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Ive got an 8 watt exo terra heat pad that i was thinking about sticking to the back of a ten gallon glass aquarium. would it break the glass or hurt the tank in anyway? It says for glass only so im assuming itll be ok but i just wanted some experienced opinions. Thanks

I've used them on glass with no problems. I just raise the end of the cage up a half inche to keep heat from building up and potentially cracking the glass. I also use a thermostat as well.

I use under belly heat pads(but not sure if exoterra or some other brand) on all my non rack setups. They work great but there are a couple things to keep in mind.

First off, the glass cracking is a very real possibility. I have had it happen on a couple occassions. The coulprit in my case was that I was housing high humidity animals(BRB's) in the enclosure and water hit the glass above the UTH directly. The heat and the change in temp cracked the glass in several directions. This is not actually much of a problem though as the UTH holds the cracks together from below and all you need to do is hit the cracks with some aquarium sealant/silicone to seal them and prevent them from shifting and then cuting the snake.

I should also note that I have only had that happen with my smaller aquariums. I'm pretty sure the small ones only cracked because of the thinner glass not having, molecularly speaking, as much expansion/contraction room.

Seacondlyyou want them on the bottom and not on the back of the enclosure. Assuming by back you meant back wall and not back end of the bottom. If it is on thew wall it will just heat upwards which will do pretty much nothing for the enclosures temps. If you place it under the tank it will heat an area of the floor and that heat will drift up through the substrate to heat the surface for the snake to liew in and also raise the overall air temp noticably.

Lastly keep in mind when installing them that those are not meant to be moved so wherever you put it is pretty much where it will/needs to stay.

Hope this is helpfull and anyone feel free to correct me. I am very tired atm lol.

Sean.

I no longer stick mine to the glass. I use foli tape to adhere it to foam insulation board and then place the cage on top of it. Shown is a quarantine bin, taped heat pad and taped thermostat probe. I also have 2 glass tanks that I do this with and it works very well. This also makes it easy to pick up and remove tanks to clean them since there are no attached cords to worry about.

A piece of ceramic tile is much less of a hastle On my lower wattage pads (under 6 watts) I will usually just place the tile in the tank directly. Sort of like a home made heat rock.
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