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UTH Vs Side Mounted Repti Therm - help needed

KA2003

KA2003

New member
Hello everyone - I did spend some time going through FAQ and other threads but didn't see anything right on point.

My question is as follows:

I just bought a ZooMed Repti Therm UTH (under tank heater), and when I opened the package, the detailed directions appear to indicate that ZooMed suggests mounting the heating element directly to the SIDE of the tank, as opposed to the bottom of the tank.

I'd like to use this recylced paper as a substrate, and reading the directions - it says never us paper or lightweight substrate with it mounted to the bottom, or if there is a chance of the waterbowl being spilled, it would cause a heat fracture on the glass.

My aquairum is a 29 high, and the back of the tank is painted black - When it comes to corn snakes - how should I use this item - glued to the bottom or the side. local petshop said side is preferred as it will heat up the glass and warm up the tank - but i know heat rises and if the corn snake is in its hide, it may not get any of the heat. At the same time, if I go with the easy to keep clean paper substrate, directions clearly say it not appropraite.

Any thoughts you might have would be greatly appreciate. thanks all.
 
Snakes need the belly heat to digest properly. I would assume the side mounted method would work for some frogs or lizards, but not for corns. Many many of us have used them on the bottom of the tank with no issues. I would suggest taping the UTH to the bottom of the tank. That way, if you decide to switch vivs, you can remove it easily.

Did you also get a thermostat and probed thermometer? An unregulated UTH can reach temps of 120*...which would kill a corn snake.
 
Thank you. I have a neat little hand held temp gun made by proexotics that you "shoot" at and it will give you the surface temperature of whatever the gun looks at.

No, I don't have the UTC hooked up to anything - I just bought it at petco for $35 dollars, and that is exactly what I am concerned about. I had used a hot rock for an Iggy 20 years ago and it cost me $500 in vet bills. Don't want to have any issues and it looks like like may have gotten not so good advice at the petshop for snakes. Any additional thoughts?

thanks so much.
 
ZooMed is partially right.

Their heating pad gets rediculously hot when plugged directly into the wall outlet. Mince gets over 130 degrees. If you want to cook and serve your snake as an appetizer (or main course depending on size) then you should plug it in and forget about it.

However, if you want your snake to be happy and thrive, you will REGULATE the heat from the heat pad. There are two ways to do this. You either use a rheostat (lamp dimmer) or you use a specific thermostat. You can learn more about these options on your own. there is a wealth of info here about both of these options.

So ZooMed is sorta right...if you use their product unregulated, then you may make the glass hot enough so that a water spill makes it crack. I would not worry about the paper catchg fire. It doesn't get that hot. Just be aware that paper will not absorb like a nice 1-2" layer of aspen...so spilled water is likely to damage your tank.

All that being said, ZooMed is wrong to assume that their product is safe to use right out of the packing. You must regulate your pad at all times. When regulated, they should stay around 83-85 degrees...which poses NO RISK to cracking or burning.
 
You definitely need a dimmer or thermostat with UTHs. Especially the ZooMeds. For some reason they seem to get much hotter than the ExoTerra brand. We didn't know that at first then got on here and asked MANY questions (probably drove you all nuts!) and found out about the temp probes and dimmers. We were using stick on Flukers...they are really off on temps. It was reading 75 which we knew was not warm enough then when we put the probe in, it went up to 90+ on the ExoTerra (we had two tanks at that time), the ZooMed went up to 120!!! So we immediately went out and got dimmers and ExoTerra UTHs and now all is good!

We went from 1 snake in Jan to 6 yesterday. And I have noticed the pet stores seem to generalize all snakes' needs which isn't correct. Corns need belly heat and are basically bottom dwellers whereas other species of snakes are climbers and need overhead heat. Am I right on this guys??? I am learning everything on here..and teaching the pet store we go to a little more about corns needs....lol ;)
 
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