heating question

I'm going to be getting 4 different desert species of scorpion to put in a 4 chamber acrylic?/plexiglass? tank I have. Each chamber has it's own lid. The tank is roughly 34 inches long in total length, each chamber is roughly 7 3/4 inches wide, 13 inches front to back, the tank slopes from back to front, height is 9 inches at the front and the back is 11 3/4 inches. My question is what would be the best way to heat the tank? I had a few thoughts.

1. Heat pads on the back of the tank.

2. Drill wholes in each lid big enough for an infrared light.(worried about possible melting of tank lids. lol)

3. ???

Species I will be putting into the tank:

Buthacus leptochelys(Egyptian green)
Temperature-68 to 95° F.
Humidity-40 to 50%

Leiurus quinquestriatus(Egyptian Deathstalker)
Temperature-80 to 85° F.
Humitity-50%

Smeringus mesaensis(Dune scorpion)
Temperature-78 to 90° F.
Humidity-50 to 60%

Hadrurus arizonensis(Desert Hairy)
Temperature-75 to 85° F.
Humidity-55 to 65%

i have no idea, but i am interested in seeing the results...

Well I just made an enclosure with different chambers, out of 1/2" lexan, and heating was something I was wondering about too. My tank is about 27" long by 12" by 7".



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So I bought an 18x8 Zoo med heater to go with the little one in the second pic. I put it on the back covering as much of the other 4 chambers as I could. The 2 the pad fully covered ended up around 82 at the warmest part. (see caption on the pic). Hope that helps, let me know if you have anymore questions.

Oh I see, so they're separate from each other?

From the way you sounded, I thought you were going to mix the species in one set-up.

I jimmy rigged an acryllic lid for my tank (i'll post pic soon as I borrow another camera).

I've drilled a hole for a 60W ceramic heater along one of the sides, and that rests on a wire caging.

I've found that after three days, I have to flip the acryllic over, as it has bowed a large amount due to the heat (the center stays level, but the edges life up almost an inch.

Say goodbye to your moisture level.

I'm not saying it doesn't work (obviously, I still use it). But if you do, consider ensuring you're using thicker acryillic, or you've attached the sides to a different object (bolted to wire caging).

My other tanks I use an acryllic lid that's actually been glue to three of the edges (the entrance is a false front plate, which lifts).

I've never had a problem with that one, and the heater doesn't melt/warp/shatter/etc the acryllic.

Cool tank. Is it something that was store bought or hand made? I've been toying with designs of things to build.

I don't have a whole lot of suggestions on something like this, but I'm actually looking at getting a very large display case, like the jewelry store display cases to put a bunch of vivs in. I wanted to do this so I could heat the display case and not have to heat the individual viv's also I can put some more 'hot' species in there and lock it so my son is a bit safer.
If you checked for some used aquariums or something or even built something to place this inside of then you could heat the whole thing rather than each individual chamber. You will also be able to maintain control of the humidity a little easier.

Otherwise get with some desert species you probably don't worry about humidity as much, I would maybe try hanging a lamp with an infrared heating bulb over the top of it. This should heat them all pretty evenly without wrecking the acrylic. I do this with my delicups of spiderlings and scorplings and put the containers into a sterilite tub.
Hope this lends a few ideas. Def. post pics when this is done, it sounds like however you work it you will have one cool set up when you are finished!

Tom2634 wrote:

Well I just made an enclosure with different chambers, out of 1/2" lexan, and heating was something I was wondering about too. My tank is about 27" long by 12" by 7".



78---------------------------81----------------------------82--------------------------80-----------------------------------77

So I bought an 18x8 Zoo med heater to go with the little one in the second pic. I put it on the back covering as much of the other 4 chambers as I could. The 2 the pad fully covered ended up around 82 at the warmest part. (see caption on the pic). Hope that helps, let me know if you have anymore questions.

My tank is very similar to this, only with 4 chambers instead of 5. I drilled some holes in the end walls and some notches in the inner walls for ventilation. Once I actually get the scorpions and have it set up I'll play around with heating and see how it goes. I've never had luck keeping temp up with heating pads.So idk what to do.