Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I was looking at the ZooMed Repti therm under tank heater. It says that the heat emitter in it is designed especially for herps and produces a "herp-friendly" temperature. Is it safe to use this without a thermostat or rheostat, or at least dimmer switch?

Thanks,
Taylor

I use the 10 gallon size uth for my baby ball python enclosure and i dont use a thermostat it keeps one side of the cage at abour 90 during the day and the room temp drops at night so its lowered to about 80
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1.1 Mali Uro (Roadrunner and Wild E. Coyote)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Champs)
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor (Komodo)
1.0 Ball Python (Mr.Mo)
0.0.1 Red Eared Slider (Franklin)
1.0 Snapping Turtle (Yertle)

Personally I use rheostat(ZooMed brand) to control the temperature in my approx. 50 gallon tank. I figure it only cost me a little extra to insure that my temperature never reaches over 100 degrees while I'm away. My snake is worth more to me than the cost of a rheostat so I take the extra precaution. I purchased a 30-40 gallon size UTH and placed a single layer of slate on the bottom of my tank to help disperse and regulate the hot spot of my tank. Currently I use coconut brand substrate but I am soon switching to Melaleuca Mulch. Now for my Jungle carpet python I use a Helix thermostat, but that's just because I plan to give him a top-notch enclosure when he's older.

Probably not. I have 10gal Zoo-Med model. Just zapped it with Raytek IR temp gun and it is 140F on the exposed side. I have a piece of tile and 1.5" of repti-bark to help disperse heat in addition to a thermostat to control max viv temp on hot side. So I wouldn't trust it to maintain safe temp by itself.

probably not - should be definitely use one. very tired and had bad day. sorry. As soon as new cage arrives will be switching to Flexwatt and proprtional controller.