Reptiles need a heat source not only to keep warm. They also require heat to maintain their body functions such as digesting food, excreting waste and improve circulation and respiration systems.

And one of the most effective methods to provide heat for your terrarium is using under tank heater for reptiles.

But if you have ever used a heating pad before, there are many questions might come to your mind. This post is some common questions about under tank heater that will help you get to know about it.

Are heat pads for reptiles safe?

If you observe the following guidelines, the heat pad is completely safe to use for your reptile’s tank:

Reading the instruction carefully before installing your heat pads.

Placing the heat pads outside your closure, at the bottom of the tank. There is a risk of burning the substrate or overheat your pet if you place the hat pads inside the tank.

Ensure that you will disconnect the heat pad and the power supply before you clean the tank.

Using the thermostat to control and monitor the heat pads.

Do reptiles need any light if there is a heat pad in the tank?

Even when you are using the best reptile heating pad, you also need to provide the light for your reptiles. Reptiles need the UVA and UVB light to survive in the enclosure.

There are also some species of reptile do not need UVB light, but they also need the daylight to maintain their day and night time cycle.

Should you use a heat pad for plastic terrarium?

No, you should not. Plastic really easy to get melt if the temperature is increasing suddenly.

You are recommended to use the heat pad for glass or wooden tanks. The plastic tank is not really durable and tend to turn yellow over time or when it meets the heat.

Best LED aquarium lighting does not only serve to increase the special aesthetic appeal of your fish, corals, plant or any aquatic organisms. The LED light also plays an important role in the simulate day and night cycles in your tank.

Especially, if you are keeping plants and corals in your aquarium, the LED light will provide the optimum temperature and lighting conditions for plants and corals photosynthesize.

There are many models of LED light for aquarium available on the market with different pros and cons. This post will help you narrow your choice by comparing two of the most favorite LED light products recently: Nicrew classic LED lighting VS. Koval LED lighting.

#1 Light spectrum

The spectrum should contain enough colors for the photosynthesis process of plants and corols.

Nicrew LED light creates a shimmering light in your aquarium that can be set to 2 different modes. The white lights are good for daylight. The daytime mode provides a clean and balanced natural color for the lighting.

And the blue lights are used for the nighttime mode. When you switch to the night mode, the shadowy actinic blue light will mimic nightlight perfectly.

Koval LED light contains the full-color spectrum with78 and 156 bright lights depend on the size that you choose. These lights offer 5 different colors. Due to the full spectrum light, this LED light is suitable for any type of fish, aquatic plant ad coral reefs.

It also has more lighting mode than the Nicrew with 3 options: all lights on, only blue LEDs on, and all lights off. The “all light on” mode used for daytime and “only blue LEDs on” mode will simulate the natural moonlight and use it for the nighttime.

#2 Efficiency

The first thing you will find in Nicrew light once you install it is its brightness. It is an extremely bright light. This will ensure that every corner in your tank will be illuminated. Nicrew produces the light that does not affect the behavior of the fish in the aquarium but still ensures the benefit for the plants.

Depends on how you use it, the Koval light can be used for 50,000 hours and more, which helps you save the cost of buying replacements bulbs. This is the LED light with highly efficient and low energy.

#3 Extra features and cost

There are many LED lights that come with some extra features such as run on time, automatically change intensity, range of wavelengths, etc. However, with 2 products that will review, there are no extra features included, no timer, dimer or another adjustment.

But the lights with more features will be more expensive. Sacrificing some additional features below, you can get the Nicrew and Koval light with less cost but still, give the basic factors that your aquarium needed.

If you have never keep any leopard geckos before, you have to learn how to provide them with adequate heat. Unlike mammals, leopard geckos cannot regulate their body temperature by themselves.

In the wild, leopard geckos usually get the warmth by hiding in the enclosed spaces, between the rocks underground because leopard geckos absorb heat through their bellies.

Therefore, in the captivity, you should provide them the similar heat sources. This is why you will need the best heat mat for leopard gecko.

Heater pads for leopard gecko

Unlike bearded dragons, leopard geckos do not prefer to basking under the sunlight or direct heat sources. So in their tank, they do not need the basking area or heat lamp to get warmth.

