heating rainbow boa tub

[mainbutter]

I'm in the process of helping my gf set up a tub in hopes of acquiring a rainbow boa.

our tub has a couple inches of cypress mulch, a few holes drilled around for ventilation, and a UTH that is about 1/2 the floorspace for heating. Running the UTH uncontrolled(which is just for test purposes), it gets up to about 98 degrees for direct contact temperature. My problem is that it is not doing anything for ambient temps. It's freaking 66 degrees in the tub, but at least the warm spot is a decent ~80 on the top of the substrate.

Should I put a UTH on the side of the tub? What options are there for raising ambient temps within a tub?

[jfreels]

You could insulate the outside of the tub.

[mr. s]

I am guessing that you are planning on dimming the uth so that if the snake burrows, it is not going to burn itself?
Your gf must have one chilly home. Yes, try to insulate the tub. In some cases, you can just put a towel over it. Currently I have 2 bps for whom I was having the same trouble and 2 towels were not working. Eventually I placed their tubs in a snug fitting wooden shelf and put the towels over them again. Worked like a charm. You just gotta use what you got, and it'll be different for everyone.
I am not sure if this affects anything, but you said you had a couple inches of mulch? That seems like a bit much, and actually would probably prevent all the heat from getting into the tub, as you were saying it is only 80 above the hot spot. Go down to an inch or less of mulch so the hot spot gets to the right amount if the snake burrows, then check again. Maybe that will change things.
Good luck.

[djansen]

I'm in the process of helping my gf set up a tub in hopes of acquiring a rainbow boa.

our tub has a couple inches of cypress mulch, a few holes drilled around for ventilation, and a UTH that is about 1/2 the floorspace for heating. Running the UTH uncontrolled(which is just for test purposes), it gets up to about 98 degrees for direct contact temperature. My problem is that it is not doing anything for ambient temps. It's freaking 66 degrees in the tub, but at least the warm spot is a decent ~80 on the top of the substrate.

Should I put a UTH on the side of the tub? What options are there for raising ambient temps within a tub?

My rainbows dont like it too hot, the hotspot temp sounds ok and they do like to burrow down into the cypress so watch that its not to hot on the bottom. 66 degrees in the tub? you could try putting a heat pad from rite aid on the side, the ones i have have 3 temp settings and are like 15-20 bucks.