Another Heat Cable question

[ulkal]

Hi, sorry for bugging you with my enclosure problems ,felt, every 3 hours.

my CHE just fell out of the lamp and on the humid hide (minutes after
I put them out in the sun, so nothing happened, thank god)I had the lid open while cleaning and the lamp clamped to the edge. Normally it rests on wire thats covering a hole i cut in the lid. When I picked up the lamp sparks flew in my face. So both are unusable now. I think my mistake was using only the 8,5 inch lamps that are too small, as someone pointed out in my other thread.

Long story short: I am about to hit the pet store for a heat cable+thermostat and duct tape. My tortoises live in a rubbermaid 54 gallon plastic storage box, so I have set up questions:
Option 1: wrap the heat cable around the box
Option 2: put the heat cable inside along the walls
Option 3: put the heat cable under the substrate

I searched the forum, but most people seem to use heat cables with glass tanks.

Thanks a lot for your help again and a good friday to everyone.

 

[abclements]

I use mine in the substrate. My redfoot like to dig down and sit on top of it. Plus it does a great job of creating humidity.

 

[EKLC]

How big are your tortoises? I have a hard time with heat cable, it makes some patches of the soil 90 degrees, and others barely get warmed. Also, it takes awhile to warm damper soil. I string mine along the roof of the hide in which my sulcata sleeps (but well away from his reach). Other heat cables might be more powerful, but then you'd definitely want to use a thermostat to regulate it.

 

[Jd3]

The instructions for most cables clearly say to not bury in the substrate.

 

[ulkal]

How big are your tortoises? I have a hard time with heat cable, it makes some patches of the soil 90 degrees, and others barely get warmed. Also, it takes awhile to warm damper soil. I string mine along the roof of the hide in which my sulcata sleeps (but well away from his reach). Other heat cables might be more powerful, but then you'd definitely want to use a thermostat to regulate it.

My tortoises are 3 and 3,5 inches. What heat cable do you have? You gave me an idea:Maybe I try to attach it to the inside of the lid. I feel kind of umcomfortable burying it in substrate, I am a non-stop-worrier.
Opinions?
abclements, what do you use for an enclosure?

Thanks for the replies so far.

 

[Zamric]

I use common yard dirt as a substrate so I dont worry about my cable, that is buried, setting fire to anything. My little one dont dig and I have it buried under thier Humid hide so when I saturate their hide, it produces maximum amout of humidity. Thier hide is completly open but has silk vines hanging from the top in dence layers to hold humidity and act as a hide.

 

[Jd3]

I use them under several glass cages. They can get pretty hot on surface.

I use digital thermostats from hydroponic setups. They're much cheaper and nicer than the pet store ones

 

[lynnedit]

Go to this link and go to post #20 for into and post #23 to click on Madkins007 link to Flicker photos.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-18333-page-2.html

You can use water proof cable under substrate, on the floor of your enclosure; wood or plastic. They key is a good thermostat with a probe that is positioned near (but not touching) the cable to regulate the temps.
You can duct tape it to the floor of the enclosure, or zip tie it to galvanized wire or pieces of plastic fencing and flip this over.
Add substrate on top.

There are waterproof (not just water resistant) heat cables;
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Flexible-Heat-Ropes. I use these and they are excellent.
Hydor cables are good too, as I understand.
http://www.hydor.com/prodotti/show/famprod/11/

These are both waterproof, so you can pour water over them.

 

[ulkal]

Damn, I bought the ZooMed one, which is only waterresistant. Did not know there was
this difference...Guess we'll see how it works with the lid-idea and wrap-around and if it doesn't work for
me I give it back.

Thanks a lot everyone for your advice.

 

[Jd3]

I have it under tank.

 

[lynnedit]

In one enclosure, I set them up around the lower sides and across one side of the bottom. I think it is important to have part of the enclosure w/o them. They do help increase humidity by warming the substrate.

 

[Madkins007]

Besides being waterproof, the Big Apple cables only hit about 90F (when laid out on an open table in a straight line. The heat would build up if they are arranged closer together and under substrates) so are safe to use in a lot of situations that other cables are riskier.

I had a home-made tank with a sheet of 1/8" black ABS plastic as a floor and had the cables taped directly to it. It did NOT melt the plastic at all- but it DID warp the plastic, like time in warm sunlight would. I should have glued the plastic to the underlying wood to prevent that.

 

[ulkal]

So, this is what I ended up doing.
The hole on the bottom left is the cutout for the basking light.
I covered the hole on the top right with duct tape and left an opening for the thermostat sensor. Originally, the hole was for the CHE. Its not rly elegant, but the elegant solution will have to wait for the utopian hybrid enclosure-bookeshelf Im planning on
Im rly confused at the zoomed thermostat only having a cryptic color scale for temperature control,I will have to look into that.

The tortoises are outside now, Im checking on the temps/humidity in the enclosure and so far it looks good. We'll see if its is working in a couple of days. Please tell me what you think.
Thanks a lot everyone and have a great weekend.

Update: Regarding duct tape, more is more, I def used too little