Upping the temp?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:05 am

My temperature is at 70 right now but it goes down to 65 during the night. The humidity is fine though. Is there anything I can do to help the temperature until I get the money to buy a UTH?

Gaby · Post by **Gaby** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:05 am

Can you do anything to help insulate the tank, like put styrofoam on three sides, or wrap the tank in a blanket or towl (leaving air ventilation of course) to help insulate the tank and prevent the drop of temp at night?Good luck!!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:58 am

I've heard of people draping a towel partially over the tank, or you could wrap the bottom part in those space-aged blankets (The realllllllyyy thin copper colored ones that you find in car emergency kits). Those are EXCELLENT at keeping heat in.I posted about this before, but I used to have fish and once during the winter the power went out. We wrapped the entire tank in that space-aged blanket and it probably saved my little fishies lives!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:40 am

One thing you can do, if you have some sort of small desk lamp or something like that, is arrange it so the bulb is as close to the tank as you can get it, 2-3 inches is ideal. The light from the light bulb will help raise the temp in your tank. One of the lights I have on my tank for daytime is an ordinary gooseneck desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:49 am

A UTH costs just pennies to run. I don't know the exact number of pennies, LOL, but they use so little electricity that there won't even be any appreciable difference in the bill.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 11:55 am

Ok...for now I have my main tank and two ISO tanks bundled up with blankets and pillow cases. When it gets REALLY cold, I am going to buy a heat bulb to put in the aquarium hood of the 30 gallon. What size watt should I use? And is it possible to buy a moonglo one like that? (You know, the long ones in aquarium hoods- I have one just for lighting in there righ now).

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 10:04 am

You might want your mom to read some posts on this forum, or look up hermit-crabs.com. Heat is very important to hermies. They don't hibernate; they will become inactive if it's too cold, but if it lasts too long, they'll die from the stress of prolonged cold. 68 degrees is the lowest it should ever be, although they will survive if it gets down to 65 for a short time, not for a prolonged period. A UTH for a 10 gallon tank is under 10 watts, just tell her you'll unplug your nightlight to compensate, LOL. The UTH for my 75 gallon tank is the largest they make, and it's only 25 watts. Tell her it'll cost more to operate the light in the tank hood than to run a UTH. If you do want to use the light, a 40-50 watt should be good for a 30 gallon tank.