Heat mat issue.

[emmalou1612]

I'm not completely thick but I have bought a glass tank for my tigers as they didn't seem very active in the plastic one I had for them which was also a bit smaller. I had good heat in the plastic one with habistat 4watt 4x5" heat mat. It was ok. I now have an exo-terra 4 watt 20x20cm one for the glass tank.

The exo-terra doesnt seem to be heating up, even with polystyrene against the back. It says I have to remove a film to reveal the adhesive side to attatch to the side, but I didnt want to do this until I knew for certain it was working. Anyone have any ideas??

Also the humidity is up a little so I added some vent holes and its still too high but I dont want to add too many more til I can sort the heating out.

Really appreciate any help you can give,

Thanks Emma

[Bumblebee]

I have a quite large tank 100cm lenght and 40cm height, and for that, I to got an exo-terra heat mat that covers almost half of the tank, and it too, dosnt warm up that much despite there being bubble plastic on the back of it. I really don't think that heatmats alone is any good device for heating up bigger areas (dont know how big your tank is), if I where you, I would get a heatlamp as well, and place it outside the tank on the same side as the mat is.

[crossless]

I like to use heat lamps in mine. Tanks are from bottom like 35cm x 70 cm and 40cm x 80cm. I was hurry to buy heat mat one one forum their recommendation was like 1/3 of terrarium and that's not enough for snails for only source of heat. I didn't know then that it's recommendations to reptiles that needs night time only little bit more than room temp. Well I didn't bother to buy new more expensive mat so I started to use heat lamps.

My next terrarium will be like from bottom 115,5cm x 45,5cm so I'm not gonna buy mat there, I'm going to try ceramic heater if needed I think few heat lamps won't warm it up. Lamps are quite powerful so I think not wise to use in small terrariums if there is no dimmer used as well.

[aerliss]

*has three heat matts* XD

I use them to create slightly different ranges of temp across the tank (which I'm still experimenting with). On one side I have the sun lamp, a large water bowl, a 6 watt under the tank with a thin layer of substrate and a 16 watt on the side of the tank. It's sunny and warm there and I like to let seeds grow (till the boys sit on/eat them), my fuli seems to like it a lot there. On the other side I have one 15 watt, a lot of moss, and bark hideaways that get very warm and humid. The centre of the tank, away from the mats drops down to about 22C. I've set up a little log mezzanine so it's all shadowy and cool with a second water bowl. The retic likes to sit in that one sometimes, when he's not sliming up the walls or sleeping in the hideaways.

Heat matts at lower wattages are not so great at heating large tanks, as crossless says. They heat up the air around the glass (and the glass) within a short range, depending on the strength of the heat mat (so yeah, great for creating little micro climates). Of course you can get much higher wattage mats but these get very hot. Fine for reptiles that slink around on the ground... not so great for snails that crawl across the walls.

The heat mats also need to be pressed up against something to heat up properly (I have NO idea why, they just don't work right otherwise). I know it says you shouldn't try removing the mat once it's stuck to the tank... but I've done it a fair few times now and only had one tiny problem; one corner of a mat will no longer stick so I have to celotape it down

For larger tanks I'd recommend several mid range matts (7-20 watt... as long as it doesn't get too hot to the touch) or if you can make it work in your situation; a heat lamp/ceramic heater. I can't do that; my boys would try to climb on it and they get VERY hot.

[muddydragon]

wow that tank sounds pretty cool aerliss. do you have any pics?

as for heatmats, i ended up using a lamp with a red bulb external to the tank for the margie/retic tank along with a thermostat (at some point i'll splash out on a dimmer, but i had a spare thermostat) and it's worked really well. however you have to be careful not to aim the lamp at the glass because it cracked my tank. I switched to aiming the lamp through the polycarbonate lid, this creates no hot spots on the lid and warms the tank nicely. i just switch it off at night and it seems to work well

[crossless]

May 3, 2010 12:10:07 GMT aerliss said:

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The heat mats also need to be pressed up against something to heat up properly (I have NO idea why, they just don't work right otherwise). I know it says you shouldn't try removing the mat once it's stuck to the tank... but I've done it a fair few times now and only had one tiny problem; one corner of a mat will no longer stick so I have to celotape it down .

It's so because heat mats are designed to heat both side of it. So if you don't use insulation all warmth goes waste. So insulation stops mat just heating it self and to can direct heat to one direction so mat warms terrariums air not just it self.

There's too some heating cables, but they are even harder to get stick on terrarium so you could but some insulation round it. I taped heat mat with masking tape. My heat mat didn't even have any tape on it to get it on terrarium wall.

If I need to use ceramic heater I'll buy some high watt lamp that is used for reptiles that need warming spot those lights can handle really high watts if needed and so I know it's safe to use. Because of EU we can't buy almost anything like from normal store you can't almost find anywhere lights with e27 base and if you find max watt is 40w "old" watt or just 15 "new" watts. All reptile lamps are with e27 base, it pisses me off sometimes these "let's be more green stuff". Ugh.

Yeh, I'll use lamps only outside of terrarium. I have noticed that if you don't have mess lid or enough holes on lid heat can't warm terrarium and it makes just hot spot on lid.

[crossless]

I today tested heating issues with new terrarium that is empty at the moment. With 2x 40watts heat lamps on they warmed about 4,5degrees which awesome result for so big terrarium. So if comes really cold in winter first aid is just use those heat lamps so snails won't hibernate.

[emmalou1612]

Thats great, all the posts have been helpful I dont have the option of heat lamps and my snails climb to much so could use a rep rad so I've decided to go for a bigger higher watt habistat matt as thats the one which heats the best at the mo, and the snails are pretty good at not climbing over the area where that one is, so not too worried about the injury issue, but will keep an eye on them just incase.

[aerliss]

No pics at the moment, muddydragon... not any good ones anyway And thanks for the extra info on the heat matts, crossless.