Under Tank Heater Mounting

Hello,

I tried the search feature but couldn't come up with much info. About three weeks ago my wife and I purchased an amel corn snake. He currently lives in a 20gal long tank. My question is - I was wondering if someone could give me some advice on re-positioning his UTH... When we were setting up his home we adhered the heater to the right side of the tank near the bottom. The instruction manual for the heater (Zoo-Med repti-therm uth) instructed us that this would be a proper mounting technique. We're currently having second thoughts though as it doesnt appear to be providing much heat to that area of the tank - the thermometer on that side reads about 75 degrees with just the uth.

Concerned for the well-being of the lil guy, we went out and purchased a ceramic heat lamp to suspend over the top of the cage, and a day-light and black-light type night bulb. This system works well heating the warm end to about eighty-three while the other end stays about seventy-eight. The only problem is that I'm weary of leaving these lights on for extended periods when I leave home though, as they do get fairly hot.

I would like to re-position the uth to the bottom of the tank to see if I get better results, and I would like to avoid buying another one if possible. I was curious if anyone has been successful in re-positiong an under tank heater. Getting it off the glass shouldn't be a problem, I'm just worried about trying to re-stick it to the bottom of the tank. Has anyone else mounted these to the side of the tank and had problems maintaining proper temps?

You can take a UTH off when adhered to glass. you just have to becareful and patient. Don't bend the UTH. Once you have it off, you can then place it on the bottom of the tank.

I have removed and reused UTH's a couple of times now. Because of this, I have gotten into the habbit of adhering them to a thin piece of slate or ceramic tile. then I just place the slate/tile under the tank, and when I need to move it, I can. And, the plus side of this method is that it helps to spread out the heat, and keeps the temp down enough so that you won't burn your snake.