Heating??

[Andrew Murdoch]

I use heat mats, I have habistat mats as well as exo-terra rainforrest mats. I put the exo-terra one on the side of my tank and was plugged in and ready to go. There feels like, to me anyway, hardly any heat coming off of it!! I placed a polystyrene mat on the back of it and there still feels like there is very little heat coming from it!! As for my habistat mats, I feel they are okay. Am I right in saying that if I got a thermostat there would be more heat produced from the heat mats?? I am only inquiring about this after reading my last post?

[Peter Roach]

Fitting a thermostat will not raise the temperature, it will only keep it at a set temp or lower it. Even though the mat doesnt feel that warm, the temperature can be quite high. The best thing to get is a digital thermometer (the worst is a dial type thermometer) to check the actual ambient temperature rather than just feeling the mat or glass of the exo-terra. I have just put my hand on one of my heatmats which felt 'slightly' warm but when checked by an digital infrared thermometer it was a suprising 86F.

[Nicola Dolby]

please put those heat mats on a thermostat. roast spid is only nice if your a local in Laos, apparently. Also the heat can seem small but it will be constant and the temperature of the enclosure will rise steadily. Hope this helps.

[jason holland]

ok... just a quicky... how long was ur mat turned on for before you had a look to see how warm it was? they actually take a while to fully heat up to there max. mine took a good few hours before it was hot.. warm.. whatever you want to call it. so if youve only had it on for a few mins etc. try it again, but leave it for say 2 hours. or turn it on b4 you go to work/school/college etc, then when u get back. check the mat and see how warm or hot etc. it is then. you shold notic a difference... well thats wot i knowticed with mine anyway. hope that helps if you havn't tried that.

[Andrew Ferguson]

Just to add what the others have said.

A thermostat only regulates the heat and prevents it going over a preset temperature. That applies to home heating systems, car engines and even in hair dryers.

Maybe consider putting your tarantulas in the warmest room of the house. Normally this is the one that gets most sunlight during the day. It doesn't need to be bright either. My living room stays about 22-25 deg C (sorry, I don't understand deg F) throughout the day and we have blinds drawn all day long.

Hope my £0.02 worth helps.

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi,
I understand what you're saying but with a thermostat you don't have to keep checking the temperature. Also if you shop around they needn't be expensive. as long as it has a sensor and can connect to the heat source (mat) it will be fine. At the end of the day its down to personal choice but I'd always recommend them. good luck, whatever you decide.

[Andrew Ferguson]

Today I bought one as it turned out my tarantula cage wasn't as warm as I first thought oops

The lady in the shop said that the mats can get quite warm but if you have a thick layer of substrate, all the heat may not get through. Also, as an alternative to a thermostat, she advised possibly using a timed switch. I'm going to play it by ear and see how I get on just keeping half the cage over the heat mat.

[jason holland]

over??? dont have the heat mat under the substrate(or the tank). have it on the back of the tank. thats prob why you dont feel the heat in the tank

[Andrew Ferguson]

If the cage is over the heat mat, that would mean the heat mat is under the substrate / tank.

I only bought the mat today and can already see the benefits. Raised temperature (I also bought a thermometer too!) and Smiffy seems to be more active too. Bring on that moult

[Rich.Harrington]

I can only guess that the shop you got your equipment from don't specialise with inverts let alone t's. The problems you get with putting a heat mat below the tank is the heat source is at the bottom, this causes issues when the T gets too hot for the following reason. When a T is too warm it will venture downwards into its burrow (especially true for ground dwellers) this is a natural instinct as in the wild the further you dig the further from the sun you are, ergo less heat.

So by having a mat at the bottom your actually forcing the spider into harm, it gets too hot so digs down to cool off. Only to find its getting warmer, and so digs more until the bottom is reached. At this point the spider is sitting ontop of the mat, but won't move as instinct tells it to head south.

Ideally a heat source should come from above, (if your obsessed about a natural enviroment) but putting the mat on the back of the tank will serve nicely. It allows a gradient temperature that the spider can move about in to regulate itself.

Not meaning to preach or such, but figured it might help to give you a reason behind the stories about why you should or shouldn't put mats in places.

The exception to the rule though does come with aboreals, since they like tree you can get away with a bottom mat, however it does need watching, should the spider start acting terrestrial then obviously moving the mat is essential.

[Andrew Ferguson]

Cheers Richard. Actually the mat had packaging that was aimed at spider owners and the instructions supplied gave directions for all sides, in an out of the tank. Obviousley they give all ways depending on whether its a tarantula, lizard or some other creature.

Now if you imagine a rectangular setup. My juvenile is in a burrow at the bottom left corner and the substrate there is quite deep. About 2". The bottom right corner is about an inch. The same applies for the top two corners. Now I have placed the heat mat to heat the top corners so the bottom two are still somewhat cooler. I'll be keeping an extra keen eye on my setup at the moment. It will be switched off over night to recreate cooler night time temperatures.
I'll post pictures tomorrow when I get the chance as I feel my explantion may not be getting across easily.

[Tom Forman]

I'm of the opinion placing the heatmat under half the tank is ok in some situations.
If the substrate is only 5 cm the heat can pass it fine, anything thicker and the heat losses will be too big.
As long as one side of the tank is cool, your spider will be able to regulate it's heat.

They are not that stupid that they would burrow south irrespective of where the heat is coming from. They can sense heat better than they seem to be able to see.

But the general consensus of most Tarantula keepers is to place the mat at the back of the tank. It is the safer option out of the two.

Glad you have got a more active T Andrew. Me and Stan Schultz are in a bit of disagreement on the heating of spiderlings but even Colin mentioned the fast growth rate of my slings, the warmer you keep your slings, the more active they are and faster they grow. Ts are so slow growers as it is, no reason to make it slower :P

[Peter Lacey]

2" is not what I'd call deep substrate. Most of mine are on 3-4" but my klugi is on up to 7". They all seem to get near or on the bottom of their enclosures.
Whilst the heat measured by your hand may not amount to much give it a day or two and feel the glass and the substrate, they're likely to get hot if the heat can't escape.
Providing more heat will speed up the growth of the slings but you'll need to be aware it will dry EVERYTHING out quicker too! I found placing the water bowl near the heat source and overfilling helped humidity.
I used a heatmat for my klugi and it was on a timerswitch. I had it on for a couple of hrs then off for half and fluctuated this to simulate the temperatures of the day and night. A HeatStat would be easier but certainly not cheaper.
I'd say the most important thing would be to get an accurate reading of temperatures within your enclosure. Measuring temperature is fairly easy, measuring stress is probably impossible!

[Andrew Ferguson]

Peter, Tom thanks for the replies. All advice and criticism (good or bad) is a good thing to a newby like myself. One tends to read so many different things that you can become bogged down and overloaded with information. So I've decided to err on the side of caution and placed the heat mat on the back of the cage. This means the back of the cage gets the heat and the front stays a bit cooler. Smiffy is still showing more activity than (s)he was doing before.
Constant monitoring should hopefully help the tarantula and me stay happy.

[Peter Lacey]

oh no! you said "tarantula and me stay happy", you'll have the tarantula police after you now, quick run while you still have the chance