why not sit the mat on a sheet of wood or polystyrene ?
this will bring it up to the glass & should give insulation to stop the concrete sapping all the heat .
back when i first started keeping reps i used a lot of glass tanks & i nearly always sat them on polystyrene sheets for insulation ,
they are easily cut out to fit the connection block on the mat too : victory:

 

Is it safe to put it on wood or whatnot? I don't want anything to be a fire-hazard or anything like that. I guess my concern is will MAKING it adhesive be a fire-hazard itself? If not then I'm fine with doing it....fire is my only REAL concern cuz the heat mat barely feels like it puts out much heat let alone enough to burn my snake through the glass. I was just wondering if there's like some manufacturer's rule against epoxying it to the glass.

 

use selotape mate i have done it with wood and glass it will be fine if the selotape is strong enough to hold it up, i have never had any problems

 

LOL I have some different tapes, but I kind of want to stay away from tapes since the epoxy gets hard and keeps the heat RIGHT ON the glass with few gaps. I've used it on adhesive types that simply lost their sticky-power and it works great, I just want to be sure it's safe before I do it.

Can u explain what "selotape" is or what it's made of? I assume epoxy is safer than most tapes, but u might use a specialized version or something...but idk.

Long story short, I have the epoxy downstairs waiting for me lol....I just need confirmations that it will be safe on a heat mat that never had adhesive on it.

Have you considered using aquarium silicone seal, rather than epoxy?

^^^^ what would be the difference? pros vs cons. I dont think silicone is great with the heat though personally.....I think the bond will weaken

 

Have you considered using aquarium silicone seal, rather than epoxy?

 

bet you have a lovely warm concrete floor though.

You have a king in a glass tank, sat directly above a bare concrete floor, what do you think is going to happen to all the heat?

 

it's going to stay warm cuz I epoxied the heat mat to the tank now It wasnt that the concrete was sucking the heat up, it was that the heat mat was very low heat from the start. I purposely use "weaker" heat mats to get brumation and breeding naturally, but without them being stuck directly to the glass, there's not enough heat transfer and I just was randomly given this NON-adhesive heat mat for free by a friend. My weapon of choice is a ZooMed adhesive tank heater, personally.

 

just a question ,
hows the ambient temp with having a concrete floor ?
i considered converting a section of my garage but was looking at insulating the floor

 

Honestly, I elevated the tank itself after modifying the heat mat, so now it sits on several other 15 U.S. gallon tanks as a "stand". The ambient temperature in most of my temperate to sub-tropical snakes' tanks is about 80 F. It varies seasonally, but my hotspot is usally upper 80's. In the winter the lower end temps drop to low 60's or even upper 50's but the basking spot and warm end never change via heat mat.

I also place their hide-box directly on a portion of the heat mat and a portion of the water dish on it as well so they are not shocked by temperature changes and will continue to drink and soak year-round. We have central heat and our thermostat itself is set to about 70 F but we also have a massive heat discharge in our basement,.....central heat and thermostats play a very important part in thermoregulation and make keeping appropraite temperature considerably easier for me.


For those of you who do NOT know, aside from the fact that concrete is usually cold, it is also a natural insulator, therefore my basement stays considerably warmer than the rest of the house. So in a nutshell, my reptiles sleep/exist in warmer climates than I do myself.