Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, I have a 20 Gal long tank, using tile as the floor. On one fifth of the floor, where the geckos don't hang out much, I have it mostly tile but with a little bit of sand filling the gaps, because i had to break up a tile to fit in that part. Anyways, I have one large hide, 2 small hides, one directly over my heating pad and one big moist hide. I have a large water dish, one dish with calcium supplement (4 parts w/out D3, one part with) mixed with multi-vitamin. I have one other dish with dusted mealworms and i feed my leos crickets daily. This sounds great, as far as i know. but them temps are off. The cool side is about 75, because thats what my room temp is, but the tile seems to conduct cold temperatures well, and the floor seems really warm. The side w/ the heating pad seems only mildly warm, like upper 70s, low 80s range, if i'm lucky. I really need to fix this!!! Should i buy a stronger heating pad?? To help out for now i took a human heating pad and put it against the back of the tank on the warm side, set on low-medium, so they get enough heat til i figure this out. What should i do??? I don't want to use a bulb, but i can't figure this out!
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

kk wat i do is take all of the sand on the heated side and just remove it and put the hide directly above the heating pad then i fill around the unsanded parts but not under the hide

How are you mesureing the temps?
Make sure to use a good digital thermometor and place it right on the the ground on the hot side over where the heating pad is.
If you have already done that and the temps are infact low, maybe you will need a larger pad, although, I am not really sure since I have not yet used tile, but I'm sure someone who has will respond.
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Sarah H