under tank heaters

[kidchameleon]

right now, i have my 5 month old corn in a 10 gallon aquarium, with an uth for a 10-20 gallon. soon, my uncle is going to be giving me a 50 gallon tank. now i was wondering, instead of going out and spending $40+ on a 50-60 gallon uth, could i just get anoth 10-20 and use them both? thanks

ps, i will hopefully have pictures of her within the week.

[klein]

if you didn't stick the first one to the tank i don't see why not. If you did stick it to the tank then you are out of luck, you will only ruin it if you try and peel it off. Another alternative would be to buy a human heating pad, i just bought one, it measure 12 inches x 15 inches, it is a Sunbeam that i got from walmart for $20, there are a lot of other people on this site that use the Sunbeam one. If you do a search for human heating pads you will find the threads and you can read what other people have said about them as well.

[Auskan]

Originally posted by klein
If you did stick it to the tank then you are out of luck.

Not necessarily. I have moved UTHs several times without incident. If you peel it off very, very carefully you can often re-stick it to another surface and it will work just fine. I have one that I originally had on a glass tank, then moved to a rubbermaid, and then to a critter keeper, and its still working great.

[klein]

i have never done tried to take my original one off, i was just going from what other people have said on this board, that once they are stuk on then that's it. I have since gone to human heating pads and have never had a problem, they are cheaper, i can move them anywhere i want with no problems at all.

[ortega]

I have also moved heatmats from one tank to another after sticking it to the first tank

[Dragon_Slave]

I think it depends on the UTH that you use. I've heard that the ESU one's don't re-stick, but the Exo-Terra and T-Rex one's do, maybe that's just a myth though, I haven't tried to remove any of mine.

I'm not 100% on this, but I think that if you use two 10 gallon heaters the temps will be too hot.

[sapphire_moon]

I hope your controling those heat pads, it should be fine to use 2 of them on one tank, just make sure the tank isn't to big for the baby corn.

[Dragon_Slave]

Durrr... thanks Sapphire, I knew I was sounding stupid somehow. Yes, you need to have a rheostat (or lamp dimmer) to control the temps of the UTH's.

[klein]

what about power, would 2 smaller heat pads consume more power then 1 bigger 1?

[Auskan]

When we're talking about devices that use only 8-20w of power in the first place, any difference would be miniscule and amount to only pennies a year. I don't think that would be much of a consideration.

[sapphire_moon]

Oh and you will need 2 digital thermometers with probes so you can monitor if one of them goes out or has a jump in heat.

[kidchameleon]

alright thanks a lot everyone for your input. i think i might just go with one large heater because it would save me the trouble of having to worry about it being too hot, or getting digitial thermometers and whatnot.

[klein]

you should still have a digital thermometer and a thermostat on the heat pad whether you go with the big one or the smaller ones. you need to regualte the temps of the heat pad and you need the thermometer so you know what the temp is, just my opinion anyways

[kidchameleon]

well i have two thermometers in my tank, one on each side. they are the ones that have an actual pin, not just the stick on ones. and with the thermostat, i dont really think i need to one because the temps seem to be fine in the cage and i find that she likes to go on both sides of the tank, so i guess she is happy.

[sapphire_moon]

I personally think the only thing those dials are good for are humidity. Just my opinon. They are measuring the AIR temps. NOT the temp RIGHT OVER the UTH which is where your snake will be sitting. Not up by the dial, or over by the dial.

so you still NEED a digitial thermometer, and a lamp dimmer (rheostat,thermostat, something to control the heat)

Edit: Seem means your guessing, don't guess, be sure, otherwise you will pay for it with your snakes life, or a nice fat vet bill. You always have to be absolutely sure what your temps are.