RCReptiles.com

[Richard]

Okay........I needed heat for a stack of enclosures, here is what I did to get the heat that is needed. I will know soon how well this works out, however so far so good!

I chose to use 1/4 inch peg board for the backer, and applied foil tape to the surface:


After the entire thing is covered in foil tape I then layed out the heat cable keeping it from touching and not making to sharp of curves per the directions supplied:


I then installed it in my homemade rack for the enclosures:


I then hooked it up to a rheostat and installed a digital thermometer and will wait 24 hours or so to let it all level and adjust accordingly.

Here is the entire thing all together, yeah that is a turtle in one of them



Thanks!

[deborahbroadus]

This is AWESOME, Bassbaby!!

Now those that insist on aquariums are able to have the beauty of an aquarium and the efficiency of a rack!

Nice work!!

[Richard]

Thanks!

That is what I was going for.......

[valiant]

I know this is an older topic, but is that the zoo med heat cable or did you use something else. I did a google search under heat cable reptile and all that keeps comming up is the zoo med heat cable.
any help would be appreciated,
Mike

[Jordan700]

Why go thru all of the trouble with the cabel and foil? Couldn't you just buy 11" heat tape? It would be both easier, plus when you put the cages in they would fit flush and you wouldnt see the heating unit.

[valiant]

I was mainly asking to use it under my glass tank, my tank is 90 degrees on the hot side and 65 on the cool, I was thinking of using it like this

its about the same as a UTH, I need to get a bigger one, but this would heat part of the cool side aswell? what u think?
-Mike

[Jordan700]

For a tank it would work perfect...But using it on a large scale basis like a rack or multiple tanks, it would be easier to use flexwatt.

[valiant]

thanks, when I stop by the petstore I will pick it up instead of a UTH and I think I will grab some foil tape as I dont think electrical tape will hold it. If I start to get more snakes I will purchase a rack, but for one I just want to use the tank.
thanks again,
Mike

[deborahbroadus]

[JLWilliams]

Just an idea to improve upon this. I used to buy this insulation from Home Depot, that looked like aluminum bubble wrap. Forgot what its called, but it reflects heat away it. They had this cool demonstration bag like thing next to it on the shelf, you put your hand inside, and a few seconds later you yank your hand out cuz it starts sweating! So my buddy and I bought a roll of it, and split it in half, and we then used aluminum tape to tape flex watt to it, it boosted the temps a considerable bit. but by using a rheostat we could turn the heat down and made out own UTHs. For his GTP it worked well on the back of the cage, and turned all the way up I "think" we got temps in excess of 140F which means it should work for ANY herp even monitors that need to get up into the 130s

[deborahbroadus]

[JLWilliams]

I'll do better than that! I'll give ya a link to Home Depot showing the exact product, package and price!

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@1681134344.1178294548@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccffaddklfjlegmcgelceffdfgidglm.0&MID=9876

It will be in the insulation isles. You know its the right stuff if it looks like what happens when you breed aluminum foil to bubble wrap.

[deborahbroadus]

The link didn't take me directly there, but thanks to your description I think I found it!

[Buck_99]

[deborahbroadus]

Here it is Buck! Sorry, I forgot!


Flexwatt - Aluminum Foil Tape (it's at the bottom of the page).

http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=6941251.30214*St7T54&product=Heating&user4=Flexwatt