Dubia heating question

I am setting up an 18 gallon bin for my dubia colony. The roaches will be here Saturday so I am trying to get the bin dialed in for heat. I cut a hole in the top and put some screen over the hole for a vent. I ran a thermometer through the side and have it hanging midway down the bin. It is sitting on top of a 12 watt heat pad. There are no egg crates inside and the ambient is measuring 75 degrees however the floor that is over the heat pad is at 90 and the other end of the floor where the food will be is 78. With the egg crates in will this temp be ok or does the air temp need to be up between 85-90? The heat mat is at full power so if it still isn't warm enough should I switch to a lamp? If so what wattage? The ambients in that room fluctuate from 69F in the mornings to as high as 77F during warm days.

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Just measured again temps are slowly climbing the floor is now 101. I assume that is too warm?

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I think a lot of people attach the heat pad to the side of the tub to avoid direct contact with the hot spot. Since the egg crates will be vertical, this gives them a kind of 'retes stack' to select how warm they want to be without actually having to sit on the heat. The little babies will be down on the bottom eating frass and they probably wouldn't do well at 100 deg.

Your other option is to find a warmer spot to put the tub - I have mine behind the fridge because the compressor puts out a good amount of heat. They like the dark, too.

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I think a lot of people attach the heat pad to the side of the tub to avoid direct contact with the hot spot. Since the egg crates will be vertical, this gives them a kind of 'retes stack' to select how warm they want to be without actually having to sit on the heat. The little babies will be down on the bottom eating frass and they probably wouldn't do well at 100 deg.

Your other option is to find a warmer spot to put the tub - I have mine behind the fridge because the compressor puts out a good amount of heat. They like the dark, too.

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I tried attaching the mat to the side of the tub, but couldn't get it to hold with aluminum tape because of the texture of the tub. I will try to tack it on to the side with something else. It was a feat and a half to get my wife to agree with starting a colony and she agreed as long as I keep it in the reptile room haha so I can't move it anywhere else. I have it next to our skink cages in a dark corner and was hoping some of the heat would radiate to it from the cages. If this heat mat doesn't work I was thinking of trying a red bulb, I just don't know what wattage to use. I have a 60W laying around, but I think that would put off too much heat. With the egg crates in there taking up some of the empty space will it heat the ambient better?