I just recently built a huge 3 level terrarium for a ball python, corn snake , leopard gecko, and tortoise but in the middle for the bp, and corn snake I don’t know how to heat it because I can’t put anything under it because I’m scared everything is too heavy and I don’t know if it’s safe to put the heat mat inside with a thermostat regulating it and I was wondering if there are other options for heating it
1 Like
Radient heat panels would work. There is a type of heating pad that can go into inclosures . Kane heat mat. They are really expensive, I got one for my sulcata tortoise…
One other thing I have done, I will get two pieces of usually slate tile put the heating mat between them with the thermostat, seal all the edges up with silicon and use that in tanks. It seems to work fine . The tile/slate heats up nicely. But I can’t say anything about long-term use, safety… It’s just something I figured out.
1 Like
Something that I know it says on UTHs is that they need to breathe and have space between them and whatever they are sitting above/next to. This is to prevent overheating and malfunctions. This is likely a fire hazard and not something I would recommend.
1 Like
The heating pad will certainly burn out quicker than if it’s correctly under the tank or on the side. However, I think the space under the under tank is to keep them from scorching whatever they’re sitting on. With two pieces of tile nothing is going to get scorched, the tile spread the heat over the whole surface. However , this is certainly use at your own risk, it will burn your heating pad out in about half the time it would last otherwise, and although I have never had a trouble it may well be a fire hazard.