Exo Terra heating setup

[nachjoe]

Hi all, I have a 14 month old Stimmi in a 60x60x45 exo terra glass tank..
Have had him in this for about 6 months, heating on these things are a bit of an issue as side and bottom are thin glass but have managed it ok (27-31 degrees) with a 100watt ceremic heat emitter in a covered box at the top until yesterday when I noticed it was 21...worked out the heat emitter had blown (lucky no fire) but black stuff around it.

Anyway atm I have put a spare 70watt emitter in there sitting at 25 max on all the time obviously this it not sufficent nor ideal. I am after suggestions on better heating, im thinking of going a matt ive read the forums and mixed thoughts. I am thinking either :

Exo Terra : Products : Heat Wave Desert (seeing as I have an exo terra and this is made for it and will stick to the bottom of the tank)

The Herp Shop - Australia (they have their own safe water proof thermal overload protection mats, so I guess these are safe to put inside the tank )

or

Reptile / snake/ lizard bird heat mat 20 watt BRAND NEW - eBay Heat Mats, Reptiles, Pet Supplies, Home. (end time 04-Dec-09 10:21:15 AEDST) (I think these are probably the generalised unsafe ones?)

All I really want to achieve is have one part of the tank the correct temp for the lil guy, heat will rise so i think should be better then me struggling with a lamp as I have been trying to get heat all 600mm down to his hide away.

I will attach pics soo but the standard tank looks like this:

 

[gavinator]

hi Nachjoe, put a heatmat or heat cord under 1/3 of the enclosure that will give you hot end and cold end, put a tile in the hot end above youre heat source , forget about heating the whole enclosure let him thermo regulate his own temp hope this helps you also you might want to think about a bigger enclosure, just wondering i bet youre power bill is big with those ceramic heat emitters this option will be much much less

with Heatmats i recommend going Microclimate or Habistat, also ring Brian Barnett at the Herpshop he is always happy to help


Gavin

 

[nachjoe]

Thanks for the reply Gavinator! Sounds like the way I was thinking so the confirmation is much appreciated.!
Now I just need to work out what will be better, as I have the enclosure sitting on a wooden table I would think the exo terra mat will be good as they are made to stick to the bottom of the glass..as the others actually are made to go inside the tank and not sure how this will go with the snake bedding and woodchips I have inside.

Power bill is not so bad as thermo cuts it out heaops in summer, winter it is pretty much always on..I will give him a buzz thanks mate!

 

[Cypher]

Regarding placing the heatmat inside of the tank & issues of putting substrates directly on top, I've tried 2 methods in the past.
1) A sheet of glass over then mat then substrate.
2) Plastic undergravel filter pad used in fishtanks. It's basically a plastic tray that's "hollow" & raised with a slitted top. Being "hollow" & raised enables the air to be heated above the mat then rises up through the slits into the substrate.

 

[gavinator]

Now I just need to work out what will be better, as I have the enclosure sitting on a wooden table I would think the exo terra mat will be good as they are made to stick to the bottom of the glass..as the others actually are made to go inside the tank and not sure how this will go with the snake bedding and woodchips I have inside.!

glad to help
tank then heatmat then foam then table

i also would not use a heat mat IN an enclosure with either snake bedding or wood chips in case of fire, it does happen, but if mat is outside then its ok

 

[nachjoe]

pics as promised

Ok thanks! I have decided since the exo terra is made for this design, then I will just stick with it, seems safe, reliable and been made to fit correctly with my enclosure.

Attached are some pics as promised, looks a little dodgy atm, as I said was trying to beat the chill through winter, plan is to remove the wooden box from the top once I get the mat in, might cover half the top tho with a piece of flat timber. As you will see the lil guy sitting behind the door opening, this is what he has done ALL night when he is not sleeping since the last feed less than a week ago...he even started to do strange things like strike at the glass as I would go near...poor things been waiting night after night so I gave in and fed him 2 days early haha