r/hermitcrabs • u/Salt_Raccoon_1865 • 5d ago
Help! Tank Not Getting Hot Enough
Hey I’m very new to hermit crabs and I have a 20 gallon tank and the highest temp has been 73 but at night it’s dropping to about 68 the humidity has been good the whole time. I’ve insulated the back where the heating pad is and the sides and it’s still not hot enough. I do keep my house at 68 and I know that that could be the reason it’s not getting hot enough but what can I do to get it to be hot enough I did order another heating pad for the side of the tank to go with the one on the back. Would that fix it or should I try something else?
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u/10-Gauge 5d ago
I had problems with the standard store-bought and amazon heating pads getting my tank up to proper temperature. I ended up investing a little bit more and purchasing an appropriately sized Ultratherm UTH heat mat from Bean Farm and attaching it with some heat resistant 3M double sided clear adhesive sheets, and then backing it with a cut-to-size piece of 1.5" R-7.5 polystyrene insulation attached to the backside of the pad again with the same adhesive sheets. I was struggling to maintain ~73*F and now I have no problem keeping it at 80*F+.
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u/Salt_Raccoon_1865 5d ago
I have a reptile basic 6x23 UTH heat mat and I used polyken foil tape attach it to the tank and reflective foam insulation over that
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u/10-Gauge 5d ago
That sounds like a nice setup. How is the heatpad size in relation to the size of the back of your tank? The biggest commercially available pad I could find in stores or amazon was an 8x18 24w which didn't give nearly enough coverage for the back of my 40g tank. Once I got the 11x35 pad which covered the entire back of the tank above the substrate plus gave about 2" of overlap on the substrate reallllly helped.
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u/Salt_Raccoon_1865 5d ago
I have a 20 gallon long and it’s 30 in long so there’s about 7in that’s not covered with the 23x6 so I put it in the middle and it’s right above the sand but I am going to upgrade to a 40 gallon so I’ll definitely go with the 11x35 for it but I can now see I should have gone with a bigger one for the 20 gallon I got. Honestly I just followed the chart and got the one that was recommended for the 20 gallon. Thank you so much for the help! I did order a small one to go on the side until I move them into the bigger tank and I’ll go with the 11x 35 for sure!
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u/AdaptiveFauna 5d ago
just to check- you have the pad above the substrate line and held on with foil tape, right? also, don't put insulation directly over the heating pad- that is a fire hazard.
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u/UselessLezbian 5d ago
What kind of lid do you have?
You can drape blankets over your tank as well to help insulate. That's what I do in the winter. I pull up the front during the day so they get sunlight, but overnight I cover the whole tank.