• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Heat Mats

D

danna-blue

New member
I had a 7 watt 10 x 6 inch heat mat in my 24 x 15 x 18 inch vivarium and can only just get the temperature to 80 degrees C at the warm end. So, I have now got a 10 x 10 inch 14 watts heat mat. This is connected to a microclimate thermostat with magic eye night drop settings and I still cannot achieve an air temperature above 80 degrees. It says on the box for the new mat that heat mats "produce ultra long wavelength heat which is invisible to the naked eye and tends to heat furnishings in the cage rather than the air itself which is similar to the sun and has the ability to heat anything that it strikes but with the air temperature remaining much lower".

Question: How do you know (aside from the obvious that the mat is slightly warm) that this is working sufficiently for the snakes health? Taking into consideration that the air temperature at the warm end is 80 degrees should I just be happy with that seen as the snake is obviously happy and moving around as it deems necessary?
 
Danna, where are you measuring the temp at? on the floor directly above the mat or higher up in the tank?...If the "air temp" on the warm side is 80 depending on where you are measuring the temp the floor temp right above the heat mat could be a lot hotter.
 
Immediately you need to measure the temperature at the substrate and not the air temperature.....my friend made this mistake....air temp was 82, but substrate level temperature was 109....almost killed her snake.....with my 6x10 heat mats, I tested them before I put the snakes in and without the rheostat the substate temp went to 114.3 and the air was 86. Hurry, check the temps from the substrate, not the air temp....it may be way too hot and the snakes life could be in danger.

Sorry if this sounds frantic...but it kinda is....good luck
 
Thank you both for your prompt replies.

I have checked the substrate temperature which was 90 degrees so I have altered my temperature settings accordingly so that the surface temperature of the substrate is 82 degrees.

So, I presume I am right in thinking that the air temperature is totally irrelevant?

Thanks,
Danna
 
Danna, if your snake suddenly grows wings and hovers thru out the tank, then yes, it will become relevant...and if that happens I wanna see pics!...82 degree surface temp should do just fine, jmho...peace and enjoy your snake!
 
No worries...glad that it was only 90, not really too high or severely life threatening like the temps I found, which were just plain nuts.

As for flying snakes, I thought I saw one once....but I think that was because I was sick and I had a temperature of like 104....LOL, but I will try to take pictures next time.
 
hehe, i have to remember c / f when reading american forums. Some people panic mightily when you say your tank is at 30 degrees max! What is the standard in the uk? Ive always used degrees c and Feet and inches.
 
Since coming onto herp forums I've been forced to start working in Fahrenheit. At first it was confusing but now I find it difficult working in celcius. I worked out that 85F is 29.4C and the warm end of my vivs stay at 29-30 degrees (and 40C in my Beardy viv) :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top