Heat cable?

[DireWolf0384]

What size tape should I use if I am heating deli containers, aquariums and tupperware containers? Could I hook all the tape to one thermostat? Should I run one strip of tape for the deli containers and one for the aquariums and one for the tupperware?:?:8o

 

[jayefbe]

I would use 3 or 4 inch heat tape. Use 1 piece for each level of the shelf. Tape each piece along the back side of the shelf, so that it will line up along the back wall of each container. Wire the pieces of heat tape together in parallel (directions found on the earlier bean farm link I posted). Only one thermostat will be needed since all heat tape should be receiving the same amount of electricity. It should provide a decent temperature gradient from the back to the front of the shelf, and you can easily control the enclosure temp by how close you place it to the heat tape.

 

[DireWolf0384]

This is sure going to cost me a lot and my damn tax return money has not come in yet. My stupid heat lamp just killed another scorpion tonight and it does not help that the very few people who sell Flex Watt tape also rip you off too.

 

[jayefbe]

Flex watt is fairly cheap...less than 3 bucks a foot for the 3 or 4 inch tape. Thermostats can be pricey especially if you use proportional ones which I prefer (~$100-150), but hobby's are rarely cheap. You could throw them all in a large closet with an oil-filled heater. That's pretty much what I do.

 

[BeakerTheMighty]

I've used the zoo med heat cable before to heat multiple enclosures. In fact I have a long one wiring shelves of leopard geckos right now. I have mixed feelings about its suitibility for your purposes. Heat tape is overall probably better and in your case careful adjustment of a rheostat and tempgunning the enclosures might not be a bad idea. My leopard gecko enclosures are pretty much uniform (same size, same level of bedding for heat to pass through, same positionings of furnishings) so I am comfortable letting a probe in one tub control the temperature for the others, though I do check the others (tempgun), and I keep a min-max recording thermometer in there. In fact, professional grade breeder racks for a variety of herps are built specifically to use heat cable. I used a smaller cable to heat a shelf with arachnid containers on it at one point and wasn't as pleased. The whole issue is you are going to get very different temperatures based on a number of things (i.e. container size, ventilation, etc). For instance, a large Kritter-Keeper placed on a heating element will probably reach a much lower temperature than a small closed deli cups with a few ventilation holes that is placed on the same heating element. The brief period that I used heat cable for some inverts I utilized a rheostat instead of a thermostat, and carefully adjusted it with the use of a tempgun in all containers being heated. In my experience scorpions are much more sensitive to heat than cold (a scorpion that is too cold goes through a period of lethargy, inactivity, and metabolic slow-down, a scorpion that is being kept too hot may die much more quickly with less visual clues that something is wrong imo). For this reason I really don't have any supplemental heat on any of my inverts now, I just have them in my herp room during the winter where the ambient temperature stays higher.

 

[DireWolf0384]

Should I get one thermostat for the 10 gallon and 5 gallon tanks and one for the plastic deli containers?