Best heat transfer? Slate Vs. Repticarpet

[#19wingnut]

Anyone know which one is better? Here's my scenario...I have a UTH and am using slate tiles as a substrate, but I'm finding that my UTH can only consistently heat just the hot spot(approx.6"x8" in a 55G tank using the largest Repti-therm UTH available) to the sweet spot between 95-100 degrees. I much prefer the look of slate to the repti-carpet, but if the carpet will allow the UTH to raise a larger square area of the floor to an ideal temp then I'm all for switching to it. I'm not sure if the thickness of the slate is the issue or if maybe the fact that the tiles are not perfectly flat on the bottom(I've had to shim a few to keep them from rocking) so they don't lay perfectly against the bottom of the tank. I don't think the rooms ambient air temp is the problem as I have been running a baseboard heater and maintaining a room temp of about 68 degrees. I've also covered one half of the screen top of the tank and am running an IR 50W bulb that I bought for night time viewing 24/7 now. Any input would be appreciated, sorry for being so long winded.

 

[CYBERICK1]

Just to let you know... I personally have stone/slate tiles and I ran with the same issue of them "rocking" somewhat (since the bottom of the stone/slates aren't flat at all and are indeed quite imperfect...) so my solution? Sand. I had a bag of Calci-Sand that I had bought BEFORE I had join here the forum and after seing the much heated debate of sand and impactation and blah blah blah I decided use it to level the tiles...

On the other hand, as far as the heat transfer/coverage area... I've never used Repti-Carpet but I have the Medium sized Zoo-Med UTH in a 20 gallon (long) tank and in between the UTH and the hide I have 3 layers... basically, the glass (duh!), then the sand and then the tiles. I have a Herpstat ND thermostat set to 93.5 degrees monitoring the floor temp (inside the hide) and well... half of my tank feels "normal"... though it goes anywhere from 92 to 94 degrees inside the hide the surroundings of it feels "normal" to the touch vs. the tiles close to his humid hide which they do feel a little bit "cooler". (At first, without the thermostat about half the tank/stones were HOT... out of curiosity, when I got the thermostat I placed the probe "dead center" of the UTH and it clocked the temps a little bit over 109 degrees... again this was with sand and tiles... so defintely those mats can heat up the stones even with sand in between! I am sure it can get a whole lot hotter if I didn't have the sand in between...)

Honestly, I don't know really if this info is of much help to you... just thought I share my 2 cents of what I've learned through my "trial and error" process. Good Luck! :main_thumbsup:

 

[Khrysty]

Actually, the sand underneath the tiles should help create a more even heat transfer as the sand will heat up, then heat the tile above it. Though, I'd use play sand instead of calci-sand and of course make sure the geckos (and the feeders!) can't get to it. The sand being simply many super tiny stones, more will heat up than the single tightly packed stone of a slate tile. Should give it a try.