Trouble with Heating

[Critter87]

I currently have 3 different enclosures set up. I have undertank heaters on all three, appropriately sized per the instructions. I’ve heard that the risk with these is they can make enclosures too hot, but I’ve only experienced the opposite.

Without overhead basking lights or ceramic heat emitters, the cage temperatures stay in the 60s during the winter, when I’m at work and the woodstove isn’t running. In the summer when I don’t have a fire going, the cages stay pretty close to room temp, again only if the overhead heat is off. My enclosures are all bioactive, with live plants and 2”-3” of substrate, no drainage layer. So I have to keep the BP’s heat emitter constantly on with a thermostat. My emerald swift is a high elevation lizard, so she actually does quite well with the basking light on a timer.

I don’t mind relying on the overhead heat with screentop cages, but I’d like to turn a few 10gal aquariums into vertical uprights. Overhead heat won’t work through solid glass.

[nikkubus]

With bioactive UTH do not work well because of the thicker substrate. What are you putting in the 10g uprights? The type of animal makes a difference.

A simple light bulb might do the trick in a 10g to bring it to a more normal "room temperature". If you need a pretty decent hot spot or have an animal with special light requirements, a stronger UVA/UVB bulb might be the best solution. If you have an animal that really detests light, an RHP might be your best solution, but you will probably need to put it on a dimmer for even the smallest of RHP because a 10 is not a lot of space and can heat up quick.

If you give us some more details, we can probably suggest what is the best option.

[bcr229]

The purpose of a UTH is not and never has been to increase the ambient temperature in an enclosure; it can only create a basking spot on the enclosure floor just over the UTH. The UTH just like any other heat source absolutely MUST be regulated by a thermostat or the floor can get hot enough to burn and/or kill your critter.

Heat lamps, ceramic heat emitters, deep heat projectors, and radiant heat panels are designed to increase ambient temperatures. A CHE or DHP could be mounted from the side since IR radiation does penetrate glass and acrylic.

[Bogertophis]

First, I hope that all your heating equipment is regulated by thermostats...?

UTH is not generally* designed to penetrate heat thru that much (2-3") of substrate, especially not the dense materials (soil or sand) like you'd use in a bioactive set-up, so that's the problem.

*One exception are some very old ones that I have that are no longer made -to the best of my knowledge- that are black & flat-but-thick ceramic that's embedded with heat cables that are designed to be safe when buried in dirt & used in zoological displays. If you want to use something along this line, look into heat mats made (& grounded!- safe for potentially moist environments) for farm or kennel use- one type is called a "pig blanket" (it's not a blanket but a very sturdy & large heat mat for large animals), but some smaller ones are made for chicken coops (etc) also, and some for "whelping quarters" for raising canines.

Otherwise, yes, you're stuck with overhead heat sources (CHE)- & while I know some ppl have them inside the enclosure & caged for animal safety, that doesn't seem to be ideal. You might look into the newer types of heat for reptiles, not sure if that would work or not- I haven't tried them (RHP) & don't need them. https://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels
You might be able to mount brackets on the inside of the glass top to install one? Plenty of ppl here use RHP, let's see what they say?

While I was typing, bcr229 mentioned the DHP, that's the one I was trying to think of- I haven't tried but seems most likely what would work best for you. Like this: https://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-e...projector-80w/