Leopard geckos require belly, underside heating in order to digest their food. The best way to heat our leopard geckos is by using heater pads for leopard geckos. Heater pads are the devices that made specifically for reptiles and placed to the bottom of their cage; provide gentle and reliable heat for your leopard geckos.

How to choose heater pads?

Before buying the best reptile heating pad, you should measure your tank to get the suitable size of heater pads. Normally, you should get the heater pad that covers about 1/3 of the tank floor. This will create two different sides in your tank: the cooler side and the warm side.

This will allow your leopard geckos to regulate their body temperature by choosing whether they want to be warmer or cooler. If you are living in a cold climate, you can choose the bigger heater pad, cover about 1/2 your tank floor.

Moreover, you should get a heater pad controlled by a thermostat or you will do not know if this heater pad gets too hot and your leopard gecko might be burned. If your leopard geckos never lie on this heater pads, it’s probably over-heat, and if they become slowly, do not eat much or lie almost the day, it’s probably too cool for them.

Maintaining the overall temperature in your leopard gecko’s cage always stay between 75-90 degrees F.

Rat like clean, spacious area, free of fecal matter and food wastes. However, they quite messy and they need to go bathroom a lot. You will need to provide them a litter box in the corner of the cage. The litter material for rats should be good at absorb urine and feces.
However, if you want to save your money or if you want to ensure that the ingredients of litter are suitable and safe for rats, then you should make it by your own. Here are some good options of best rat litter that you can easy find around.

#1 Shredded Paper

This is a really cheap or even free option. The advantage of shredded paper is that whether torn by hand or put through an office shredding machine, it is recycled paper, scoring high on texture soft, absorbent, and creates very little dust. You should only use matt paper printed with non-toxic inks.
It can be the great option for rats with dark fur, but the ink may discolour light-coloured rats. There is the not when use shredded paper that you should tear it into short pieces as long strips can be tangly, and are also more likely to have sharp edges. Avoid glossy paper since it is not absorbent.

#2 Toilet Tissue

The rolls of toilet tissue can be use as both litter and bedding in the cage. You do not need to shred it yourself. You rat will love to tear it into pieces so let them do it. The drawback of toilet tissue is that it cannot last for long and you will need to replace it frequently. However, it is soft and comfortable litter, absorbent and less of dust.

#3 Cloth

Some pet owners prefer to place just some old clean cloth in their rat’s litter box. This is particularly best if your rat is allergic to other kinds of beddings. You can so the shredding or allow your rat have funny time with this work.
Take note that if you are going to use old cloth, use the one with fabric that doesn’t produce long threads such as fleece or microfiber. Do not use some ratty tatty cloth with long threads that can cause injuries when wrapped around your rat’s tail, legs, paws or neck.

#4 Hardwoods

Hardwoods like aspen, oak or ash are safe for rats because they do not produce noxious fumes. It is not costly material if you can obtain a single split piece of firewood and is easy to produce in large quantities. However, the drawback is that hardwoods are quite dusty and messy so if you rat have sensitive respiratory, you should not go with this.

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Although enclosure made from glass are not usually recommended to house tortoises, there are some reasons that make this type of enclosure is favourite tortoise’s cage among a lot of owner. Personally, I prefer to keep my hatching in a glass enclosure as glass is the best cage when it comes to maintain humidity.
The major issue with glass tank is that it can stress tortoises out, but you can easily fix this. If you are looking for a glass tank for your pets, here are the best tortoise enclosures you should provide them.

#1 REPTI ZOO Reptile Glass Terrarium

If you are worry about the ventilation of glass tank, then you can rest your mind that Repti Zoo terrarium feature with tough screen top, which ensure the well ventilation for the cage. Besides, the screen top also allows the UVB rays from UVB bulb or sun go through the tank without blocking. Not only that, this enclosure also equipped window ventilation on both sides.
Additionally, the bottom glass of this tank is raised, that mean you can easy place the heater or heat pad under and create the temperature gradient.
It has front sliding doors, which can be opened separately for easy access, feeding and maintenance.

