Heat mat inside tank safe???

[Evil Angel]

I have a 4watt heat mat for my baby snail tank, but no matter what I do the tank is always too cold so was wondering if it'd be safe to just attach the heat mat to the INSIDE of the tank instead?

[foghog]

I wouldn't. snails tend to like higher humidity....to me high humidity and electrical stuff doesn't mix well.

[axoloa]

Hi, not the best idea realy. if the snails try to cross the heat mat then they could dry out very very quickly and die while crossing (especialy babys)

Personaly what i could do, I would get some white polystyrene either a polystyrene celling tile or just a random thin sheet of it large enough to sit the tank on. then if you place that where you would normaly put the tank, put the heatmat on the polystyrene and sit the tank on the heatmat. this will deflect the heat from the heat mat up into the tank. it may be wise to ensure that you have at least 3" / 8cm of substrait in the tank if using this method because it can get pretty warm and the last thing you want is to go from a tank to cold to a tank to hot.

hope this helps

[latebloomer]

I have a 4 watt heatmat in the kindergarden tank. When I got my first tinies I had made ready a 6 gallon tank it was like trying to find a marble in a wheely bin lol while the small tank was being stabilised. Anyway I made sure the heatmat was in firm contact with the tank wall backed it with two thin bits of polystyrene (couldn't get thick bit) backed up with tinfoil. The tank is sitting on a thick towel to insulate the bottom and ther is bubblewrap between it and the wall. At night I put a bit of bubblewrap loosely around the outside of the tank not over the top obviously. I used a temperature probe to check the temperature. Nice and humid, everything placed next to the hide and he will be a strapping little bruiser in no time haha.