Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a couple of leopard geckos, and I was thinking about using a local stone place to cut a piece of rock, like maybe slate or granite, to fit into the base. How thick can it be in order to still tansmit needed belly heat? I'm shooting for about 88-90 degrees surface temp. I'm thinking nothing thicker than about 1 or 1 1/2 inches. Any clues? I'm not looking to use counter grade granite, just something I won't have to worry about them ingesting the substrate. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

Are you putting this in a tank? If so I think you will break the tank eventually trying to keep the stone clean.

As far as heat, stone will absorb heat quickly and hold it for a long time. How is the cage heated? lights? undertank? If its lights you can go as thick as you want. If its undertank I would thik it would depend on the stone, but your gues of about an inch sounds good to me.

I was thinking about using some sand underneath the stone to transmit the heat a little bit better, and I figure it'll help to cushion the rock. Plus, leos are pretty clean, so I won't have to clean it much more than once a month. And I have undertank heaters and a ceramic heater, so their tops aren't freezing and their bellies burning. When it all gets done, I'll try to post a pic. Thanks for the input.

The thickness really would not matter. It would take longer to heat up but would be more stable and efficient once warm. Read up on the principle of heat sinks and/or thermal mass if you're interested.

Still, I think there is a point of diminishing returns and I would keep it as thin as possible while still offering sufficient strength so it does not crack. Some extra large granite tiles are supposedly quite fragile. Personally I would use slate, although some of them can be particularly fragile, especially the heavily patterned ones. Structural slate out of Vermont would be better but a lot more expensive and harder to find. Unless you live in Vermont.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I don't know for sure but I can't help but feel that having the whole floor such a hard surface that it might cause health problems with their toes, feet. Seems like I've read about problems with beardies and/or monitors under similar conditions. Might be something to look into to make sure.

You've got a good idea with using a thin layer of sand to fill in voids for good heat transfer. However, I seriously doubt that a UTH would be very effective at all in heating something 1-inch thick or more. Plus, the weight of anything that thick would be quite a bit.

What about going to Home Depot, buy ceramic tile, and have them cut it to where you'll have 2 equal-size pieces to cover the bottom with. Have them cut it so you'll end up with about a 1/4" gap between the two pieces (in the middle of the tank) and you can fill that in with play sand. You can also fill in around the edges, too, helping to better secure the tile. You can get the tile in 1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" thickness. Any of those will work nicely. I'd be surprised if it would cost more than $20.

You can even go to carpet/tile stores and ask if they have any old samples or tile left over from jobs and they can even cut it for you. $10, and you're out the door. Gone in a jiffy.

I use a big piece of ceramic tile in my savannah monitor's cage & my nile's cage. Their basking rocks are on top of the tile. The rest of the cage is dirt.

Just a thought in an effort to try to help you out.

Take care!
HH
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