Heating pad and bark

[Mike Cavanaugh]

if you are using one of those flat kind of zoo med under the tank heaters here is what i did in one of my tanks. i had the same problem as you. now keep in mind you dont want to cook your animals so if you do this you need to know whether you animals is a burrower or not and you really need to keep and eye on them at first. i use similar bedding to what you use. what i did was move the heat pad to the inside of the tank and placed a piece of astro turf on top of it. then i put a very thin layer of bedding on the top of it. they love it and i could definitely tell a difference in there body heat when i pulled them out afterward. if the tank is 55 gallons they have plenty of room to go to the cool side if need be. i have had this set up for several years in this tank and have recently replicated it in another tank for my new little ones and they seem to enjoy it also. just a thought.

I am sorry but I think this is just wrong. If you read the warnings that come with the UTH it specificly says it is not supposed to get wet. Even with turf on top of it, it is still going to get wet. That would be like a human urinating on an iron that is plugged in and on! NOT a good idea. You said you have been doing it for years with no trouble... If my friend told me he was urinating on an iron that was plugged in and on for years without a shock, it is safe to say that i still would NOT be interested in trying it myself!

Another thought is that sometimes snakes get under the astroturf. If you put a zoo med heater outside the tank like your supposed to, the glass on the inside directly over the heater will still get up to 125 degrees! therefore you must use something that regulates the heat... I use a $6 lamp dimmer so the hottest it will get is 95 degrees. If your snake does get under the turf, he could potentialy end up sitting on 125 degree glass! ( the same as a heat rock)

You say you are using a 55 gallon tank. what are the dimensions of this tank? I have a 36" by 18" 30 gallon tank, and my UTH is 11'' x 17''. Assuming your tank is even longer and fatter than mine, you will have more luck with a bigger, more correctly sized UTH.

just my 2 cents

MIKE