Heating a 5.5 Terrarium

Inka4040

Inka4040

O_o
Mar 31, 2008
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Been kicking around an idea for a small jewel orchid terrarium. Being a 5.5, there's not gonna be any livestock, but it will be pretty well planted. Being my first serious attempt at a planted terrarium, I'm sure I'll be facing a pretty steep learning curve, but the big issue right now, is heating the thing. My room gets pretty cold during the winter, and jewels need it pretty warm and humid. To that effect, I was planning to use one of those zoo med under tank heaters in order to keep it above room temp. Does anyone have much experience with these? There's gonna be about an inch of crushed lava rock, aliflor, or similar material, that will act as the reservoir, then a sphagnum based substrate. Basically, I'd love to know if the heater will be able to keep the tank in a stable temp range without unduly overheating it. Also, is there any measure of control that can be exerted over its heating? Would I have to invest in something like a rheostat, and if so, would such equipment be compatible with a timer? Thanks for your help everyone!!
 
Maybe try a reptile under tank heater or heat tape with a thermostat?
 
There's no pumping going on in this tank. No circulating water, nothing... Just plants and a clip on lamp to light the thing. I seriously doubt the spiral cfl is gonna put out much heat, so I guess that would be my only choice. I'll tell you guys how it works out.
 
You can put the UTH on the BACK of the aquarium - this allows it to throw some ambient heat. I would be more concerned with it being too cold than too warm.

You can use one of those light dimmer switches rather than a rheostat. UTH's are a set temp, no control over temp on your part.

Kristina
 
Inka4040 said:
There's no pumping going on in this tank. No circulating water, nothing... Just plants and a clip on lamp to light the thing. I seriously doubt the spiral cfl is gonna put out much heat, so I guess that would be my only choice. I'll tell you guys how it works out.
Click to expand...

you might be surprised my crested tank has 2 13w CFLs and it can heat it up a little maybe 4 degrees grab a CFL when its on i'm not syaing its gonna be hot but its warm
 
Thanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately, putting the heater on the back of the tank is not gonna work out. There's a background made of bamboo stems glued on, and even if I could, I'd still be worried about the cork blocking most of the heat from the actual plants. Putting it underneath, hopefully it'll warm the water in the reservoir and thus evenly dissipate the heat throughout the whole tank.
 
Ricky try one of the smaller sized UTH designed for small aquariums and plastic tanks. I think it will put off enough heat to keep your plants happy.
 
Thanks for the reccomendation Seth. Is there a specific reason I can't use the reptile type? They have them at the local lfs so I wouldn't need toorder online. Are those not meant for use in tans with substrate or something?
 
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