That is what you need. You place it on the outside of the tank. on the glass. Then you put your substrate in the tank. They say to put substrate over the top because the glass is going to get hot. You want to use the UTH to heat the glass and the glass heats the substrate and the substrate heats your snake and the air. You want to put that on a rheostat or a thermostat though. You absolutely need to regulate the temp. A 22 watt can get pretty hot.