best way to heat up a tank?

[Bedore]

I recommend a ceramic heat emitter. I have a small zoo med UTH mounted on the side of the tank (as others have said do not mount one under the tank) for supplemental heat and I have a ceramic heat emitter mounted up top. I also have most of the top closed off with aluminum foil. I have left a section open under the CHE. I have my CHE hooked up to a thermostat as well, and it does a great job regulating the temps. Try a 60W CHE, that will probably do it. If not then a 100W certainly will, but you'd probably want to suspend the fixture with a rod to allow some airflow as things can get very hot. The fixture itself will also get hot, but so long as it's not close to anything flammable you will be fine. As for probe placement, I put mine about 2" above the substrate.

[Hellsrage]

Ok so if i get the heat pad, where would i put the thermometer? On the side of the tank where the heat pad is or somewhere else

What kind of thermometer are you using? Digital w/probe ect.

You'll be measuring air temps so you don't want it close to a heat source. Ideally you'll have 2 digital thermometers setup monitoring temps, one on the warm side and another on the cool side, if you have a probe you'll want to attach it to something near the ground. If you affix it to the glass just make sure it's on a side that doesn't have the heat pad attached.