Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone use soil warming cables to heat racks? How do you find it? Mine is in a grove in the wood and runs the width of each tub about a third of the way from the back.

Im not sure it is keeping temperature at night - should I run 2 lines under the tubs?

Should I have used mats/ tape?

Cheers

Sam

My Vision rack is heated this way and I like it. I'll heat any DIY rack with either heat cable or rope light from now on.

Regarding how many runs, the big advantage to this system, IMO, is that you can run as much or as little cable as needed under/behind any give tub. I would route or create channels that allow you to do this.
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Current snakes:

0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

7.6 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

0.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

How is it used in a tank?

Also what is rope lights that I keep hearing about?

Cheers

Sam

Heat cable can be taped to the bottom or sides of tanks in a series of loops. If the cable is on the bottom, then the tank needs to be set on small spacers so it does not compress the cable.

Might also be a good idea to put a foil-based insulation over the cable as well, especially if its on the side. I know you have insulation in the UK that looks like bubble-wrap covered in foil, that stuff is great.

If it were me I'd tape down some expanded PVC to the tank and then tape the cable to the PVC. It will help spread out the heat.

Rope light is a series of tungsten bulbs in a flexible PVC tube. Here is a picture of some boaphile cages heated with rope light. They also come in red or blue for night time heat.

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Current snakes:

0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

7.6 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

0.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)