Human heat pads and glass tanks

[jotay]

I have a 20 gal breeder tank with a UTH for the hot side on a dimmer to control heat. I have a couple questions concerning heat pads.
I know you use them with rubbermaids but do they work as well with tanks?
I have those small spacers on the bottom of my tank that come with the UTH to hold the tank up to let the air flow underneath. Do you sit the tank right down on the heat pad or do you use these spacers like with the UTH?
Also if the pad is a little larger than the area you want to cover do you just let in hang out pass the ends of the tank?
And last but not least with low med and high what setting do you put it on to hit the warm side 90's.
I have a new temp gun so I can check temps well.
I just feel a little scared with the UTH even tho I monitortemps and they stay right in the 88-93 range on the hot side.
Thanks for letting me ask all the questions

[Marla]

Use the spacers for air flow with pretty much any heat source for best results. Just let it hang past; it's safer than folding and waaaayy safer than trimming! :shock: As far as what setting to use, start with low and work your way up if you need to. Your best setting will depend on ambient temps as well as that particular heat pad.

[jotay]

As for temps when I check floor level with temp gun it should be in the low 90 range for the hot side, correct?
they need the 90 degree heat to be floor level and as you go up the tank of course it will fall into the ambient temp level?

[Marla]

That's correct!

[Smulkin]

You can also get little adhesive rubber feet in the hardware section of wal-mart to elevate your bottom ever so much . . . the bottom of the tank that is - will allow a wee bit of airflow under there so the entire floor of the tank does not build up heat and keep cords from getting too mangled. I am now much more in favor of these than any sort of solution solely geared towards adhering to the bottom of the tank - you can tweak by adjusting placement - switch sides, bump the heat if you really need it. Our son's tank (houses 'Suki) had one on the bottom and despite how good and practical and "yay-yay-the-cord-detatches-OMGWTFBBQ!" it cracked the bottom of the tank in a nasty way. The Zoo-Med models are slightly better offering a vinyl padded covering but sport uneven heat. At $9 on top of these other advantages it is just very hard to beat the WalMart heating pad, eh.

[beaglegod]

I have Plissken in a large rubbermaid that has little plastic feet, I duct taped a walmart heating pad to the bottom of the rubbermaid wich keeps it about 1/4 inch off the shelf it sits on and it seems to provide a very good thermal gradient.

[jotay]

Thanks guys.
I have a Zoo-Med heat pad and now that I have the temp gun I have noticed it puts out way uneven heat that is why I got the human pad.
I got the one at Walmart that someone on hear posted a pic of the Dunlap 12"x14"
One more question do u use it with the cloth sleeve on or off leaving the plastic coating exposed????
I have it on low now before I put under tank and my temp gun says the surface is about 96-98 degrees with cloth covering on

[Marla]

I took the cloth covering off, but I don't think it matters much as long as it isn't likely to get torn (rather tear the cloth in that case). The surface of the heat pad will be warmer than the surface of the tank by as much as a couple of degrees depending on distance between the two. If the tank gets too warm on the lowest setting, increase the depth of substrate you use (of whatever kind) or put layers of newspaper at the bottom.

[jotay]

Good, thanks that may have answered my question about temps.
The glass on the bottom on the lowest setting hits about 105-107 but when I put the repti bark on top it gets down to about 88-92 and now I dont think I will need the light cuz the cool end is right around 80-82 and overall temps about 80-81.
Will newspaper get that 105 temp down?
It wont catch on fire will it?
Also even with the little spacers the tank is still resting on the heat pad should I prop it up more?
Where the pad isnt there is space for air

[Marla]

I'd use slightly bigger spacers, then, because you do want a little air flow above the heat pad -- don't need much, just a few mm ought to work. The newspaper won't catch fire even if the temp got up to 150F (though your snake would be burned). If your temps are 88-92 on top, I'd check the temp an inch or so down, and if it's not over 95 or so I don't think you need to sweat it. If it is, I'd add some newspaper under the bark. Other than that, it sounds like your temps are really good, and if your humidity is right, you're set!