New Tank Setup! Thoughts?

[ian_mersereau]

I'd use black construction paper to cover the three sides of your enclosure (on the outside, of course). If you've got money to spend, I've always been fond of using cork tiles to line the inside of the vivarium using low-profile velcro.

I saw someone say something about this in another post. Is this more of a comfort thing for the BP, or does it have some sort of functionality? Not saying I'm not going to do it, just figure it'd be good to know the reason .

I'm almost positive that they have a heating element in the center of the pad then use heat-conductive metal sheeting for the rest of it because it seems like the heat radiates from the center. I'd recommend a flexwatt... I'm not sure if sandwiching your thermostat's probe between the tank and pad matters, but it seems to me that you'd lose conductive heat transfer by doing so. I place mine on the other side and tape the probe itself to the pad

I think you're right about that. I stuck my hand under the tank to feel the pad, and the center was definitely hotter than the rest of the pad. Since my thermostat holds the middle of the pad off the glass I can definitely see how it could be an issue with heat transfer. Flexwatt definitely looks like it would work better than my current UTH, but I've also heard good things about Ultratherm UTH pads. Thoughts on those? Also, let me clarify how you attach your thermostat. From top to bottom, I have mine set up:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > Thermostat > UTH

But you do:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > UTH > Thermostat?

Thanks again for your help!!