Garter heat mat query - Not hot enough

[luminol]

Ahhh thanks for looking for me, didnt find that.

It mentions to put on a polystyrene tile, I have some polystyrene I fished out of a computer monitor box.

do you reckon its safe to put a heat mat on polyS? allllllso, its a plastic cage, that an issue.

again, sorry for the beginner questions!

[ConcinusMan]

do you reckon its safe to put a heat mat on polyS?

I would say no. Mat shouldn't be sandwiched between anything, especially insulating materials. This is the reason for the adhesive. So there will be a gap underneath the mat.

cold is reading at 20c and so is the hot side, im using a 7w mat (Komodo) with a thermostat on a third/half of cage and eco terra analogue thermometers. The mat seems warm under the faunarium but worried the lil fellas too cold.

20-25 c isn't too bad for the cool end / air temperature but there should be a spot warm enough for the snake to warm itself to around 30 c.

The mats currently sitting about an inch under the faunarium (cage has feet). maybe im meant to attach to underside cage?

Exactly. That's what the adhesive is for, and you do want the gap underneath the mat or they could overheat. I would think that a thermostat would prevent that though.

You can always use a combination basking light and heat mat on the warm end. Just don't let the whole tank heat up. Air temp in most of the tank should be a temperature that is comfortable for you and I. They just need a highly localized spot where they can get warmer than that. A 40-60 watt reflecting incandescent bulb (the kind with a silver backing) in a ceramic socket fixture with dome, placed at one end will create a "sunny" localized hot spot.

If you don't want to use the light, you need to get that mat in contact with the glass Don't do this when the mat is already hot or it might crack the glass. They are designed to heat up slowly to prevent that.