Just curious if anyone has used one of these from eheat.com ? I have 2 of these http://www.eheat.com/site/products.php?opt...s&show=0601 floating around the house and wanted to try one or both on an enclosure I'm building. I have a Ranco temperature controller from an old aquarium chiller I thought I'd use to regulate it. The enclosure will be 33" front to back and 66" long. I planned on using them on the bottom of the enclosure and covering them with sand. If this is a bad idea let me know. Thanks
Hi, Having looked at the specification, these are designed to operate vertically NOT laid flat and covered in sand. Think that would asking for serious trouble. Heat mats only use 20w+ those are 400w. I think the answer is NO dont risk it.
Thanks I was just trying to be cheap. Anyway I searched around alittle more and it seems flexwatt heat tape would be a good solution. Do I need to cover the entire floor of my enclosure? Or would a 5' long piece of the 17" wide suff be enough? It's roughly 32"x64" with an all screen top. I'll be using this to maintain the low temps in the tank. Our house gets pretty cold at night. Thanks
Hi, Just been reading up on this Flexiwatt tape, we dont have it over here, seems like a good idea. Firstly what do you intend keeping in the tank, this will determine whether it's suitable. If you do use it then it's essential it's controlled by a thermostat or rheostat it uses 20watts per foot. Usually Under Tank Heating is only required to cover no more than half the length to allow thermoregulation of reptile. You can cut it at 1foot intervals so in that size floor area a piece 2ft long would be maximum required. I also found a good site showing HOW to wire it up..HERE Hope this helps.
Well I'm sure I'll catch hell for this but I bought my kids bearded dragons for christmas. I was really unaware of there requirements when I got them. The guy at the petstore was'nt the sharpest. Anyway I'm planning on putting all 3 of them in this enclosure. I'm hoping with such a large enclosure I wont run into any problems with them as adults. I planned to leave the front of the tank open with multiple basking and hiding spots along the backwall and sides. My plan was to use a 4' uvb tube along the top, spotlights to maintain basking temps and the flexiwatt tape to keep the enclosure at 80 day and night. Thanks for the link I was checking that out last night. I've allready rewired my ranco temperature controller to power 2 outlets rather than a chiller and it seems to be working great with my current heat lamp.
Hi, OK, your not the first person to make that mistake and you certainly wont be the last. Petshop employee's only see $$ in their eyes, there are good ones but few and far between sadly. What we have to do now, is help you get things sorted. More questions Do you know the sex of them ? How old are they ? If they are young and you happen to have one male or more and a female they will breed. If the female is too young, she could or will have problems laying eggs and possible health issues. I think the size of tank you have will be ok for all of them, BUT, you need to have a spare tank handy in case you need to seperate. As far as the setup you have planned, it sounds good, a 4ft tube will do well, make sure it's a ReptiSUN 10.0 UVB and they can get within 6-8" of it with nothing between tube and them, so they get max UVB. Spotlamps will provide the basking/heat requirements as well as the bright light, which they seek out. This is what I would do with that flexiwatt, get the narrower type, say 5" and go the full length of tank, place it on the BACK at bottom near floor, this would give you the general heat you need. It would also be a good idea to get some styrofoam (polystyrene) sheet and cover the heater, in effect have a sandwich, glass, heater, foam, this will increase heat going into tank and be more effective. For substrate I would use non-adhesive shelf liner till they are at least 10 months old, or even cage carpet, that could be used all the time. Best to have 2 sets of carpet, one in tank, one in wash, will make life easier.
Hi, OK, your not the first person to make that mistake and you certainly wont be the last. Petshop employee's only see $$ in their eyes, there are good ones but few and far between sadly. What we have to do now, is help you get things sorted. More questions Do you know the sex of them ? I believe 1 male and 2 females. Its tough to tell but one of them is looking like a male. How old are they ? Not sure how old they were when we got them but we've had them for 4 months. They were about 4-5" long when we got them and they are about 8-9" long now. I hope I havented stunted there growth. I didnt realize they'd eat so much. For the first month or so we had them they'd only get maybe 10 crickets a day each. Now they're eating about 30-40 1/2" crickets a day each. If they are young and you happen to have one male or more and a female they will breed. Even if they are from the same clutch? Would they be born with birth defects? If the female is too young, she could or will have problems laying eggs and possible health issues. I think the size of tank you have will be ok for all of them, BUT, you need to have a spare tank handy in case you need to seperate. As far as the setup you have planned, it sounds good, a 4ft tube will do well, make sure it's a ReptiSUN 10.0 UVB and they can get within 6-8" of it with nothing between tube and them, so they get max UVB. Spotlamps will provide the basking/heat requirements as well as the bright light, which they seek out. This is what I would do with that flexiwatt, get the narrower type, say 5" and go the full length of tank, place it on the BACK at bottom near floor, this would give you the general heat you need. It would also be a good idea to get some styrofoam (polystyrene) sheet and cover the heater, in effect have a sandwich, glass, heater, foam, this will increase heat going into tank and be more effective. Will that be wide enough with a screen top? If I build the lid how I planned with an all screen top thats a large surface area for the heat to disipate from. I can seal the top if needed but I'd like to keep it open to keep humidity down. I am planning on growing some plants native to austrailia in there with them. I ordered some feathertop spinifex gass seeds. It grows in big clumps rather tha a carpet. I've searched around about the grass and havent been able to find anything stating it was toxic at all. I did find however that cattle graze on it so it should be safe if they decide to munch on it. For substrate I would use non-adhesive shelf liner till they are at least 10 months old, or even cage carpet, that could be used all the time. Best to have 2 sets of carpet, one in tank, one in wash, will make life easier. I was planning on using the shelf liner for now. But eventually will be using sand once they are adult size. I know this goes against the recomended norm but I'd realy like this to look as natural as possible.
Alternatively you could just ditch the heatpad/heat tape idea completely as they really dont need it. As long as you have the proper overhead lights and heat sources then they dont need any under tank heat. They thrive on basking spot temps. Keeping the three of them together is definately taking a big risk - you want to make sure to monitor them extremely closely for any signs of dominance or agression (these signs would include inappetance or one or two dragons not growing as fast as the others) so that you can separate them if needed. Also - as bruno stated, they will definately breed if you have male/female combinations - they dont care about which clutch thy are from. Unfortunately, they will breed at a young age - probably before you know for sure that you have males and females...being bred early can be very damaging to the young growing females. At this age they need all the calcium and nutrients they can get to grow and thrive - trying to produce eggs when they are young draws needed calcium/nutrients away from their bodies and they can become egg bound, calcium deficient or worse. Its really best to keep them separated until they are 12-15 months of age, then house only females together to prevent breeding too young or inbreeding (if they are from the same clutch then they should not be housed together) If you are pretty certain one is a male then i would at least remove him and raise him separately and continue to monitor the other two for signs that they are male or female.
Thanks. I was just worried about keeping the temps up and the humidity down. When I get the enclosure finished I'll just have to test it out. So what wattage spot lamps should I start with? The uvb will be mounted inside the terrarium along side some sort of growlight for the spinifex grass. So the spot lamps will be roughly 9"-10" from the basking platforms. I havent noticed any agressive behavior. But I have seen them doing the hand wave thing. They all seem to be eating roughly the same. I remove them and feed them one at a time so there is no fighing over food. All 3 of them are in a 20 long right now. They will be moving to there new home in the next few days. I'm thinking there behaviour will change quite a bit in the new enclosure. I'm not certain they are all from the same parents. I'm just guessing because when I got them they had about 10 that were all in the same enclosure at the pet store. I'll keep an eye on them if they start to show any breeding behavior I'll have to split them up.
