Heating question

I want to get my little guy some belly heat. The problem is is that I have a custom wood terrarium and can't do the under the tank kind. I'm using a ceramic heat emitter and with a bit of tweaking was able to work out the humidity but I would like to provide bottom heat. The terrarium is 52gal 36Lx14hx24d. What would you do? I'm tempted to just switch to the tubs but this is a really nice terrarium that I payed money for.

P.S. I was looking for options in the pet store (large chain that I won't name) and the idiot that was their 'knowledgeable' herp guy wanted to sell me a hot rock. I politely explained to him why they were utter crap and tried not to strangle the 'expert' when he said that's what he uses. Arrrrgh!

Haha I know, I can't stand it when people still try to recommend hot rocks, or especially when I see pet stores that still use them for their snakes. It's just the "old school wisdom" I guess :rolleyes:

Anyway, as for your question, I believe I've seen others recommend putting an UTH in the terrarium (controlled by a thermostat of course), and then laying a ceramic tile down over it. That way the snake has belly heat, but doesn't come in direct contact with the UTH.

+1 blushing. I was gonna say the same thing. You can easily put a UTH inside the enclosure and lay ceramic tiles on top of it. And be sure you have a thermostat or dimmer to control it, you don't want it getting too hot.

Typical store answer... some reptile guys are good some not so good and some just don't have the character to say "I don't know..."

If you do chose to place a mat inside I'd look at Kane mats as they are waterproof and often used inside enclosures (with a proportional T-stat)