Canadian Winters-Temp Issues!

[Onixiotion]

Hello! I’m the momma of a wonderful BP, about a year old now. We got her last November, and she’s been doing so amazing, I couldn’t be happier.
Last winter, we had some temp problems. Her tank would go down to about 75ish ambient, and so we had to watch it very carefully, had space heaters in her room to keep her temps up. Now it’s hit again, and obviously, space heaters aren’t convenient. We’ve seen her tank hit 70, which isn’t okay. We have a UTH, and it keeps the warm ground side 90-92, and we are going to get a CHE to keep the temps safe, what wattage would you guys recommend for a 40gal glass tank? As well as, insulation? I’ve heard tin foil, styrofoam, we are open to whatever works best for her. We are aware CHE could probably eat up all the moisture, but if it keeps her warm, I’ll just spray daily

[Waterman]

40 gallon zilla breeder cage or regular 40 gallon? What’s the dimensions? I use the pink foam insulation board you get at Home Depot. Taped to back and both sides of tank. Then have pieces cut to cover the extra open space on the screen top. I use 2 100w CHEs. No heat mat. 10” domes. Regulated by a herpstat, could do it with a dimmer as well. Before then I was using a 75w red bulb and a 50w red bulb, controlled by the herpstat and had no problems. Ambient temps in my house are 65, now lower than 63, sometimes 67. I believe my breeder cagee I’m using is 16” tall. Don’t have a problem getting 93 hot side/81 cool side. Didn’t with the bulb combo either, and both needed to be regulated via dimmer or thermostat to keep from over heating. The styrofoam helps a lot.

[Onixiotion]

40 gallon zilla breeder cage or regular 40 gallon? What’s the dimensions? I use the pink foam insulation board you get at Home Depot. Taped to back and both sides of tank. Then have pieces cut to cover the extra open space on the screen top. I use 2 100w CHEs. No heat mat. 10” domes. Regulated by a herpstat, could do it with a dimmer as well. Before then I was using a 75w red bulb and a 50w red bulb, controlled by the herpstat and had no problems. Ambient temps in my house are 65, now lower than 63, sometimes 67. I believe my breeder cagee I’m using is 16” tall. Don’t have a problem getting 93 hot side/81 cool side. Didn’t with the bulb combo either, and both needed to be regulated via dimmer or thermostat to keep from over heating. The styrofoam helps a lot.

thank you very much for this! We’re gonna keep the UTH as it’s done us well, and also would be pretty hard to remove :p we’ve gotten a 150w CHE, as 2 100s seemed a little iffy and a 200 may have been too much, and it’s doing its job perfectly. We’ve got it regulated so it won’t get too hot. Her tank is stable around 77-78 cool side, 87-89 hot side, and so we’ve bought the styrofoam, and our project tonight will be to insulate her tank.
it’s also a 40gal zilla cage!
thank you again

[Waterman]

thank you very much for this! We’re gonna keep the UTH as it’s done us well, and also would be pretty hard to remove :p we’ve gotten a 150w CHE, as 2 100s seemed a little iffy and a 200 may have been too much, and it’s doing its job perfectly. We’ve got it regulated so it won’t get too hot. Her tank is stable around 77-78 cool side, 87-89 hot side, and so we’ve bought the styrofoam, and our project tonight will be to insulate her tank.
it’s also a 40gal zilla cage!
thank you again

just make sure to use a temp gun to take surface temps, especially over the heat pad. By no means am I saying get rid of that. They are beneficial. Just not how I go about things. Plenty of different ways but that’s a different convo. Anyways back on track. Like I said I use 100watt CHEs in the same cage and my hot end I get ambient temps of 86-88 and surface temps of 93. If left in regulated I’d have surface temps of probably 110 or more. Cool side ambients of 80-82 and surface temps in spots of 83-84.