Guard for heatmat!!!!!!

[Val]

Well, I decided to put my heatmat on the inside of my new plastic tank as I found that the heat didn't go through plastic as well as it does glass, first of all I tried covering it with capillary matting but found that this had a 'lagging' effect and stopped the heat going into the tank so............off I went to the garden centre & bought some shading with about 1cm holes in it, I cut it to size and then stitched it roiund the edge of the mat, this gives the mat a 'guard' when on the inside of the tank and stops the snails burning themselves!! I shall now stick it with double sided tape to the inside. Hubby drilled a hole for the flex to pass through. Here is a pic of my idea and also a pic of my new tank which is a large hamster cage.

Val

[section8angel]

Smarty pants Val

Have you used a hamster cage before? Or is this the first one?
I keep seeing them around for decent prices and wonder if they work ok lol. It's mainly the door bit I'm not sure about, can they go over it ok?

[Daniel]

good idea but cant they still burn there eyes or somthing on it

[copigeon]

nifty but if you want to make the most of the heat from that mat youre going to have to insulate it on the outside, half of the output of thats being lost to the wrong side of the tank wall.

[Ben snail]

Thats a good idea i might try it

[Arno]

Looks very good...are you taking orders ?

[anjieburdett]

That looks nice Val, but you're going to have to cover up that top door somehow or all the heat will be lost (as hot air rises ;D lol), lets face it heat mats don't exactly chuck out a lot of heat as it is. Let us know how your snailies like it.

Anjie,x.

[Val]

I am going to put polystyrene on the back of the tank to stop the heat going the wrong way, and during the winter I shall also cover the top grilles to keep the heat in. during the summer though, I thought they would be able to get plenty of fresh air, at the moment, on hot days I was leaving the lids off of the tanks and once I found a dimidiata halfway up the wall!! ;D
Funny thing is, the snails do not attempt to go over the grille, they slime around it, they seem to avoid all metal. Sian, no I haven't used a hamster cage before, but I got a couple of these real cheap, and I like the way they are so much lighter to carry around than glass tanks.
I don't imagine that they can burn their eyes, my snails are not stupid you know!!! ;D

[Paul]

Snails are known to avoid metal; commercial farms use copper but it isn't 100% successful as many gardeners will tell you. Some snails seem less bothered than others but I think they get shocked the same way people with fillings do if they put foil on them. I don't know which metals apart from copper and zinc this is true of though. In that South African snail book which finally arrived, it mentions snails being affected externally coming into contact with metals dissolved in water (like water from a copper pipe etc) much more than if they eat small amounts.

[Arno]

I think copper is the only real effective one (but not 100 %),probably to do with the fact snails blood contains copper too.

[magickzzl]

I know copper will kill aquatic snails real quick, maybe tis the same for land?

[Paul]

Hi, Welcome to the group!

You're right, it is the same thing. Copper and other metals damage cells in the body of the snail, some target digestive systems, other metals damage other parts. I suppose it is because they have such permeable skin.

They have quite a bit of tolerance for eating heavy metals though, I have a few papers on that and it is true that their blood contains haemocyanin, a copper based pigment that carries oxygen. Apparently, under magnification the copper makes the blood look blue so you would think it wouldn't matter too much, especially since snails use parts of the body to store blood but I suppose it is all about quantity.