Heating the terrarium!?

[fscorpion]

As the winter is approaching and the temperatures are already considerably falling under 20C I will have to find a way to keep my scorpions warm...
Now, I still didn't figure what to use as a heater. My room temperatures during winter won't be surely above 22C and I think that is probably not nearly enough for Parabuthus and Heterometrus species (this will be the first winter that I keep scorpions-I only had over wintering species)...
What should I use, a heat pad or a infrared light bulb? Now, the first is very hard to find in my country, lets say impossible, I can only find those heaters for fish, but I guess they have to be kept under water. The latter are easy to find, but have a disgusting red light, I will have to place them on my own (and I am not an electrician) and I have no idea how many W to use...
What do you suggest me? Is there any other solution I can use?
Thanks
Fscorpio

 

[TheNothing]

i am a fan of heat lamps (40w tend to heat a 10g sized tank sufficently). If kept in a small area, that 40w lamp can even heat both tanks well.

It really is kinda trial and error on these types of things though...

 

[Empi]

There is a way to use a fish tank heater that works pretty damn good. I did it for a while with my herps and baby cockatiels. Take two critter keepers of equal size and suction the heater to the bottom of one and fill it about 1/4 of the way up with water. Then you just push the emty critter keeper inside of it. Just set the heater to the disired temp and plug it in. It is more expensive to doo it like that as opposed to a light but it makes it really easy to keep the temp the same all the time. Just an idea...

 

[fscorpion]

There is a way to use a fish tank heater that works pretty damn good. I did it for a while with my herps and baby cockatiels. Take two critter keepers of equal size and suction the heater to the bottom of one and fill it about 1/4 of the way up with water. Then you just push the emty critter keeper inside of it. Just set the heater to the disired temp and plug it in. It is more expensive to doo it like that as opposed to a light but it makes it really easy to keep the temp the same all the time. Just an idea...

Did you ever actually try this? I had also the same idea, but I think that won't be a good solution for desert species like Parabuthus...

 

[Empi]

I have done it like I said with herps and baby Cockatiels but I have not done it with scorps yet. It would not be any good for species that like it really hot because most fish tank heaters only go up too 82-85*F. But some heaters can be made to go warmer with a little of tweeking of the temp. control switch. I would say that with a desert species it would probly work ok if you could get it warm enough.

 

[fscorpion]

I have done it like I said with herps and baby Cockatiels but I have not done it with scorps yet. It would not be any good for species that like it really hot because most fish tank heaters only go up too 82-85*F. But some heaters can be made to go warmer with a little of tweeking of the temp. control switch. I would say that with a desert species it would probly work ok if you could get it warm enough.

Well, I was concerned about the humidity that such an enclosure would have. That would be probably too much for a desert scorpion, I think you can hardly prevent the moisture from the evaporating hot water to enter in your scorpion tank.
What do you use for heating? How much those heat pads costs anyway???
Fscorpio

 

[Empi]

Well the humidity would not be changed at all from this kind of heat. None of that evaporating water will enter the encloser. I use lights on my enclosers. All my emps get red lights and the other guys get low wattage soft white bulbs. I do have a heat pad on one of my emp enclosers but all it does is keep the substrate from getting too cold at night. Night heating is something that you will probly need that I don't. My animal room is a constent 75*f. So I don't have any heating at night when the lights go off. Heat pads may be a good way to go for you. The thing i have noticed about heat pads though is they really don't put off very much heat and don't really keep the enclosers that much warmer than they are without them. And they cost about $17 a pad. Lights are the cheapest way to go and the most effective. But they don't help you at night.