tank medium

so I went from an exo terra tank with a weak heating mat that I was able to get away with using newspaper as his medium. about 2 months ago I moved my pastel over into a 40gal tank and started using coco husk bricks that you soak in water to expand, and since then my pastel has had dark parallel "slivers" for lack of a better word along his underbelly, and has a couple scales in different areas of his underbelly that look damaged (ill take pictures after he finishes his shedding process) Im looking for input on if this is because of using the coco husk or not, and if so what type of medium is best to use (my new UTH) is quite strong im using about an inch and half of medium to keep hot side temps within normal range to avoid burns.

any input is helpful thanks guys!

Using a thermostat with your heating pad is required to avoid burns! You shouldn't need to be worried about whether your heating pad is getting too hot/thickness of substrate. Thermostats maintain the temperature of the heating pad to whatever temp you set it at. http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...stat+hydrofarm

Newspaper and paper towels are actually perfect substrates... From what I learned, coco husk bricks aren't the most ideal to use for ball pythons, unless you're having trouble with keeping humidity up.

Please unplug your UTH until you can PROPERLY REGULATE it.
Snakes can and will burrow and a vet trip for a burn is not cheap, also they happen so slowly that you will do more damage than you know.
See the photo for proper setup.


http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...psp2koldrd.jpg

Not to be a big snooper, but I saw that other members did inform you to buy a thermostat a few months ago... again, thermostats are a REQUIRED piece of equipment with the UTH. Your under-tank heater is "strong", because there is no thermostat to regulate it. :s

my previous tank had a built in thermostat, and I do have one on the way and have the UTH unplugged and have a heat lamp on his hot side in the time being, the thermometer probe i have in his hot side at the top 1/4" of substrate within his hot hide and it reads 88*F almost all the time. But I will make sure to burry it to the bottom and follow your diagram.
Guess ill also go back to newspaper and only use the coco bricks when its time to bump up the humidity during shedding.

thanks for the input.