat as I was worried that the heatmat was getting quite hot to the touch, trapped between the wooden shelf and the plastic tank.


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## mark67123 (Jun 11, 2006)

BELIAL said:


> and i wouldn't use one at all!!:smile:
> 
> but if i did it would be at the cooler end...always cool so you get an ambient temp with a warmer basking spot...


Thing is - if you were to put the probe at the cool end (I assume that's what you mean) it would receive very little, if any, heat from the heat mat - a heat mat will have very little effect on the ambient temp of the cool end. 
So the warm end would have pretty much the same chance of overheating as it would have if a stat wasn't in use.


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

i get what your saying...

but, surely the idea is to warm the whole viv? so if you put the stat at the cool end and then set to an ambient temperature the mat would heat the whole viv to a decent point then turn off when the ambient temp was too hot? the temp of the mat is not the temp that the air above it will be at...unless it was in the viv uncovered. however it is not as is under the faunarium and the plastic will act as an insulator? could be wrong though....

i have never used a stat with a heat mat...not had any problems...you just change the size of the mat of put it under less of the viv if it gets too hot...

all my stats are at the cool end in my vivs...


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## mrbretmaye (Jan 29, 2007)

My thinking would be that the hotest point should be 31, at the most. Too much heat can quickly harm a corn. Too cold can, at worst, slow the matabolisim. The snake can then go to the warm end to heat up. Remember in the wild a snake can thermoregulate themselves so even if the cold end is at <20 the snake can mosy up to the warm end to warm up. Snakes have to deal with huge temp differences in the wild and are very good at managing their temp as long as the correct temps are available.

So i put the sensor at the hottest point(on top of the substrate) and set that to 30-31. And as many others do i let the cool end be what it will.


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## captaincaveman (Nov 6, 2006)

i do what mark67123 does, i put it directly on the mat and set the temps inside the tank to this, i'm only using them in a rack system but its still the same for viv's


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

captaincaveman said:


> i do what mark67123 does, i put it directly on the mat and set the temps inside the tank to this, i'm only using them in a rack system but its still the same for viv's


hmmmm... is there actually a correct way!? do stats come with instructions? see i've always put the stat at the warm end.. for like years!:smile: but like i said i don't use them on mats so maybe they are different to bulbs? i don't know!:smile:


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## mark67123 (Jun 11, 2006)

The thing is, mats give out very little heat compared to bulbs, etc. A heat mat will only really give a warm spot on the floor, it's not powerful enough to heat a whole viv.

With a heat mat at one end of the viv (the warm end), the other end (cool end) will receive very little heat (if any) from the mat and so the cool end temp will just follow room temp. 
So if the stat probe is at the cool end and the stat is set to, say 86F, the heat mat will be on full power unless the room temp reaches 86F+, and so the mat would effectively be unregulated for most of the time.

A heat mat on the floor of a viv will have very little effect on the air temp, but the surface temp of the mat could still be 100F+ (potentially dangerous), so the probe should always be as close to the surface of the mat as possible to achieve the most accurate control.

While the cool end may drop a bit too low at times, the warm end will always be warm enough, but controlled so that it doesn't become dangerously hot.

Hope all that made sense :grin1:


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## captaincaveman (Nov 6, 2006)

BELIAL said:


> hmmmm... is there actually a correct way!? do stats come with instructions? see i've always put the stat at the warm end.. for like years!:smile: but like i said i don't use them on mats so maybe they are different to bulbs? i don't know!:smile:


well i put them on the mat so that the mat never exceeds the set temperature, if you use a mat in a good size viv and put the sensor half way down theres a chance the heat will never reach the sensor enough to turn off the mat and it just carries on heating full blast unless your using a bulb also but then the stat could potentially never switch the mat on if the heat from the bulb is great enough. With my rack if i put the sensor off of the mat it would never switch off

With ceramics on my royals(or carpets, spottys, green trees etc in the past) i then put the sensor in the centre of the viv as the ceramics heated the whole air so the heat always got to the sensor


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

but surely if its on the mat then whatever is above the mat would not be getting to the correct temp but instead would be about 3 degrees lower? not that this would make a huge difference!:smile: 

never found the need to use a stat with a mat...but then i only keep leos on them...don't even use them for my one solitary snake!:smile: don't really have a use for em...


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## captaincaveman (Nov 6, 2006)

BELIAL said:


> but surely if its on the mat then whatever is above the mat would not be getting to the correct temp but instead would be about 3 degrees lower? not that this would make a huge difference!:smile:
> 
> never found the need to use a stat with a mat...but then i only keep leos on them...don't even use them for my one solitary snake!:smile: don't really have a use for em...


 
just a word of warning with not using a stat, Snakes have been known to cook their internal organs as they cant sense heat all the way down their body to their bellys and by the time it reaches that area it can be too late

Just something ive seen and read about


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

Must say i didn't know that!

but then i don't know much about snakes..not really my thing!:smile: got my python thats enough for me...now lizards on the otherhand!! i have more than a small zoo (well actually more than some big zoos!:smile: )


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## captaincaveman (Nov 6, 2006)

BELIAL said:


> Must say i didn't know that!
> 
> but then i don't know much about snakes..not really my thing!:smile: got my python thats enough for me...now lizards on the otherhand!! i have more than a small zoo (well actually more than some big zoos!:smile: )


 
yeah with snakes the two biggest burn issues in un statted heat sources and un guarded ones


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## mark67123 (Jun 11, 2006)

BELIAL said:


> but surely if its on the mat then whatever is above the mat would not be getting to the correct temp but instead would be about 3 degrees lower? not that this would make a huge difference!:smile:


You just set the stat a bit higher to compensate - For example (assuming the stat dial is accurate, which they rarely are) you'd set the stat to about 90F to get a temp of about 86F on top of the substrate.


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## Emz118 (Nov 22, 2006)

Ours are all at the hot end, and as we use sand, they are buried just below the sand, and therefore the temp that the gecko will be experiencing.

If you put the stat at the cold end, you won't be able to control the temp at the hot end... overheating causes a lot more problems than underheating.

As has been said, don't rely on the stat's temperature settings. I thought mine was wrong (just an inkling) and so bought a digi thermometor with a probe. When I put it next to the stat probe I found that although the stat was set at 30, the temp was actually 55!!! After a lot of fiddling, the temp on my stat has to be set at 27. Since then, my OH has used the digi thermometer on all the vivs and founf most of the stats to be out.

Oh, and good on you for using a stat... I know some people say there is no need, but an un-statted mat can reach incredibly high temps, so personally I don't do it!


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

none of my leos have stats...never had a need, not in the 8 years of having them ...if they are under sand and under a rock like they should be(so you don't get a trapped leo) i have yet to find a problem.

They do get hot but through the sand not hot enough to burn...

think snakes may be slightly different especially if you do not have 
substrate...

each to their own i say...:smile:


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## pauln (Jan 24, 2007)

I have now put the sensor on the inside of the tank at the warm end. I have a cleared space in the aspen substrate so that it is right on top of the mat, and then use a thermometer to set the temps. Seems to be working so far.


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