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I have a submersible water heater for my RES' tank, and I was wondering if it's ok to put it under his floating dock? The two would never touch and the heater is suctioned to the side of the tank securely, but in looking at other setups i haven't seen one where the heater is on the same side of the tank as the basking perch so i just wanted to make sure it was ok... thanks!!

The location is not so critical but the position of the heater would be. You want to avoid putting heaters in horizontally because the turtles will stand on them in which case they can get burnt. Always try to put them vertical which discourages them from standing or sitting on them.

I have a wide tank and I keep the heaters horizontally. They are also on the sides of the tank, so they aren't tempted to stand on it. They used to like to sleep on it but for whatever reason, they sleep in different areas now. I would be more concerned about a large heater taking too much space in a tank or area.

In the old 40 gallon long tank that I had that had the end cut out for a hanging filter I couldn't fill the water up very far so I could only put the heater in horizontally. It didn't matter where I put the filter the turtle would stand on it. I finally had to hide it behind the PVC pipe I used to make the basking platform.

In her new 90 gallon tall tank though I have a heater on both ends but they are both vertical and i've never had that problem again. And one of the heaters she can't get to.

I position my heaters diagonally and I try to have them in a place where there's good water circulation. Usually that's somewhere near the output of the filter.

thanks for the advice everyone, I've got my heater as diagonal as i can, and so far i've only seen leo rest on the plastic top part which i assume is safe from getting too hot... so for now i think it's ok

Just one caution--if you've got the top part out of the water at all, watch out for evaporation (the water level will drop). I try to keep even the top under water.

I have to let my heater dangle in the tank vertically since my turtle keeps knocking it off the suction cup attachment.