New to the hobby, have some question

[dbec1]

Hi all,
I've one a lot of reading I think I have a general idea of good care. I have a couple questions and I hope you can all help.

http://imgur.com/hSOMU

First off, am I ok with washing dishes, rinsing off things with tap water, or should I also use bottled water? Will there be chlorine residue from rinsing? Do they prefer Dasani or Evian


http://imgur.com/mxtGy

Also, Im having heating issues. Im using tile and as you can see in the pic, the temperatures vary greatly, but are very intense in the center of the pad. First off, I have a UTH that is too small, I went to exchange the 10gal tank for a 20 today and I need to upgrade the pad size. It goes from 103 in the center of the pad and drops dramatically. I am trying the foil method underneath to distribute the heat but I dont think its helping.

http://imgur.com/bFQtg

My idea for a solution is 2 UTH with thermostat and keep one on the hot side and on the the low 80's. Any other ideas? 103 seems way to hot, is it?

 

[NinjaDuo]

You could try a couple paper towels. And tap water is fine. Some prefer bottled water, but I personally by the 1 gallon jugs of purified water at the grocery store.

 

[acpart]

I use tap water. I use thermostats with my UTH which you should probably do too. Or you can use a rheostat (dimmer). I don't worry too much about exactly what temp it is in each part of the hot side as long as in general it's in the low 90's.

Aliza

 

[dbec1]

Thanks for the info. Im a little worried about the temps in the 100's, but so far what I've done is put the moist hide on the hot spot and he seems to love sleeping in it overnight.

I was just afraid he would burn his feet on that part.

 

[mango+cola]

you should definately get a thermostat to control that temperature, a temp in the 100's is too hot