#2 Exo Terra Glass Natural Terrarium Kit

This is another ideal glass enclosure for tortoise. it has the front ventilation system and full screen top for the optimal ventilation. The removable screen top also allows the beneficial UVB rays approach your tortoises.
The width opened front doors allow you fully access the cage for easy feeding and cleaning. It is the lockable doors to prevent your pets from escape. The screen cover designed with five wire inlets on the two sides, they are closable and allow you to install the wire some tank’s equipment such as heater, waterfalls, sensors, etc.
The raised bottom panel is waterproof, easy cleaning and allow to mount the heat pad or other substrate heaters below the tank.

#3 Carolina Custom Cages Terrarium

If you are looking for the tank that have a lots of floor space for your tortoise to roam around, then you should consider this glass tank from Carolina. It can be the home for any breed of adult tortoise. However, the downside is that you will have to fill it with more decorations.
Although it is large but very east to assemble and disassemble with dual sliding front glass panels and the removable top screen.

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There is no doubt about the judgment that betta is a colorful, lively and beautiful fish that be an ideal choice for keeping.  And if you are keeping a beta fish tanks, did you set up a proper tank for them?

In order to make the ideal betta fish tanks and keep your fish stay happy, healthy and long life, you need to remove some misconceptions about caring betta fish. This article will help you to synthetic some first principles to establish an aquarium for your betta.

The bigger the tank is, the better

Most people prefer to use betta fish tanks for livening up their desks at the office so they keep them in a small fishbowl or vase. Besides that, in the pet store, betta fish are also kept in the same way. But although betta can survive in the small tank not mean that this is the ideal environment for them.

If you want to provide them a tank where your fish can live a happy life, healthy and long life, we recommend that you should not keep them in any tank smaller than 2,5 gallons. At least a 10 gallons size tank is ideal for the betta, and bigger is better.

They need room to swim around and do exercise, and you will need a blank space to add more plant or hide placement, which helps betta feel comfortable. Moreover, the larger tank will reduce the frequency-time that you need to change the water and the filter will work more effectively.

 Using the filter for a betta tank

In order to provide them a happy life, although betta fish do not really need a filter, you still need to add the filter for them. With a filter, the tank requires less time of frequent water change to keep the water quality up and remove toxic debris.

Betta fish do not produce much waste like other fish, so you just need to use a small hang back on the filter. A larger canister filter is superfluous.

Beta also enjoys the water environment with litter or no water movement. Choosing the filter with a low flow filter or have a low capacity for your tank.

It can be the challenge of every horse owner to keep the horses always be free from fly and other insects. Flies are not only annoying, they also carry disease and can be hazard as well. If you’re not able to reapply often, it is better to go with long lasting fly spray product. With the long lasting sprays, it can protect your horses from flies for a few days or even 2 weeks.
Not only the long time used, I also look at the price, ingredients and features of fly sprays to make up this list. To simplify the options, here are the 5 best fly sprays for long duration  available in the market.

 

#1 UltraShield EX Fly Spray, Insecticide and Repellent for Horses

UltraShield Ex fly spray stand at the top of my list for many reasons. You may be surprised to know that it can help control the fly for up to 17 days. Besides, it is designed to be weatherproof, sweat-resistant that can be used during rainy season. I consider it as one of the most effective insecticide repellent including fly, mosquitoes, and tick.
It contains natural Pyrethrins and active ingredients, what makes it works fast and lasts for days. There are also sunscreens and conditioners like aloe and lanolin in its formula. The sunscreen will protect your horse from sunrise.
Although it may not always stick on the horse as long as 17 days as it claims, it is hard to find the other spray products that can has as long duration as this one. It is premix and ready to use in a 32-ounce spray bottle. However, its powerful may result in irritation.

#2 Farnam Endure Sweat-Resistant Fly Spray for Horses

Farnam Endure Fly Spray has the special formula that can works in even wet conditions which makes it excellent fly spray for resist sweaty and rainy.  Additionally, It provide a long duration for control fly up to 14 days. It is the only fly spray that contain RepeLock conditioner, what helps it binds to the horse coat for long time.
This fly spray may relatively more expensive than other alternative options but it will provide the value that worth your money. It has the active ingredients are cypermethrin, 0.15%, pyrethrins, 0.20%, piperonyl butoxide, 1.60%, and butoxypolypropylene glycol, 5.00%. The special technology ensure the long lasting protection for horses no matter the weather condition is.

