# How do you heat your exoterra with canopies?



## FarleyMarley

Ive been hunting and searching for threads on this and have seem to have come to a bit of a dead end. How do you heat your exoterras with canopies, especially the smaller ones?

The current viv I have for our new crestie is a 12" x 12" x 18" anything bigger than this at the moment and it would take him all year to find the food lol. It has a canopy on it with one bulb holder which currently has a energy saving uv 5% bulb in it. There seem to be very few bulbs that fit into this canopy, however I dont really want to 'bin' it.

The temp in my bedroom isnt particularly stable, I have the window open sometimes for the tumbledryer, I have the hairdryer on and in the winter the heating is on very low or not at all at night so I do need to regulate the heat somehow.

At the moment I have a heat mat attached to the outside (at the bottom of the left hand side) of the viv which is on a heater thermostat and the probe is just about a cm away on the inside of the glass. It doesnt appear to be doing very much to the temp of the viv which is at about 70 - 74ish (have ordered new digital thermometer to get better accuracy). Not sure it is actually doing much tbh it covers a third of the side of the viv.

I feel that it is very important to get some sort of gradient, however you cannot put a ceramic bulb in the hood or it will melt, and in this size viv you cannot put an extra heat bulb ontop of the rest of the mesh as it just wont fit and I would be worried about melting it.

So what do you do??? 

Im getting myself thinking that a heat mat is actually the only way to heat these little vivs and you cant get a gradient at all?


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## BenjaminBoaz

the hoods are designed for the 15 and 25 watt uv bulbs exo make and also for the lower watt mon and sun glow bulbs, not for heating. Exo do a sticky heat pad designed to go either under the tank or on the side. they come in desert and rainforest mats but i dont know much more about them as i have not used them. I have mine in my reptile room so the lowest temp is 26c the lights warm them up during the day. The ones in the other room are placed on habistat heat strips and the thermostat lead goes inside to the bottom. they can be stuck to the side if required but check out the exo terra website as it can give you more information.


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## beaniebopps

I;ve got a thread going on at the minute with exactly the same problem and I have the same size exo terra. I'm going to add a ceramic beside the canopy, the mesh won't melt as on the exo terra website it shows heat bulbs and even MVB bulbs sitting next to the mesh :2thumb:


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## BenjaminBoaz

you just need to play about with the temps and the prob placement and make sure your happy before you add the snake.


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## KurtH

I have the 45 x 45 x 60 and the canopy has room for 2 bulbs. 1 bulb being the UV and I have to use a SUNGLO 25W bulb for the heat.
If you do use a heat mat, don't get the Exo Terra Rainforest one, it doesn't even warm anything up. I used the Exo Terra Desert mat, which nicely warms the substrate from the outside.


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## beaniebopps

KurtH said:


> I have the 45 x 45 x 60 and the canopy has room for 2 bulbs. 1 bulb being the UV and I have to use a SUNGLO 25W bulb for the heat.
> If you do use a heat mat, don't get the Exo Terra Rainforest one, it doesn't even warm anything up. I used the Exo Terra Desert mat, which nicely warms the substrate from the outside.


Unfortunately, like in my case, a heat mat can't be used because the substrate is too thick and when mounted on the side it doesn't do much for the temperatures - and can't be placed inside because of the high humidity.


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## BenjaminBoaz

You could buy another hood and use moon glow bulbs in one at night and day glow bulbs in the other during the day. Pulg them on timers. The tanks take two hoods.
Habistat and micro climate mats are sealed and although must not be used in water are ok to use in humid vivs. A poly tile between the glass and matt helps keep heat in the viv. Use some gaffa tape to stick it in place against the back wall. They don't warm the air space but warm objects in the tank


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## ch4dg

i have the canopy on one side then cover the other with perspex


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## BenjaminBoaz

The lids aren't really designed for heating but for low watt moon bulbs for suppying visual light at night for viewing and day light bulbs for daytime. Or to use the uv bulbs for supplying uv. As both give out some heat use two canopies one for day one for night. Or use a mat and stat. Or a bulb and holder with a red bulb or a ceramic bulb. Make sure you use the correct stat. I can't do any more than that. Plenty of options. If your still in doubt please go to your local reptile shop who can show you the options and methods I'm suggesting otherwise just anore my offer of help and go keep a hamster instead.


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## FarleyMarley

animalstory said:


> The lids aren't really designed for heating but for low watt moon bulbs for suppying visual light at night for viewing and day light bulbs for daytime. Or to use the uv bulbs for supplying uv. As both give out some heat use two canopies one for day one for night. Or use a mat and stat. Or a bulb and holder with a red bulb or a ceramic bulb. Make sure you use the correct stat. I can't do any more than that. Plenty of options. If your still in doubt please go to your local reptile shop who can show you the options and methods I'm suggesting otherwise just anore my offer of help and go keep a hamster instead.


Thank you for your help, Im not ignoring it, and we already have hamsters :lol2: for some reason Im not getting email notifications so I didnt know many people had replied. What Ive done is moved the canopy to the front of the tank, that way the back of the tank which has bark and plants and will be cooler, the front of the tank will then be warmer but the heat doesnt get to the bottom and then as I have a heatmat for back up that side will also be warmer should I need it to be. Ive ordered a better thermometer so I can track temps a bit better. So top back is cooler that top front, and side left bottom is warmer than side right bottom so I have my heat gradient.


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## spideysare

Hi
I have a 45 exo cube and like you have a heat mat a rainforest one( somepeople think they arent good) i also have 2 blue night bulbs and a day bulb for those nippy days..So wil be interesting to hear how your systme goes along as it sounds similar to mine.

With so many different views of how best to set up your exxo Im constantly worried.Especially as Fudge( CG) is still pretty shy and I havent seem him much.Fingers crossed thoguh all will be fine!!
:2thumb:


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## BenjaminBoaz

FarleyMarley said:


> Thank you for your help, Im not ignoring it, and we already have hamsters :lol2: for some reason Im not getting email notifications so I didnt know many people had replied. What Ive done is moved the canopy to the front of the tank, that way the back of the tank which has bark and plants and will be cooler, the front of the tank will then be warmer but the heat doesnt get to the bottom and then as I have a heatmat for back up that side will also be warmer should I need it to be. Ive ordered a better thermometer so I can track temps a bit better. So top back is cooler that top front, and side left bottom is warmer than side right bottom so I have my heat gradient.


Sound good to me. Leave mat on constant as snake isn't lying on mat it will help keep enclosure warm.


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