I'm having some issues and concerns with the heat of my tank with my Leo in it. Let me give you guys some background on the housing and the situation in general.
Brought home my Leo the other day from a previous owner. The Leo, according to the previous owner, is roughly 1.5-2 years old, give or take. The tank is a 20 gallon long tank with tile for substrate. Theres a what I think is called a NatMag hide on the cool side, one of those magnetized hides that you can see in.
The heat source is a I think 160 watt red light.
Here is where my concerns and questions begin.
The previous owner left the red light on 24 hours a day and placed a standard desk light over the cage for day time light 12hrs on 12hrs off. The red light was just a constant source of heat, I imagine it got incredibly warm inside when they had the red and day light on. When I brought it home I put the red light on a 12/12 timing rotation, but the first night I noticed that the warm side dropped to like 70 degrees incredibly fast. I keep my apartment at around 75 and run a fan at night. I didnt think this would be an acceptable temperature, especially considering it could have dropped more. The temp change happened in only maybe 20 minutes. So for about three days he has just had his red light on the entire day, around the clock. During the day I keep my ceiling light on to simulate day light. Between my window blinds being open, my ceiling light, and the red light he's pretty set in the day time.
Tonight I was watching a movie in my room with the door closed and personally felt cool so I didnt have the fan on. I peered down at the warm side thermomoter and saw that it was at 90 degrees and that the cool side was at 80. Which I had personally never noticed before, but its certainly possible that it had reached or surpassed that temperature before. I'm not certain. I was worried that this would be too hot so I decided to turn the red light off for a little while to let the temp drop. I went to the bathroom and about a minute afterwards when I returned I could tell by the light of my tv that he had already come out of his hide and was roaming around, it was now pretty dark in his tank, I assumed his nocturnal instincts were kicking in.
I was hoping to maintain 85 degrees in the warm side, or there about, throughout the day. But it appears that a) the red light will far surpass that temperature and b) that he really wants it off at night so he can roam around. It's also pretty hard for me to sleep with the red light on. I'm not positive how far the temp drops in the evening without the light on. I'm going to turn my fan on to simulate my normal preferences and periodically check the temp gage to see.
So in light of all this, I was thinking of getting one of the under tank heat pads. I'm not immedietely familiar with the sizes, wattages, and such so I was wondering if a) this was a suggested route and b) which size I should get for a 20 gallon tank. Also...I've got my tank on the floor. I have carpet. Can I place the pad between the tank and the carpet and not run risk of fire? Or could I even place the tank underneath the tile in the tank if at all possible?
Is there something else I should consider? Or I'm also curious if I should even worry. I could just set the light to run a 12/12 cycle and just have anything on in the evening. I suppose I'll have a better idea if thats possible after I watch the temperature tonight.
I've really rambled on here and I appreciate all of your time if you've read this far. Any help will be greatly appreciated as always.
***I started writing this at around 1:50am. When I finished at 2:05am the temperature on the warm side had dropped from 90 to 80 degrees. I'll post later when I see how much more it has changed.
Brought home my Leo the other day from a previous owner. The Leo, according to the previous owner, is roughly 1.5-2 years old, give or take. The tank is a 20 gallon long tank with tile for substrate. Theres a what I think is called a NatMag hide on the cool side, one of those magnetized hides that you can see in.
The heat source is a I think 160 watt red light.
Here is where my concerns and questions begin.
The previous owner left the red light on 24 hours a day and placed a standard desk light over the cage for day time light 12hrs on 12hrs off. The red light was just a constant source of heat, I imagine it got incredibly warm inside when they had the red and day light on. When I brought it home I put the red light on a 12/12 timing rotation, but the first night I noticed that the warm side dropped to like 70 degrees incredibly fast. I keep my apartment at around 75 and run a fan at night. I didnt think this would be an acceptable temperature, especially considering it could have dropped more. The temp change happened in only maybe 20 minutes. So for about three days he has just had his red light on the entire day, around the clock. During the day I keep my ceiling light on to simulate day light. Between my window blinds being open, my ceiling light, and the red light he's pretty set in the day time.
Tonight I was watching a movie in my room with the door closed and personally felt cool so I didnt have the fan on. I peered down at the warm side thermomoter and saw that it was at 90 degrees and that the cool side was at 80. Which I had personally never noticed before, but its certainly possible that it had reached or surpassed that temperature before. I'm not certain. I was worried that this would be too hot so I decided to turn the red light off for a little while to let the temp drop. I went to the bathroom and about a minute afterwards when I returned I could tell by the light of my tv that he had already come out of his hide and was roaming around, it was now pretty dark in his tank, I assumed his nocturnal instincts were kicking in.
I was hoping to maintain 85 degrees in the warm side, or there about, throughout the day. But it appears that a) the red light will far surpass that temperature and b) that he really wants it off at night so he can roam around. It's also pretty hard for me to sleep with the red light on. I'm not positive how far the temp drops in the evening without the light on. I'm going to turn my fan on to simulate my normal preferences and periodically check the temp gage to see.
So in light of all this, I was thinking of getting one of the under tank heat pads. I'm not immedietely familiar with the sizes, wattages, and such so I was wondering if a) this was a suggested route and b) which size I should get for a 20 gallon tank. Also...I've got my tank on the floor. I have carpet. Can I place the pad between the tank and the carpet and not run risk of fire? Or could I even place the tank underneath the tile in the tank if at all possible?
Is there something else I should consider? Or I'm also curious if I should even worry. I could just set the light to run a 12/12 cycle and just have anything on in the evening. I suppose I'll have a better idea if thats possible after I watch the temperature tonight.
I've really rambled on here and I appreciate all of your time if you've read this far. Any help will be greatly appreciated as always.
***I started writing this at around 1:50am. When I finished at 2:05am the temperature on the warm side had dropped from 90 to 80 degrees. I'll post later when I see how much more it has changed.
