# Heat Mat Under Sand??



## pixie_bex (Jul 1, 2006)

Hey All, 

Just after a bit of advice again! lol

What do you guys think about putting a heat mat under sand?

I have one that doesnt get very hot that im thinking i could use under my babies sand to keep the temp up a bit of a night as this morning is was below what it should have been. (god bless British summers!) 

What do you think of this? Will the sand block the heat mat in any way?

I know that they dont have a heat sensor on the tummys thats why hot rocks and stuff are a bad idea but it really doesnt get very warm at all and they have about 3 inches of sand on top of it!

Advice would be grand!

Thanks
Bex
x


----------



## leila (Jul 26, 2006)

tbh with you I am not to up and this kinda thing but the man in our reptile shop adviced my fanice to do this for his snake and we didn't like the sound of it so we didn't do it!


----------



## scotty (Dec 31, 2005)

The animal could dig and get severly burnt if it lay on the heat mat..id put it under the viv..like me


----------



## Daniel (Jul 28, 2005)

hi i have my mat under nieth some vinle for my leos is this ok there seems to be a lot of vews????
dan


----------



## millar (Apr 10, 2006)

hi, for my leos, my heat mat is under the the tank at the hot end, and the temp. is perfect, i know bd need more heat so why not do the same as me but use a heat mat with a higher wattage (power)


----------



## tombraider (May 6, 2006)

if you want to use sand with a heat mat you maybe could try putting the heat mat down then putting vinyl over the bottom of the viv over the mat before you put the sand in or what ive done with one of my gecko vivs is put the heat mat under the viv with a layer of vinly between the glass bottom and the mat underneath so the mat isnt in direct contact with the glass.


----------



## 16-BIT (Apr 17, 2006)

yea heat mats shoudlnt be in direct contact with glass bottoms, ive had 2 vivs crack on bottom fron this i use cardboard between heatmat and viv and put polystyrene under the heatmat


----------



## pixie_bex (Jul 1, 2006)

Thanks for all your advice.I put the heat mat in the tankwith some lino over the top and the sand on top of that... Gives the sand a lovely warm feeling! They love it but now wont come out of the corner! May get a big one to fill the whole of the tank in the winter to help keep temps up..


----------



## SilverSteno (Feb 12, 2006)

pixie_bex said:


> Thanks for all your advice.I put the heat mat in the tankwith some lino over the top and the sand on top of that... Gives the sand a lovely warm feeling! They love it but now wont come out of the corner! May get a big one to fill the whole of the tank in the winter to help keep temps up..


That is a bad idea, you wouldn't have a temperature gradient with one heat mat on and the reps need to be able to escape from the heat.


----------

