tiled base

[aa410c]

i am concerned about the drop in temp following the removal of the calci sand.
to explain: for obvious reasons i have removed the calci sand and loose laid for now a base of 6mm tiles directley on top of the heater matt. the tiles have been in the tank for about 6hours now and having attached a exo terra thermo strip to the tile at the warm end there is an obvious drop in temp,it is only reading 73 deg at the warm end and even with the heater light on the mid air temp is 80deg f. the calci sand was actually warm to the touch and had much higher readings. i am concerned that such a difference could have a detremental effect on my leo. Dave:main_thumbsdown:

 

[SJP]

That's strange, though tile does take a while to heat up, six hours should have done the job. I would leave it in there for a bit longer to see what the max temp is. Is there a big difference in temperature? What temperature was the sand at?

 

[aa410c]

With the sand the viv was running at approx 85 on the warm side and 70 on the cool side. i can actually feel the difference with the back of my hand and grouting the tiles in will only add an extra layer to absorb the heat from the mat. i am concerned that without the necessary ground heat he willnot be able to digest his food properly Dave

 

[SJP]

I've never used grout or anything to hold the tile down. I just place it in there edge to edge. This way cleaning and replacing it is easier. I'm not sure how you have your viv set up but here is a link to mine. http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=33543 The slate tile I have in there is just placed down without grout or cement. The UTH is directly underneath the slate tile. The surface of the tile on the warm side is 90-94 degrees. What’s nice about the edge to edge setting is that some heat transfers to the other two tiles that aren't underneath the UTH and it gradually gets cooler.

The only thing I can think of is maybe getting a stronger UTH with a dimmer. I can regulate my tile surface from room temp to 100+ degrees.