Quote Originally Posted by jasonm96 View Post
Cory, I've found the 2-1 thermo-hygrometer to be bad when using a heat source. When you're using it to measure the temperature of the heater, you'll probably get a bad humidity reading due to the drying effect of the heater. I try putting hygrometers in the middle of the tank, away from the heater but also away from the water dish, to give a ambient humidity reading, as obviously under the heat source will be dryer and the water dish side will be more humid. Nowadays I tend not to bother with hygrometers, though. I find they work for a week or so and then fail.

Thermostats aren't always necessary with light sources as you can just adjust the wattage to get the required temperature, heat mats/pads on the other hand heat up to about the same temperature no matter how high the wattage, it's just more power to heat a larger area, so a thermostat must be used to regulate it, as you can't do it yourself.
I have a heat mat, and a heat lamp.

The ground probe displays 93F while the air temp is displayed at 70-75F.

I've always had so much sh*t of a hassle with heating. I really have no idea why.

By the way, do the thermostats adjust the wattage running to the heat mat to make it proper tempature? And you have a reader so it knows when its suppost to adjust, right?