Pump Problems and Heating Issues

[beckdg]

seriously? i'm just saying use your best judgement. you would know the equipment you have much better than i do.

i look at it like putting a lamp under your cabinet. for example that's where my hermies are. they have one of those custom small bulb incandescent desk lights over their setup. the bulb is 40 watts and heats up the bottom of the cabinet pretty good. over time as the wood gets dry this might be a fire hazard so better safe than sorry.

i know you've complained about uth's not doing much in the past. if your 25 watter is one of those then i'd try that one first. however, if it's a desert mat and gets pretty hot you might want to protect the glass. it's all about putting the principles into play safely using your best judgement. nothing too hard... just a smooth temp gradient.

on the note of replacing the door insulation... if you don't have to move the setup for maintenance you won't have to replace it since it won't be ripped off the bottom from moving it.

so all that extra work really depends on what you're working with and how you utilize it. heck if you have a lamp dimmer you could always hook that up and start slow until you get your temps... that should be a lot safer also.

just can't have people thinking they can slap heat anywhere without some forethought. i think you can handle it froggy. well, at least the application of the theory... don't know how bad your back is. if you could get it up to put feet or dense foam tape under it i'd think (once again, not sure what bends and twists aren't possible for you atm) hanging it off the side of the counter for a couple minutes and putting tape under it wouldn't be too hard... idk. it doesn't have to look pretty though.

at any rate, did you get this thing somewhat finished last night? sorry, i had to go to bed. as it was i was staying up just for you... awww, i know, don't get too mushy on me, lol.

[froggsong]

heh... I'm still thinking about it. I really like the idea of heat the water that way so I don't burn any lizards or frogs that might decide to sit on the heater!

Guess why that heat mat in th e past wasn't doing anything... It was only 7 watts!!! No wonder it wasn't warming at all... I know it was passing electricity through it though, I shocked myself pretty badly on it at one point before I cut the cord off and tossed the mat. The ones I have now are grow mats for plants, so not as much worry about them being crap like the ones from the pet stores (way cheaper too, I ended up with two in the first little greenhouse kit I bought, so they came out to $15 a piece, and the 25W one was $25, they are all just a little bigger than the footprint of a ten gallon). They are meant to be under a pan of water, but it's plastic, not glass, so I was worried that it might break the glass, but wasn't sure if it was the same risk without the pad contacting the glass. My roach bin sits atop one of the 15W mats, and it get's the temps just right without melting the plastic or anything.

I might give this a try, but I don't think it's something I should do by myself... The tank is really really heavy (over 100lbs of stuff in it I'm not willing to remove, plus the weight of the tank itself!), and without someone to help me lift it evenly, I'm afraid I break either the tank or the heater trying to get it under there... I really shouldn't have tried to put in on the counter alone, and if the counter hadn't been right beside it, I wouldn't have tried. I was very close to dropping the whole thing a few times, but I was able to use leverage to lift it and get it up there. BUT, on the bright side, it gives me more time to plan the implementation. For example, I was thinking that instead of using stick on feet or strips of foam to raise it and seal it off, I could make something out of a piece of pink insulating foam to raise and seal it. I could get a 2" thick piece and cut it just a bit bigger than the tank frame, then remove the center of the foam piece (so it looks like a picture frame), carve a channel for the tank frame to rest in and a notch for the power cord and voila!, a sturdier, easier to install and maintain version of what I'd be doing with the foam tape. This would also allow me to create a deeper pocket of air and minimize the risk of contact should the mat curl at the edges.

The only problem with hanging it off the edge is that the side I need to put in on isn't on the edge, lol...

I DO have a lamp dimmer I was already planning to use, that way I can dial the temps if they aren't where I want them.

I do appreciate your help, don't think I kept you up for nothing, ok? I can see how the idea should work, and you showed me I should wait until I have someone to help me move it. I will be sure to post about it when I get it done.

Of course, if my hubby refuses to help, I might just have to go buy another heater...

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I haven't gotten that filter media rigged up around the intake pipe yet, but this morning it's still running at the same speed it was last night, so hopefully that problem is fixed for now.

[beckdg]

i had a feeling i was posting for a reason, lol.

one thing... you can always tape the corners of the mat down to reduce curling too. i wouldn't be too worried about the very edge either... there's usually no heating element there.

[froggsong]

What if I were to put it in a case like they do for people heating pads? That would protect if from possibly scorching the counter and disperse the heat if it happens to come in contact with the glass.

[beckdg]

what like a pillow case type deal? i might not try that, idk.

[froggsong]

no, like a case for a heating pad... I'm sure I have an old case lying around here somewhere...

[froggsong]

SO, I built a box out of filter media and covered it with a stocking, and the flow is MUCH (read: too much) better. I had to figure out how to reduce the flow with what I had on hand, so I stuffed fiter media in the outflow pipe and topped it off with a polishing sponge, then wedged a skimmer cap into the pipe (because it was just pushing the media out without something to hold it in place). Now, this works very well, and I get the perfect amount of flow, but the polishing sponge has to be cleaned every day atm until the water is cleaner (and I get too much flow without it). So, other than being slightly inconvenient, this fixed the problem perfectly.

As for heating, I decided to see if the heater I used to use on the fish tank was actually bad, or maybe it was just in a bad plug previously or something. I plugged it in and it worked really well, so I'll just use that for now. I currently have the smaller one in as well to work backup, but I'll be taking that out today when I get Riku's QT tank done.


I moved these posts to a new thread so that the sticky thread didn't get junked up. I'll be posting new pics to it soon, now that it has new inhabitants.

[beckdg]

sounds good froggy. sometimes we have to get creative, lol. you should see how i have my fan in my terrarium hooked up.