Quote Originally Posted by Swiftstar View Post
A reptile heatmat that covers approximately 1/3 of the enclosure with a decent wattage. If money's tight plug into a pulse proportional thermostat by habistat. Heatmats only feel warm to us by the touch because are body temps are high. but they csn and will easily overheat, also cover the heatmat appropriately.. I put two sheets of newspaper over mine then a half inch layer of aspen or beech chips, or repti bark.. the newspaper is just in case the bp burrows down don't want direct contact with the mat. Hope this helps

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
Your heat mat should never be inside the enclosure, I'm getting from your post. It should be underneath the enclosure, with the probe sandwiched between the heat mat and the bottom of the enclosure. You don't need to cover the heat mat at all.

I keep the substrate very thin so that the hot spot is more accurate to monitor while still being in a safe temp range against the bottom of the tank.