What did you think - that a plastic cover over a metal nichrome heating element (aka a ZooMed heat pad) will know exactly when the heat is too much for your application? Of course not. For now you can raise up the tank bottom so that you have more clearance over the heat pad (if the heat pad isn't stuck to the cage bottom.) Ultimately, you need a dimmer or thermostat. A thermostat will protect against overheating. That is what you need to get. Dimmers are fine but you need to adjust them constantly and you should have some metal sheeting conducting the heat if using a dimmer (the metal spreads the heat and makes the cage less sensitive to a tiny adjustment in dimmer setting.) Any sheet metal larger than the heat pad will work.

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• Zoo med UTH got over 100 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - rudedogsurfrat, Sun Dec 21 22:27:42 2003
• RE: Zoo med UTH got over 100 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - markg, Mon Dec 22 10:09:43 2003
• question - rudedogsurfrat, Mon Dec 22 23:35:44 2003
• RE: question - markg, Tue Dec 23 11:13:54 2003