#3 Farnam Tri-Tec 14 Fly Repellent Spray for Horses with Sunscreen

If you are looking for the water-based formula fly spray that can provide long lasting protection, there are not much product on the market like Farnam Tri-Tec 14 Fly Repellent Spray. It is designed to protects your horse against six types of flies plus gnats, mosquitoes, lice, and deer ticks.
This product provide long-lasting protection for up to 14 days. Its ingredients are cypermethrin, pyrethrins, piperonyl butoxide, and butoxypolypropylene glycol. Not only that, it also includes sunscreen to protect your horse from the sunlight. It available in a 50-ounce jug but you will need to buy a spray bottle serapately.

#4 Pyranha Wipe N’Spray Fly Protection Spray for Horses

This is the fly spray that can be used in even rainy season due to its water-proof. This also allows it to resist of being washed away by the horse’s sweat. You can apply this by wiping or spraying on the horse body. It is designed by pyrethrum-based formula. It not noly provides superior fly protection, but also make the horse’s hair nice shine.
This is an extremely effective product as you just need to use 1 to 2 ounces and it will kille the flies for up to 24 hours before you need to reapply it. It require only once time application per dat for the greatest effectiveness. It has the pleasant scent from citronella.

#5 Absorbine UltraShield Green Fly Spray, Eco-Friendly Repellent for Horse

If you are looking for some thing that organic, totally safe and enviroment friendly but still provides long lasting protection for your horses, Absorbine UltraShield Green is a natural fly repellent that can be safely use for you and your animals.
Its formula is uses essential oils to repel flies, not kill them. The natural ingredients includes citronella, eucalyptus, lemongrass, peppermint, cedarwood, lavender, and tea tree essential oils. Although it does not has the active ingredients as power as the previous options, but this fly sprau can protect your horse for up to 8 hours. It also comes with the nice smell and improve the shiny coat for the horses.

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In the wide, hermit crabs naturally live in the seas. So, if you decide to keep them as pets, it is important to make sure that their habitat is appropriate for their needs. Their enclosure habitat should have everything they need to survive and thrive as what they have in the natural environment.

Hermit crabs are very sensitive animals and require a lot of care and attention. Below is my list of items to create a best hermit crabs cage.

#1 Cage

An adult hermit crab can reach up to six inches long and it is therefore very important that you pick a tank that will provide your pet room to move around in. I would like to recommend you use glass tank instead of plastic or wire tank. I have been use a 10-gallon glass aquarium with a lid. A sliding glass one will work well to contain humidity.

#2 The Substrate

It is obvious that sand is the substrate of choice for hermit crabs because as it allows your hermit crabs to burrow down into. You can buy sand for hermit crabs at any pet store, it works well and is inexpensive. If you take sand from playground, it is better to rinse, dry, and bake the sand (at 300 degrees Fahrenheit) to sterilize it. Sand also can be reused by rewashed.

The other choice for hermit crabs substrate is coconut fiber. The fiber is ground quite fine and is nearly like soil, it is also a good option for burrowing.  Substrate levels should be at least three times the height of your biggest crab.

#3 Proper Temperature & Humidity

You have to mimic the natural habitat of hermit crabs in their enclosure by consider the temperature and humidity that they need. If you use under tank heater to keep your hermit warm, it is better to place the heat pad under and outside the tank. Hermit crabs are happiest kept at 72 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember to not allow the temperature drops below 72 degrees Fahrenheit regularly, the crabs will likely become weak, stressed, and ill.

Hermit crabs can grow at between 50 to 80 percent humidity levels. If the tank air is too dry, the crabs will essentially suffocate. Due to this, you have to mist their terrarium using freshwater. The water dish you place in the tank also can increase the humidity.

#4 Cage Furnishings

An ideal high-quality terrarium for hermit crab also includes some additional items. Land hermit crabs love to climb, you can add pieces of coral, driftwood, and other types of wood into the cage so that your pets can do exercise.  Artificial plants are also a great addition to the crab cage.

Your pets also need food and water bowls. You should give them a large water bowl, which allow them to drink, soak and to supply humidity.