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Reuse UTH?

Prejac

Prejac

New member
I hope this is in the right area, I couldn't think of anywhere else to ask this question, so here goes. I am upgrading from a 10gal to a 20gal long tank and would like to reuse, if possible my UTH. But my question, before I go tearing it off the old tank, is, has anyone successfully done this? I have one of these. It has a sticky layer on the tank side to make contact with the glass of the tank. But I'm not sure if its reusable or not, and if its not, does anyone have any suggestions on a substance to use to get it to stick that allows good heat transfer like originally new?
 
yes, you can reuse it. You need to get some Goof Off or some similiar adhesive remover. Use a qtip or paper towel and run it around the edges of the UTH. Let it soak a little and SLOWLY start to lift the edge of the UTH. Rub more Goof Off as you go, letting it sit and penetrate the sticky stuff, and pull up a little bit at a time. Once its off, get some heat tape to stick to the exposed stickty side.

To re-use, heat tape the UTH to the bottom of the new tank.
 
I've re-used them take off old tank gently and use duct tape to hold to glass on new one, didn't clean it first though.
 
the Goof Off/Goo Gone part of that is to make sure you dont rip the cover off the wires inside, as happens sometimes when ripping them off.
 
But wait- will you need a larger one for the 20L? And will you be eventually filling the 10? I'd leave it and buy a new one on eBay, where they are nearly half the price of a pet shop. Then you'll have a ten ready to go.
 
And if you do remove it and retape it, I'd get that aluminum tape which can withstand high heat. I really like that stuff.
 
The size I have says its for 10-20gal tanks. I only have one snake, and that's all I have room for, and the 10gal isn't mine so I'm giving it back to my friend. Can someone recommend a brand or a link to this heat tape or whatever? I can't find any good results through google...
 
You need to go by floor area rather than strictly by capacity. The UTH has to cover one-third of the floor area of the tank. If it does that for the 20gal then you're good to re-use it.
 
After reading about all this and re-thinking, I'm considering using flexwatt heat tape instead. It's cheaper, easier (imo), and more flexible. Thanks for all the responses!
 
Nanci said:
You can find the aluminum tape at Lowes or Home Depot or wherever you have out there.
Click to expand...
I kept searching for aluminum tape, and all that came up were these super expensive rolls of 3M specialty tapes. Watched a few videos about Flexwatt on youtube and they were calling it foil tape. Found some of that at Ace Hardware relatively cheap!
 
foil tape, heat tape, same stuff. You will also find that lowes and home depot dont always list some of the very common, inexpensive items on their site.
 
Scrufdog said:
foil tape, heat tape, same stuff. You will also find that lowes and home depot dont always list some of the very common, inexpensive items on their site.
Click to expand...

Actually, no. Heat tape is what you use to keep your plumbing from freezing in the winter. It's very much like flexwatt. Foil tape is a heat resistant tape used in ducting and similar applications.
 
yeah, i gotcha. I've usually called both heat tape for whatever reason.

And as a side note, it's easier to peel a UTH off when its warmed up. Leave it on for about 5 minutes, then unplug it, then peel. Makes it 'softer' and easier to peel. Make absolutely sure you unplug it, in case something sticks and exposes the wire.
 
I also find the warm UTH alot easier to take off. The goo-gone works wonders too (the brand I use is 'sticky-out').
As far as sticking them back on...the glue has always still been sticky when the UTH finally came off, so I just stuck it to a new viv...never had one come unstuck so far. Its been about 9months. I do plan on building a rack in the near future, and I wont be using UTH mats. Probably flexwatt.
 
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