im getting a bigger viv for lazarus, a stackable one, which is font opening, and as most of you know ive only ever used monfields top opening. i was going to put lazzy's heat mat inside his new viv. Is it ok to put a piece of slate or tile on top of the mat or will that cause heating issues as the heat will not rise and cause a heat pocket?
Also will a mat be enough or will i also need a ceramic bulb?
im getting a lot of conflicting views and what feels like people shouting at me on other forums :/
I use slates on top of my mats Regarding lamps etc- if you live in a standard home with central heating you shouldnt need lamps too..... I live in a boat, it has central heating & a large wood fire with back boiler but doesn't run 24/7 & gets cold very quickly so I also use lamps to increase ambient temps. The lamps are placed hot end & I have them set at 25C. Without them I was getting cold end readings of 5C at times.
I wouldn't know about having slate or tile on top of heatmat but I find that the heat from the mat is adequate to keep both ends of the viv within the right sort of limits without using a bulb even and mine all seem comfortable with that.
I have put tiles over my heat mat and glued the temp probe and thermostat to the tiles. It seems to be working very well. The temp is stable and she is digesting food fine. I don't have a lamp to increase ambient temp.
heat lamps in stacks can give you a headache due to the heat rising an heating the viv above it. mats are fine without anything covering them other than substrate.
i need help :/
Posted - 05/11/2013 : 23:35:45
