Is it Shedding time.

[bigrich0086]

im covering the tape up with a dish towel it has to be there its my tank divider. and hes only in a 30 gallon size tank. which i been told is fine and hes fine in it. i was makin sure he woudlt get burned cuz glass does get hot so my heat mat wil lreach 102 to hit 92 inside. thats wut im hiting at the surface of the mat right now 100 and the sufrace of the substrate is 93.i get the glass tank tomorrow jsut ogtta pick it up and clean it lay the new substrate out and so on

[bigrich0086]

shouldnt i keep the thermostat probe inside with the thermometer probe so i can sync them im not caring wut it hits o nthe outside i want the inside temp

[dotc0m]

i was makin sure he woudlt get burned cuz glass does get hot so my heat mat wil lreach 102 to hit 92 inside. thats wut im hiting at the surface of the mat right now 100 and the sufrace of the substrate is 93.

How are you measuring these temperatures? Do you have a digi probe on your heat pad then if you know it goes to 102?

I'm sure if you crank it up to 102, your BP has a tendency to dig, and if he digs he's gonna get burned badly. What I learned is that you don't need to get it right on the dot dude. A simple range within + or - 3 degrees is fine. But if you get 102 on your mat, you're not getting 92 on the inside. You're getting something around the 97-102 on the inside especially when he digs himself in. You need to slow down and be cautious of the trade-offs that you are gonna make here.

Have your thermostat at 95 and "hope" that the surface will be around 90ish, and even if it goes down to 85, he's not going to go nuts. But if you have 102, and it is around 93, but on a hot day jump up to 100, you might be in for a suprise. Just my

[bigrich0086]

i have my thermostat probe on the surface of the substrate should i ha ve it o nthe surface of the mat so when the mat reached 95 it shuts off or when the surface of the substrate hits 95 to shut off cuz i have both probes on the surface fo the substrate thatys y it reads 93 there and 100 on the mat

[dr del]

O.K.


There are a few things it might be worth checking to get a grounding in what's actually happening in your tanks.

First of all the glass getting hot in one spot - that shouldn't really happen if everything is set up/ working fine. Is this by any chance an older heatmat? - basically I'm asking if there is a hotter spot on the mat itself.

By the looks of it the tanks you have available aren't really doing you any favours as they are either too big or have problems like the tape. Before going to all the trouble of setting him up in another 55 gallon tank how does it work out for you to get either a 10 gallon glass tank or a tub setup? This would mean you can have time to fine tune and fix the larger tanks you already have for when he is older - so it isn't like they will be wasted. If, for example you removed the tape and siliconed in the divider in the 30g you could still easily cut it out later to enlarge it again.

But on the questions in your last couple of posts;

Ideally the thermostat probe should be outside the tank to prevent the snake moving it or otherwise affecting its reading. If your thermostat has a wide enough range then attatching it directly to the heatmat and then adjusting it till the inside temps are perfect would probably be best.


On using it inside the wooden based viv;
If the manufacturers stress the mat shouldn't come into contact with water I would be inclined to believe them. None of the fabric's you mentioned are waterproof so should probably be discounted.

There are possibilities like a ceramic tile siliconed over the mat and sealed round the edges - but then how do you place the probe or replace it if it becomes faulty, will placing something like that on top of it in fact cause it to become faulty? I honestly don't know - but I do know they designed it to sit under a glass tank.

The thermostat should be adjusted so that the temperature on the inside surface of the glass is no more than 95 if possible and to get the top of the substrate to be the correct temperature then just vary the depth or type of substrate. The idea being, as you state, if he burrows down he doesn't get hurt but doesn't have to burrow to get warm enough.

As Dotc0m asked what methods/equipment are you using to measure the temps?

Also I can't find what thermostat you are using at the moment so I don't know what temperature range it has etc ( not that I would know if you just named it mind ).


dr del

[bigrich0086]

im useing the zoo med uth 50-60 gallon heat mat. with a alife 1000 wat thermostat. and where the probes are on the insdie of the tank the lil guy never goes over there thatys y i picked thsoe spots. but i will do that silicone it in and take it out when needed. right now i have the thermostat probe on the heatmat and its shutting off when the surface hots 93 o nthe mat. and the surface of the substrate is 87.5. sounds good. but ill be movinf the heat mat outsite the tank soon so shoudl i put the thermostat probe outside the tank or leave it in. and use the digital thermometer probe and put that on the glass so the glass dont reach over 95. hes not once burrowed in the substrate and i had himd for 3 weeks now

[Argentra]

Wait a minute... you're using a zoomed 50-60 on a 30gal????? :eek:

Maybe I'm just missing something or reading wrong, but if that's true then yikes.

[bigrich0086]

im useing that size cuz it was meant for the 55 gallon size but i compressed it down to a 30 gallon so he feels mroe secure when i put it underneath i can always shorten the amount of mat that touches the bottom not a big deal.

[bigrich0086]

i figure ill adjust the mat so its the right side for a 30 gallon size and have it outside on bottom. ill set the thermostat probe on the mat outside and have the mat set to shut off at 95 and put the digi thermometer inside and get a reading there at the the surface. should be about 88-90

[dr del]

i figure ill adjust the mat so its the right side for a 30 gallon size and have it outside on bottom. ill set the thermostat probe on the mat outside and have the mat set to shut off at 95 and put the digi thermometer inside and get a reading there at the the surface. should be about 88-90

Then slowly increase the setting on the thermostat ( leaving time for it to properly adjust and settle between adjustments) so that the temp on the glass surface is around 94 ish and then adjust the depth of the substrate till the surface temperature of it is between 90-93 right?

dr del