Heating advice fairly urget

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lochie

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I recently moved Linda my 2 year old Spotted python to a larger terrarium.

I bought a new 7w heat mat to add to the underside of this terrarium for heat, however after several hours it wasn't generating enough heat to get through the aspen and to my basking tile.
So I taped my heat cord to the underside of the terrarium in order to give her some heat, however once again it wasn't getting through the aspen. and heating up the tile.
At this point I used a hair dryer to heat up the tile to 34 degrees and give her some heat. I also moved the heat cord inside the terrarium in order to heat up the tile.
I don't like this at all as if she burrows around the cord it can burn her, but at this point its all I can do.

So what I'm asking is what should I do for heat.

I have a few options,

Upgrade the heat mate, upgrade the heat cord.

I also have a light fitting that I could install to the terrarium and use some form of light heat.

Or I could buy a heat rock and just use that.


So what I'm asking is, what would you recommend for this situation?

Please be specific when answering, include such information as wattage of bulb, what type of bulb (ceramic infared etc etc or wattage of heat mat/cord, or like use an x blub with heat rock, etc etc

Oh and my dimensions of terrarium,

length: 600 width:450 depth: 450
 
A 7W heater of any description will not do much in raising temps.What are the room temps where the terrarium is being kept?
 
A 7W heater of any description will not do much in raising temps.What are the room temps where the terrarium is being kept?

Well im in brisbane atm, so temperature varies from around 22 degrees in the day to 6 degree's at night.

I only slept for a hour last night as I'm constantly monitoring temperatures and keeping her healthy and safe, because your looking after a living animal it comes first.

Id go lights mate

Never used any type of lighting before, any recommendations on either ceramic, infrared, purple light etc etc aswell as wattage
 
Well im in brisbane atm, so temperature varies from around 22 degrees in the day to 6 degree's at night.

I only slept for a hour last night as I'm constantly monitoring temperatures and keeping her healthy and safe, because your looking after a living animal it comes first.

Never used any type of lighting before, any recommendations on either ceramic, infrared, purple light etc etc aswell as wattage

A 7W heater would be lucky to raise temps 5C.Heaters can only do so much,the smaller the heater the less it can raise temps.Think of it this way if you put your room heater outside how much would it raise the surrounding air temp?
 
A 7W heater would be lucky to raise temps 5C.Heaters can only do so much,the smaller the heater the less it can raise temps.Think of it this way if you put your room heater outside how much would it raise the surrounding air temp?

What wattage would you recommend? I would prefer to stick to a heat mat as I like the idea of it.
 
What wattage would you recommend? I would prefer to stick to a heat mat as I like the idea of it.

No one size fits all.What is the room temp getting down to,in particular the coldest part of the day say around 6 - 7 am?
 
Use a 20- 30 watt matt with a thermostat.
Agreed .... tho a large mat for such a small enclosure u can set the mat at a constant 33 Deg and this will also keep the air temp in and aroung the mid 20's ...but saying that having a smaller watage mat at 33deg under a hide and a small 40W red or blue heat globe at other end allows the snake to use other areas of the floor for cooling...Hope this helps
 
Thanks for all the advice guys,

I went out and bought 100W and 75W infrared globes and spent a while installing the single fitting with a cage to protect the snake.

I have the 100W globe in at the moment with the thermostat located on the basking surface directly underneath the globe at one end of the terrarium, at the other end I have a hide rock and a water bowl.

This seems to be working great at the moment.

Once again I love the fact that I can come on here and get great advice.

I hope once I get very confident in my herp keeping abilities I can pass on some advice.
 
It would be much easier to run a heat cord inside the enclosure and put it between two tiles. The heat cord won't heat the aspen enough to set it alight, but you could use a thermostat "in case" it shorts out (done this for years and no issues, although many people like to err on the side of caution), or run it in hooks along the side so it doesn't come in contact with the aspen . As soon as the cage doors are locked, there's no risk of the snake pushing the oors open if you run the cord through the doors (so there will be a small gap), but it doesn't look as pretty as when a hole is drilled in the side for it.

How tall is the enclosure? Just monitor the 100w as they can heat up a small space very quickly if something goes wrong.
 
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100 or 75 watts is a lot of heat for a relatively small enclosure. Just pray that your thermostat doesn't stick!

You could try disconnecting the thermostat and running the light to see what maxi mum temperatures are achieved, then add 10-15 degrees for summer. That is how hot the tank will get if the themostat doesn't work.
 
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Why not remove the aspen from under the tile so the tile is being heated directly?
 
Whos said it shouldnt be removed? Plenty of people just but it directly on
 
Na nobody. I just meant that I would remove the aspen because it wouldnt conduct the heat as well. He already had it sorted anyway :)
 
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