As posted in the intro section, I was unsure of using a matt or heat lamp. Both statted before anyone says!!

Anyway, Tried the mat yesterday, seemed OK. The mat was heating up to 78 cutting off and temp would go down to around 75 before switching on again.

Trying out the lamp on a dimmerstat this morning, and getting the following temps :

Room temp = 65.7
Bottom of tank = 68.4
Middle of tank = 69.4
Top of tank (about 4" below lamp) = 78.1

These temps are all pretty stable too.

Are these sounding OK??

Sounds fine to me

Decided to stick with the lamp on the dimmerstat. Seems I can control the temp throughout the whole tank a lot easier. Now thats decided, I continued setting up home for who ever may be coming to stay!!



Using kitchen roll as substrate at the moment, may change it later on. I've got to sort out feeding & watering arrangements too.

Did you see my reply to the temps in the intro section? All sounds good to me! Set up is looking very nice, lots of plants which is good. Your Crestie will be happy in there

I did see your reply. Cheers for that. All input really helps and is greatly appreciated!!

You're very welcome

i love that set up

to sought out the water and food arangements, just get the pangea food ledge holder, its great lol...has 2 pots 1 for water 1 for the food, but i actually just mist my tank they drink the droplets

Not meaning to hijack your thread but how often do you have to adjust your temp settings if at all?

So far I have not had to make any adjustments. The temps are all pretty stable. The room the tank is in does not get hardly any direct sunlight during the day as woodland behind the house shields it. Night time temps are obviously lower due to the stat being the day/night version, but they do not get any lower than the recommended night time drop.