UTH

[shadowdragon619]

I have kind of an odd question/inquiry. I want to get a 15 gal tank for my leo because she's getting bigger, and i think the 10 gal is too small for her now. I was looking at the 10-20 gal UTH vs the 30-40 gal UTH by Zoo Med . To me, the 10-20 gal size seems too small for the 15 gal tank. Maybe its the substrate i'm using (ceramic tile with sand underneath as insulation). I was planning on changing to either repti carpet or lamentation tiles, would that affect the amount of heat? I'm guessing yes. Tile is much thicker thank the carpet, but would the heat spread out more, or is it centralized where the UTH is? the bigger UTH seems better because my leo seems to never to go on the cold side of the tank unless she's hunting crickets.

opinions please? Thank you!

 

[fikken]

do you rely solely on your UTH for heat for the enclosure?

 

[sammer021486]

I would get the heat mat which covers 1/2 of the tank bottom. I solely use heat mats for all of my geckos enclosures, because my room temperature is normally 74F and my exo-terra heat mats keep the tanks at 88-90F with a thermostat. I can't give any recommendations to the zoo med heat mat because the only one I ever bought developed hot spots all over it. I keep my breeders in melamine tanks and use the exo-terra heat mats under slate tiles in the breeders tanks. I will have used this set-up for 4 years this coming January and have not had a single problem with the heat mats over heating under the slate nor burning out. I am still using the original mat.

I find that slate tiles work great and can normally be bought for $1.29/tile from your local DIY store, they hold the heat well. Clean up is nice an easy too with the tiles. Reptile carpet is good too, if you would like to go that route. I use paper towel in all my 10 gallons and even throw in a piece in my breeders tanks where they go to the washroom to make clean up easier.

If using a laminate avoid any that have glues, just due to there being a possibility of fumes from the glue.

I would caution that you use bumpons (rubber bumper feet) to ensure that the tank will not pinch the cord to the mat and also allow air flow to prevent cracking the tank's bottom