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How to heat plastic viv's

F

freetv-5

New member
Just wondering how you heat smaller plastic viv's?
Or better to buy 5.5 gallon tanks? Seeps a waste?
Plastic to 20 gallon seems the way to go!????
Bill
 
When i used a small plastic viv i heated it with a UTH but had a non-flammable piece of polystyrene between the heat-source and the plastic.
 
So could I sneak a medium sized UTH mat under two smaller plastic tanks??
If I could I was thinking use the UTH mat to heat slab of slat, granite or such to even temps and slide under both using an rheostat?
Bill
 
Would this work as I need to know?

I really need to know before the weekend!!!
Any and all help please!!!!
Bill
 
All i did with mine was put down the heat mat covered with two layers of paper towel then I put the plastic box on top of the heat mat. This worked for me although im not saying its the correct way to deal with it.
 
Hey StaceyBaybee,
What size mat did you use?
Any know or think I could get away with a meduim sized?
That way I could use it for one of the next size viv size increases?
Bill
 
Well there are lots of diffrent brands of mats so i don't know exactly how big a medium sized one is. Also it depends on the size of the tanks you are going to use, do some measuring first. As long as the mat is covering a third of the tank you will be ok.
 
StaceyBaybee;
Thanks a lot to you and others
I think I will try a medium mat and place a third of each tank on it(+ insulation) and two digital thermometers and see how that works? I plan on getting more corns and playing with breeding as I am disabled and have lots of time. This could some day help to compensate my very limited income???
Bill
 
Hey I hope this is right!!!!!
I don`t want to kill to new friends coming home on Thursday!!!!!
About heating factory made viv`s right!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!!!
Bill and Corinne
 
Yeah don't worry it will be fine if you do that, they not going to die! Yeah im sure it will help your income, when i move out of home im thinking of breeding snake myself and then selling them on to reptile stores to bump up my income :)
 
You're better off if you can use a thermostat. That way it compensates (somewhat) to changes in the room temperature. A rheostat is nothing more than a glorified dimmer and it'll crank out the set amount of juice whether it needs it or not (or needs more). If you're always around to tweak it, that's fine.

You don't really need an insulator between the heat mat and the plastic containers, so long as you're regulating the heat put out by the heat mats. They're only going to warm up to the mid 80's anyway, and thats well below the temps where you'll have issues with the plastic. If anything, with an insulator, you'd have to heat the mat to a higher temperature, which might cause issues with whatever the mat is on, but probably not. If you really want to even out the temps put out by the heat mat, you can get a very very thin sheet of aluminum at a hardware store and that'll do just fine.

Good luck!
 
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