Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question for everyone out there. I use non-adhesive shelf liner as a substrate on the bottom of my leo's tank. I also have a under the tank heater that i use. The instructions for the heater said you have to use 1/2 inch of substrate in the tank when you use this heater. However, that implies using loose substrate which could cause impaction. I'm just worried about causing burns. I have felt the bottom of the tank many, many times and it doesn't feel hot to me and my geckos seem to enjoy the heat. I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this same problem?

what you should do is get a dimmer switch you can get them at home depot I will follow this with a pic. the dimmer will alow you to regulate the temp. Also temp guns work great to findout surface temps, and the guns are cheap 25 bucks
Bill
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Leos
1.0 SHCT Baldy "Thor"
0.1 Bell Albino "Pinky"
0.1 Tremper Albino "Betty"
0.1 SHCT Baldy "Lemon"
0.1 Hypo Tang "Sherbert"
0.1 Hypo Golden "Dott"
0.2 juveniles " Spot & White Stripe"
Domestic Livestock

0.1 WIFE "PAM"
0.1 Daughter "Haleigh"

Canines
1.0 Beagle "Chance"
0.1 Pit rodesian ridgeback mix "Missy"

here is the dimmer I'm talking about

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Leos
1.0 SHCT Baldy "Thor"
0.1 Bell Albino "Pinky"
0.1 Tremper Albino "Betty"
0.1 SHCT Baldy "Lemon"
0.1 Hypo Tang "Sherbert"
0.1 Hypo Golden "Dott"
0.2 juveniles " Spot & White Stripe"
Domestic Livestock

0.1 WIFE "PAM"
0.1 Daughter "Haleigh"

Canines
1.0 Beagle "Chance"
0.1 Pit rodesian ridgeback mix "Missy"

Dude, forget a temp gun. They're ridiculously overpriced. Get a digital thermometer. 12 bucks for the same function.

with regards to the digital thermometer they work very well for reading air temps, I use the acurite dual zone thermometer with humidity reading as well. It has a probe you can run at one end of the tank and the display you can put at the other end.

The temp gun gives you an acurite reading pinpointed any where on the surface,If you go to tempgun.com they are only 25 bucks.

For exsample my digital therm reads on the hot side 88 and the cool side 81 but if I temp gun the surface in the hot area I get readings of up to 95 in some spots. So you can see there is a reason for using both dig. therms. and temp guns.
Hope this helped
Bill

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Leos
1.0 SHCT Baldy "Thor"
0.1 Bell Albino "Pinky"
0.1 Tremper Albino "Betty"
0.1 SHCT Baldy "Lemon"
0.1 Hypo Tang "Sherbert"
0.1 Hypo Golden "Dott"
0.2 juveniles " Spot & White Stripe"
Domestic Livestock

0.1 WIFE "PAM"
0.1 Daughter "Haleigh"

Canines
1.0 Beagle "Chance"
0.1 Pit rodesian ridgeback mix "Missy"

I'll choose a temp gun over a digital thermometer any day. It's faster and more accurate than a digital thermometer. It doesn't require surface contact for a reading; this comes in handy for checking temps on quarantined geckos. And rather than buying two thermometers per tank like some people do, it makes more sense to buy just one good thermometer that'll be the last one you'll ever need for all of your tanks.
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chickabowwow