Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Up until now, I have always used ceramic heat emitters as my heating method. They work great but look ugly (particularly the necessary cage around them).

I am in Australia, and there are no large scale herp supply stores like bigapple and beanfarm here. But, after logging onto their sites, noticed they export here.

So, now heat tape is an option. Can heat tape be used inbetween stacked malamine enclosures? Or does there need to be some sort of gap? If the enclosure was 3x2x2 feet long, in a room that is 68F in winter, would 3 feet x 11 inch heat tape be adequate to heat the enclosure to 85F? Or am I best to stick with emitters?

I would like to here from people that have had success or failures with the tape. Is it tricky to use? Or is there a better Under Tank heating method that could be used with no gaps in between stacked enclosures made of wood?

Cheers.

Heat tape needs a gap. If it's just sandwiched in between two pieces of melamine the heat can build up to dangerously high levels. That's why the better heat mats or UTHs have warnings on their instructions.

If you're heating a cage that's in normal room temperatures (like I do) you can either continue to use the CHEs as you mention or try radiant heat panels. You need to not only create a warm basking spot but also heat the air in the cage so you don't have a cold cage with a hot spot. That's why the CHEs are good for cages in cool rooms. Heat tape alone will not do it; it will only create a good basking area. And you would need that gap between cages.

You might want to this same question to the Kingsnake.com Cage Forum. You'll get a lot of help there, too.

Bill