HI guys and Girls, that time of the year is approaching again so I suppose its better prepared than sorry.

I have researched the issue of temperature and heating pads and found that there are various ways and recommendations pertaining to there installation, what i have ascertained is the following:

Put pad under the tank/ enclosure ( Defenately Not )

Some say Stick it to the rear wall of the Tank/ enclosure
Otheres Srick it behind the enclosure and move enclosure back and forth to control the temperature.
Put in cupboard or shelf and heat the whole Cupboard.

What do you suggest as I was thinking of putting all my T's in a large 4 ft fish tank and heating the tank up so that the ambient temp in the tank is in the range that I want, tank will be sealed at the top , will also have to get the humidity Right. This I think will be the cheapest option for heating as it is a small area.

I would prefer the Fish tank option because I am sick (in the head that is) and spend hour watching my T's doing well what T's do " nothing "

Any pointers would be appreciated, Thanks

Not sick, just passionate about your spiders have time to enjoy them, which is cool
I too use to spend hours watching my spiders every phone call I would go stand in my spider room.

I would the Fish tank will be your best option but on saying this, how big are the tanks you want rock heat?

I use to share a heating pad with 6 smaller tanks by stacking them ontop of each other.

Hi Graeme

The heat mats are the best situated at the' rear" of the tank.That will allow the tarantula to be able to thermo regulate moving from hot to cold areas within the vivarium. If you going to heat the entire cage and increase the ambient temperatures too high the tarantula will most definitely stress and it also depends on the" species" you are "housing" arboreal's will most definitely stress and unless you have peat moss relatively deep and water saturated that can cause it to be cooler below as it moves downwards into the den site and that is for terrestrial species as arboreal are not "burrowers"

I know that using a pad on the bottom of the tank is a no-no but my house is SERIOUSLY cold. We go outside in winter to heat up....

I currently have two pads, one big one beneath my largest tank and one smaller one between my other two.

I hook these up to a timer switch that switches on and off at intervals (every 15 min). I know that it is not ideal but it does keep them alive.

I am toying with building a large display case that would cater better for all my needs.

I'll be watching this thread closely to get better ideas.

Hi Renier
As we house our tarantulas in different countries around the world one thing is essential and that's" heating" for any ectothermic species. Without heat they will die.The heating on and off underneath your enclosure will definitely cause some" form" of stress as it on and off every few minutes. the heat mats on the sides should suffice. remember heat comes from above not below and terrestrial dig downwards when they get too hot so if it gets too hot it will be confused and stressed when burrowing "down" for terrestrial species i refer to here.

Until I have a proper display cabinet I will remove the bottom mat and replace with smaller mat on the side.

The display cabinet is one of my "projects" I have to do :thumbsup:

In there I can look at a better solution