It's not the substrate temperature you want. It's the temperature of the PVC directly above the heat source. Your BP will move that substrate around no problem and situate itself on the floor of the enclosure. You want to make sure that it's safe when (not if) it does that.
For comparison's sake, the Herpstat 2 on my T8s is set to 90 for one and 92 for the other (stacked on top of each other). With the ambient temperature of the room never dropping below 78 degrees, this keeps a hot spot of 90 degrees.
Edit: The heat tape will do nothing for your cool side temperature. It's not supposed to. You'll want to find a solution for bumping those temperatures up a bit, as most will say that they aren't comfortable with temperatures below the 78 degree mark.
Reply With Quote