Someone please help me! [smilie=crybaby.gif] I've been working so hard to get things right for my little guys since I got back from Texas and found one dead!
I'm trying to switch to lights as a heat source since my UTH is too big and I want to create a day/night cycle for my hermies. I got some clamp lamps and 150 watt bulbs for my 30 gallon tank, and temps ran around 72 degrees in the middle of the tank all afternoon. I'm not sure what the substrate temps are because the probe thermometer I bought was broken and I will have to take it back and exchange it, but the sand feels cool to the touch. Humidity has been stable at 80% all day.
The problem is the weather varies so much in the summer here in the NW. Today was only 63F, but highs several days ago were in the low 90s. I was looking into getting a UTH and side mounting it as an additional heat source to raise temps a little more for winter, but read that some feel it's useless on the side. I thought of hanging a florecent plant type light over the length of the tat and putting some sort of heat glo bulb as an ambient heat source for winter temps when needed and started doing some research on wattages when I came across the disheartening opinion that lamps of over 40 watts burned hermies!
Now I'm so confused I don't know what to do! [smilie=confused.gif]
This is just a sample of the conflicting info that I've gotten about heating and lighting from my research today...
* Crabs like temps from 70F to 75F
AND
Crabs like temps from 80F-85F and you shouldn't let your temps fall below 80F.
* UTHs are good when mounted underneith, bad when mounted on the side because they don't warm the substrate
AND
UTHs are bad when mounted underneith, good when mounted on the side because crabs dig to get cool, not the other way 'round.
* Thermostats on UTHs are good because they help maintain constant tank temps
AND
Thermostats are bad because they turn the UTH on and off and what if a hermie buries itself by the UTH when its turned off and gets overheated when the thermostat turns the UTH back on?
* You should never use lights because it lowers humidity, crabs are nocturnal and don't like bright lights
AND
Crabs like to bask in sun lamps and need day/night cycles.
* 150 watt bulbs are fine for large tanks
AND
You should only use a 10-15 watt bulb. Anything over 40 watts for the largest of tanks will burn your hermies.
Someone Help Me. [smilie=pull_hair.gif]
