Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone, I am gonna be starting my new retic off in a 55 gallon tank (all I have available at the moment). I am still waiting for my new rheostats to arrive to me, but I got my heat mat yesterday (it's a T-Rex Cobra 50-60 gal. size mat). I decided to just slap it on there for now and fire it up. First of all, it only covers 1/3 of the bottom of the tank, not half as I was expecting. Is this too little?

But the problem is, even when not connected to a rheostat, the highest the mat was able to heat the ambient temperature in the cage was to 68 degrees (on the side the mat was on). The box though, said the mat is designed to heat the animal, not the air, "as the sun would". Sure enough, when I put the probe flat against the bottom of the cage, it reached almost ninety. Would this be ok? If supposedly the animal were heated and not the air around it (doubt it because it would make maintaining humidity difficult)? Would I just be better off ordering a couple feet of flexwatt heat tape? If so, anyone know of a place that ships FAST?

The heat mat is on the underside of the tank, btw. The screen on top is covered by tape except for one spot on each side about 6"x12". I am used to using overhead heating and would really ike to use belly heat from now on.

Any help would be very greatly appreciated!

I am not too familiar with the heater you mentioned, however I do not see a problem if you are at 90F at the surface. Flexwatt works the same since it is a radiant type of heating system, but you have to control the temps. I have been using Flexwatt for years and am more then satisfied with the results. I’ve tried heating systems that were mounted overhead and did not care for them one bit. Don’t loose and sleep over it your snake will be fine for a few months before you will have to look into new caging and heating. Start planning early and you and your snake will be ready for the next move up in caging.
Jim