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Susie_L

Hi guys, I know it sounds like a stupid question but????

I've decided to splash out on a quad stack of 4ft vivs where the roof of the bottom tank is the floor of the tank above etc, if you get the picture?
I have come to the conclusion that the best way to heat them for my corn snakes, is to use heat pads regulated by habistat temp stats.
Until now I have always kept my adult corns on ceramic heating with habistat temp stats, in melamine vivs. I don't think this will be suitable for a stack of vivs, as each tank higher up the stack would be hotter than the one below!

Anyway my question is, should I put the heat pads inside on the bottom of the vivs? and if so should I cover it with a sheet of perspex or something, so my corns are not laying directly on the pad when they use the warm end (if they burrow under the aspen bedding)?
Or should I put the heat pads on the roof of the tank below? and if so will there be enough heat transferred through the melamine to give my corns the temperature gradient they need?

Any input will be thankfully received as I am already apprehensive about changing my girls from the "ambient" ceramic heating to heat pads, even though I've been assured they'll be fine! I just can't help being a worried Mummy!

Sorry if it's been a long post but I wanted to explain why I was asking the question in the first place.

Many thanks in advance,
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Susie
3.4 Corn snakes, 3.8 Leopard geckos, 1.0 Bearded dragons, 0.1 White cat (the feline variety),1 excellent Husband and 2 wonderful (adult) children

Venomator · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:40 pm Post subject:

Our heat pads are directly under the substrate and are fine for the inhabitants as it is a really gentle heat ... Wink

Personally I don't see a heat pad being good enough to properly permeate through a thickness of melamine ... Confused

... others may know different from experience though ... I haven't ever tried it ... Mr. Green

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Young_Gun · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject:

In my stacks in the vivs I use heat mats for I use a false floor, usually out of the same material as the backing.

Have you looked at AHS heaters, I use them in stacks with no problem with heat transfer, I set them up running for a few days and just adjust temps to suit all the vivs in the stack.
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H.S. · Key Member Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 481 Location: Kent

As Young Guns has mentioned, if you can afford to use AHS heaters, then that would be how I would heat the Vivs. However, that could be costly.
I have a couple of vivs heated with heat mats and the question of direct under substrate or protected by a layer inbetween is down to personal choice. Some people will swear that it is dangerous to have possible direct contact with a heat mat, others have no problem with it.
Personally, I am undecided, however, I tend to err on the side of caution and place a couple of cork tiles between the heat mat and the substrate (aspen). I don't bother to cover the entire viv floor, just the heat mat, I also raise the tile a little to create a gap of a few millimetres, I achieve this by attaching strips of cork tile to the underside of the tile.
This way, I don't have to mess about with a false floor (also a good method) and if the tiles get messy, I can replace them very cheaply.
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Young_Gun · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:02 pm Post subject:

I would never leave a mat with nothing between it and the inhabitant, mats can overheat easily,stats can short etc plus you have the risk of water/fluids getting into the mat and shorting it or causing a fire hazard.
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peaches · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:56 am Post subject:

Just a thought here if you like ceramics, I think this could still be done.

On the bottom viv, fit the ceramic, on a stat. This will also heat the one above with belly heat, then do the same for the others.

I am just thinking out loud here though Exclamation

With my mats I do have them in the vivs because they're stacks also, but a couple different ways of doing it, some have, like a false floor but It's a piece of carpet cut tightly. The other have slates tiles over the mats.
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Susie_L · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject:

Many thanks for the replies.

It seems like my gut instinct to cover the heat mats with like a false floor using tile, perspex etc were right. So I'm happy about that.

Peaches I never thought about that i.e putting a ceramic in the bottom tank and use the transfered heat for belly heat in the tank above, then put another in the third tank up and therefore belly heat the fourth tank up. If that's what you meant?

Hmmm, I think I'll be spending the next few days measuring the tranferred heat on top of the tanks I'm running at the moment to see if it would provide enough heat safley, without overheating the others?

I've got two unused tanks that I could stack temporarily to test this out and let you all know the outcome.

Many thanks once again,
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Susie
3.4 Corn snakes, 3.8 Leopard geckos, 1.0 Bearded dragons, 0.1 White cat (the feline variety),1 excellent Husband and 2 wonderful (adult) children

peaches · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject:

Yes do let us know what the belly heat would measure at?

On a stat it would be constant, but I guess that will just depend on getting the temp right in the bottom viv - hard to explain this but yes you grasped what I meant, basically have two ceramic running the 4 viv stack. Very Happy

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