heat mat

alrighty then, i belive i've got everything i need for my viv except the heater. i know kel said the trex cobra heaters are good but the one place that i have found that sells them are out of stock for the size i need. on a few other sites they have Fluker's heat mats and they look very close to the trex cobra have any of you used these? and if so are they just as good as the trex?

I use zoomed but I have to be honest that is almost the only brand that we can find here. I have not had any issues with their heat mats.

Flukers are over priced hoenstly and lack the watage and performance reliability that cobra mats do. If you order one on line from one of the sites I gave you it would bet you with in 4 days if you placed the order before 2:30.

I, too, use zoomed. I've looked at Flukers before, and I hear from a great many people they are reputable, but the mat that I saw just looked...cheesy. :C

thanks guys i've looked at zoomed and they have a 12x8 mat that would be exactly 1/3 of my tank if i got that one.

Kermit wrote:Flukers are over priced hoenstly and lack the watage and performance reliability that cobra mats do. If you order one on line from one of the sites I gave you it would bet you with in 4 days if you placed the order before 2:30.

so the ultratherm heaters are the samething as the trex cobra? and would the 11x6 be big enough for my tank? that would only cover 1/4 of my tank

Sorry I dont know much about your brands of heat mat.
I use a pro-rep one for my viv, and a komodo one for my tank

The size of the mat isn't always as important as the attage depending on your substrait. If you're using a thicker or more insulating substrait you want higher wattage. Thinner substrait you can forgoe wattage for a larger warm area. A cobra 6x11 7 watt is what I use with high end vinyl tiles and I get to 106 with out lights easy. Cobra is made by both ultratherm, which usually is a higher wattage mat for the same size. Their 6x11 is a 12 watt mat. And Trex which has the 6x11 in a 7 watt mat (which is the one I use). The standard rule is should cover no more than 1/3rd of the floor space so yes 6x11 will be perfect on a 20 long tank.

Hope this cleared some of the confusion.

Kermit wrote:The size of the mat isn't always as important as the attage depending on your substrait. If you're using a thicker or more insulating substrait you want higher wattage. Thinner substrait you can forgoe wattage for a larger warm area. A cobra 6x11 7 watt is what I use with high end vinyl tiles and I get to 106 with out lights easy. Cobra is made by both ultratherm, which usually is a higher wattage mat for the same size. Their 6x11 is a 12 watt mat. And Trex which has the 6x11 in a 7 watt mat (which is the one I use). The standard rule is should cover no more than 1/3rd of the floor space so yes 6x11 will be perfect on a 20 long tank.

Hope this cleared some of the confusion.

thanks , and my tank isn't 20 long its a 20 high 12x24x16. i am making another level so my gecko will have more floor space.

I was about to say, "Well, being not arboreal...." but the second level is a wonderful idea . I don't know really whether they'd use it; unless you use bulbs and heat mat for heating. Who knows, all leo's are different.

I look forward to a DIY 2nd Level in a 20 tall though.

im not making a whole other level, im just using an L shaped tile and raising it up a few inches to make a bit more room for him to walk around. plus it'll double as another hide. i'll post pictures of it when its all put together. i think its gonna look pretty cool

My viv also has a second level. You can see pix of it in the show off your tank thread.

well i just went out and bought a zoomed 8x6 8 watt heatmat. it heated up the tiles with in 20 mins and its now steady at 90 degrees F. im hoping the 8x6 mat is big enough, i think i should be. now all i gatta do is put everything together than get my leo

Yeah, since you're on ceramic tile you won't have to worry as much about whether or not it's warm. The tiles will absorb the heat and retain it perfectly.

Just if I haven't mentioned it, ceramic doesn't absorb heat... its an insulator not a conductor.

Hopefully 6x8 will be big enough. If it were me I would have been more comfortable going to the next size up since I don't have much faith in zoomed. They work fine for some... maybe I just have bad luck with them.

it seems to be working wonderfully, the temp is staying around 90. and the 6x8 seems almost perfect the way my tank is set up. i'll take some pictures tomorrow .

I use pro-rep heat mats in both my viv's but im starting to doubt them, on one the temperature is less than stable i thought it was down to position on sensors / thermostat setting at first but it can spike to 101 degrees from time to time. plenty of usefull info in this thread i think i might just change my mats to something a bit more reliable