Enclosure Temperature ...need help bigtime!!

[Ryan Simons]

I am having serious problems with the temperature of my enclosures, i am struggling to keep them above 14c at night! I own a adult g.rosea and OBT and a juvi pokie and b.smithi, so all need the warm temp!

the problem is, my room is a poorly made extension and lacks insulation. it drops as low as 4c in my room in the winter if i turn my heater off, but even with that thing going full blast, it never gets above 18~20c and it absolutely canes the electricity!

So, leaving this thing going has, as you could imagine -caused a lot of grief with me and my parents!!

I have a large heat mat which really doesn't do much at all. Its underneath all of there enclosures so they all get a corner of it each, and they are all digging at the warm end to get near the heat! I know digging is usually a sign of them getting away from the 'Suns' heat, but if i turn there enclosures around 180 so the other end is now on the heat mat, they will move ends and dig again.

Is there any heaters or what not that i can use specifically to keep them warm? something that will be safe to leave switched on while im out?

Hope someone has a solution as im out of ideas!!

many thanks

[Eleanor]

Your heat mats won't raise the ambient temperature in the tanks, and if the heat mat is below the tank the substrate will essentially block it completely and make it much less effective at warming the tank, but potentially too hot on the bottom of the tank (unless you only have a centimeter or so of substrate).

I would suggest putting the heat mat on the side of the tank, and perhaps getting more heat mats so that you can cover two sides of the tank at right angles, so there's a heat gradient from one corner next to both heat mats, to the opposite corner where there is no heat mats. Also get some polystyrene sheeting from a DIY centre (bubble wrap also works), cut them to size and tape them around two sides of the tank outside of the heat mats, and a third side and part of the lid as well maybe but leaving the ventilation free, so the tank is well insulated.

I know this works because I once left my spiders like this (in a rented house in Dublin) for two weeks over Christmas, only to come back to find that my landlady had got in a panic about mould and left the window wide open for the two weeks! But the spiders were fine and toasty.

[wayne balcombe]

hi ryan,

from the way your room is set up it sounds like you'd be better off with some sort of insulated cabinet to put your tanks in.

having the heat matt on the bottom of the tanks is not the most effective way to heat them as the heat will not travel through substrate greater than a depth of about 2 inches and most species require alot more depth than that, the best thing to do would be to mount the heat matts on the back or sides of the tanks and cover with a polystyrene sheet to aid insulation. another handy instrument would be a thermostat to regulate the temperature to an acceptable level.

if its unrealistic to fit heat matts to all the tanks then the cabinet would be a better option, you could set up heating cable inside or have a low wattage ceramic heating bulb set up in there, you will still need the thermostat to regulate it though and avoid having tanks too close to the ceramic heater.

[Paul Berry]

Here is an example. I haven't been keeping spiders very long, so i am not an expert. I have kept snakes in the past and I am an electrical engineer so I have had a bit of experience of experimenting with temps and enclosures. As the other posters have already stated, insulate rear of heat mat as shown in photo. Place on wall, don't double insulate by having substrate one side and insulation the other. The way I keep the temp up is I chose an enclosure just the right size for the spider, less volume of air to control. Low ventilation to maintain humidity, small holes either end. I change the air buy removing lid regular for a few minutes each day to prevent stagnation. I also drop a small temp strip in from time to time to check floor temperature in different places. The photo shows the cool side of the tank. The heat mat side is around 80 deg. Spider often sits in front of burrow. Near heat mat. Enclosure is 8X6X6, 2 inches of substrate, 4X5 5watt heat mat. Seems to work for my B. Albopilosa 5cm leg span