Emp setup question

hi, i wonder if you can help me, i have a juvenile emperor in a H=20 cm, W=36cm D=20cm plastic tank, it has 2.5 cm gravel base with water in it for humidity, with 3 cm of spider vermiulite/soil substrate on top, i first used a heat mat for the heat source but could get no where near the 75 - 82 degrees needed, so ive put a 50W heat lamp 13 cm above the lid of the tank off set to the left hand side, can you tell me if this set up is ok or if i need to change it please, i had no problems with my tarantula but this scorpion seems to have more requirements than i first thought .
andy

Hey, you're from hertfordshire as well!

where was the heat mat placed? and is the heat lamp infra red?

The only thing I'd suggest is deepening the soil substrate. No need for vermiculite; it can stick to the exoskeleton and be difficult to remove.

oh, i did not know that, i will change it over to coco fibre as soon as possible then, thanks

thats the beauty of the gravel bas, you can see the water level and add more if the strate feels like you say to dry, i was surprised how quickly it sucs up the water, first time i did it i turned little emp's home in to a swamp lol.

one thing you couldve tried is to insulate the back of the heat mat with polystyrene or bubble wrap or even just stick a towel behind the tank, it works wonders, its what i do with all my heat mats and i have no problems keepin temperatures at the right level.

i wish i tried that before i got the lamp, but it seems to working really well and as a bonus the locusts seem to love it as well, they all line up sunning themselves sort of like a grill for empy lol

yeah they do that, problem is thye always do it on the walls (they do in my tank cause of the heat mat) so theyre always out of reach of the emps

i keep mine in a seperate tank on top of the emps tank so they get the full heat of the lamp, ime manageing to keep them alive alot longer now, thing is will they get too big for emp tho?

nah if ur emps are adults then theyll have no trouble takin on adult locusts, make sure u feed the locusts with salad n green leaves to gutload them before feeding them to the scorps