Pac man newbie Heating question

[Dan0263]

I'm currently in the research stage and have a question regarding the heating of my tank. What's the best method - heat Mat under/side of tank or ceramic heat emitter bulb thingy??
I've done a fair amount of reading and am getting conflicting opinions.

Thanks

[monster]

The bulb or ceramic is your best option. UTH on the side just heats the air in your room if its not insulated as if it were on the bottom. Meaning building a wall around 3 sides of the outside so the uth iin between the glass were its stuck and the wall. And they are burrowing frogs that burrow to cool off not warm up so being on the bottom is really unnatural to them. Don't get me wrong if this is the only way to achieve your temps it is recommended in some books, but IMO this would be if it was the last option. Its better then no heat at all.

[sqrrlgrl]

I personally found the heating mats to be almost useless for meaningful amounts of heating. I use a ceramic heat emitter connected to a thermostat to regulate it and it makes heating a breeze.

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[jasonm96]

I personally found the heating mats to be almost useless for meaningful amounts of heating. I use a ceramic heat emitter connected to a thermostat to regulate it and it makes heating a breeze.

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Heat mats can heat a substrate up to 100F (so have to be thermostat controlled and some brands may vary in heat output) but a deep substrate will insulate the heat but the surface temperature is not important for a burrowing frog, which spends its time in the substrate. Also, analogue thermometers that stick on the side of the tank do not measure the heat properly as the heat is not radiant but conductive, so the thermometer needs to be directly on the mat for a proper reading.

[smokinsam]

I prefer a ceramic heat emitter.
The heat pads don't do such a good job by themselves.
However I do have both just in case additional heat is needed.
It's also a great idea to use a thermostat.


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[jasonm96]

You can use a heat mat underneath the tank connected to a thermostat with the probe under the substrate. There are claims that you can burn the frogs this way but this is untrue if you use them properly. The thermostat prevents overheating, it's just that not everyone wants to use one. A lot of people also say not to use mats since the frogs burrow to cool down but since the mat only covers half or less of the enclosure the frog can burrow to cool down if it wants. The problem with a heat mat is that they won't increase the air temperature, so the cool side will be whatever temperature your house is. So in order to use mats, the room has to be at around 22C or more otherwise the frog will spend all of its time on the mat as the unheated side will be too cold. The mat is useless on the wall since they work by conduction and the frog is terrestrial.


Ceramics warm the air but they also dry it out quite fast. You can reduce the drying by connnecting them to a thermostat with a day and night temperature setting, so you can have it cooler at night, so it isn't on full power all the time drying your substrate out. I would only use these in tanks with front access so you never have to touch the hot fixture and so you get easy access for misting the tank. It's even better to use them with a misting machine so you don't have to do it manually. The issue with the ceramics is that horned frogs don't bask and so you can't use a high wattage lamp to comensate for cold rooms. Even if a high-wattage lamp maintains the correct temperature, it is pretty intense and not the same as ambient heat. You could also use a moonlight heat lamp instead of the ceramic so you can view the frog at night.

Both have their pros and cons. Comes down to you. Try get your experiement and get your heating system ready before you get the frog.