desert vs. rainforest heater?

[PeaJay]

So, i've noticed that Exo-Terra offers 2 kinds of undertank heaters, desert and rainforest. They both say the same stuff and don't seem different in design. Am I missing something, are they really the same? Can i use this 'desert' one on the back of my tank for a day gecko setup? The stores around me only carry the desert setup and i dont want to pay shipping if i dont have to ya know?
thanks guys!

[Austin]

I Think desert gets hotter.

[JohnEDove]

Are you going to us it on glass that the geckos can actually come into contact with?
If so it is really not a good idea. Remember they are designed to go under the enclosure with substrate between the animal and the surface the heater is attached to.
From the Exo-Terra instructions; "The heater is not designed to be used without a substrate in order to prevent reptiles from being burned."

If you have created a background it should work but even the I personally always recommend using a thermostat switch with any UTH. I have read a few accounts where UTHs have heated to the point of breaking the glass they are attached to.

[Jason]

Heres a question about UTH's that will probaly only have an effect on my tank. I built my own tank out of 3/8" thick glass, how will this effect the area of effect the UTH has and i do suppose this would limit the amount of substrate that would be required to avoid a burn?. As for the diff between the Rainforest and desert i didnt even know we had a selection other then wattage till now lol

[PeaJay]

The gecko's will never come in direct contact with the wall the heater will be on, i'll be setting it up and letting it run for a month or so to make sure it will be inhabitable.
Any particular brand of thermostat/UTH recommended? I was going to go with the exo-terra but after hours of research i've found some that people claim to be superior, but i dont know if they are just applying price to quality.

[froggsong]

Originally Posted by JohnEDove

Are you going to us it on glass that the geckos can actually come into contact with?
If so it is really not a good idea. Remember they are designed to go under the enclosure with substrate between the animal and the surface the heater is attached to.
From the Exo-Terra instructions; "The heater is not designed to be used without a substrate in order to prevent reptiles from being burned."

If you have created a background it should work but even the I personally always recommend using a thermostat switch with any UTH. I have read a few accounts where UTHs have heated to the point of breaking the glass they are attached to.

I think my UTH in my BP tank may be a zoomed rather than exoterra, but it recommended on the package that the pad be used on the back or side of the terrarium rather than the bottom, unless you animal requires belly heat. It even had pictures showing the "optimal" placement, which was one of the sides. The picture showed in stuck on bare glass (now, obviously I would never do, or recommend, that).

The difference between the desert and rain forest UTHs could be the wattage, which would make one get hotter than the other. Did you check the wattage on the package? I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use the desert one regardless, especially if you have a BG made of foam (if the desert one gets hotter, that may be better since the foam will insulate and possibly keep the tank from reaching the temp you want. I don't know about that for sure though). If your room temps don't fluctuate much, you can always just get a dimmer rather than a thermostat. You have to play with it to get the right temp, but once you do, you can mark the range so you'll always know where it should be set.

[herpmad_boi]

I believe the difference is in the temp gradient. Desert usaully has a more wider gradient than the rinforest. either works the same, but it's better if you provide the rainforest for your Day gecko for what ever the difference is.

[Jason]

I went and picked up the mat suggested for use on a desert type tank and when i asked the LPS sales person what each unit did and this is what he told me was he told me.

" The rainforest unit provides the least amount of heat, probably 5 degrees increase while raising the humidity by aprox 40% while the desert units will raise the temp by 10-15 degrees and raising the humidity aprox 5%"

The Desert unit i picked up increased the temp by 12 ( 70F-82F ) under 1" of forest floor and raised the humidity by 10 ( 80-90 )

[repman01]

could you use this on the side and have it do the same effect

[Jason]

I doubt thay would work the same on the back or side of the tank. The reason the unit works thay way it does is by covering 8''x8'' of moist dirt allowing the full area of the unit to heat up and humidify the same or greater area of substrate and collom of air above it, starting from the base of the tank . On the back or side you may only get a fraction of the use out of the unit as the furthest edge of the mat will be 8'' from the substrate, your back or side would have to have an area equal to the area of the mat in a matirial that would retain the same amount of water as the substrate, even then sence heat rises the effectiveness of the mats would dramatically be reduced.