Ceramic heat emitters

[Candy]

Hi everyone. Today I changed Dale's substrate to the Mosser Lee moss and he immediatedly dug into it and hid. It was so funny to not see him. I'll post pictures later when I'm all done. My question is I went to buy a ceramic heat emitter today and I'm not exactly sure what watt to buy. I read one thread on here that said for 14 inches down get 250 watt. Dale's tank is about that, but I'd like to have backup advise before I buy it since I've already bought 3 lights that the pet store suggested and after reading this site I now know I only needed 2. I have the red light (nighttime) on him now it is 75 watts. I broke the white light that I used for daytime when I was spraying the tank today. I just bought the holder for the heat emitter that has the adjustable heat control and I actually bought a ceramic heat emitter 150 watt but I'm afraid to make it too hot for him. It's all new to me please help. One more thing.....When I figure out which watt bulb can it be sat on top of Dales tank like my other lights or do I have to clamp it? Candy

 

[shawngt2]

Candy, I also have the 150W using the dimmer switch as recommended on redfoots.com. I would rather have an emitter that provides to much heat that way you'll always have enough regardless of room temperature. The slider on my dimmer switch is normally 3/4 of the way to max and that keeps my temp (in the hide) around 81-83F. 100W would probably be perfect but if the room temperature ever goes lower than normal I can easily increase the temp. 100W for me may even be to weak but I'm not sure. My heat emitter is located approx. 6 inches above the hide and my hide is made from 3/4 inch wood so the emitter needs to penetrate that so depending on your hide and ambient room temperature around the hide your temperature can vary.

I'm not sure about the store you purchase your things from but you should be able to get an exchange for higher/lower bulb wattage within a certain time period, so try the 150W (which i think will be fine as long as you have the dimmer) and go from there.

Hope this helped,

Shawn

 

[Chucky]

You can also adjust the height to where the emitter is. In my hatchling enclosure, I only use a 60 watt emitter but it's closer to the substrate so it actually heats just as good as a higher watt emitter. Just make sure there's no way the tort can touch it by climbing up on something or another tort. As far as penetrating the hide, it really doesn't matter because once the emitter heats the top of the hide, it will stay constant temp inside.

 

[Madkins007]

I use a larger emitter, but I also use a thermostatic control to keep the temps constant on my big habitat. I like that I don't have to fiddle with it in my notoriously variable living room!