Air holes for tubs?

[yaalozu15]

Hey all,
I'm currently in the middle of making a tub/rack system to switch my BP's into. 2 questions:

1) How many air holes should I be putting into a 41qt tub? how big should the holes be?
2) Also, any advice on UTH vs back heat?

Thanks

[deftones2015]

Hopefully you'll be testing things out for a while before you put the pythons in there. Anyway I would put in some holes with a soldering iron let it set for a while and check the temps, humidity etc. If you need more holes add some. That's what I did for my tubs. As for back heat vs. belly heat I don't know much about back heat. I use belly heat though and I've seen most people use a heat tape across the rack for belly heat as well. I'm sure someone who is more knowledgeable will chime in though

[Skittles1101]

I've heard about one row of holes on each side is enough, but I added more for better air circulation. I use the 11" flexwatt conntected to a herpstat. Hope this helps.

[Rorschach]

When you make your holes and test everything out, if there is a visible moisture you've got to add more holes. The amount of holes can't really be specified by anyone, it would be based on the humidity in your environment. Best way to do this would be to purchase a hygrometer to accurately measure the amount of moisture in the tubs.

To answer your question, there really isn't a correct answer. Just trial and error.

Good luck

[llovelace]

The amount of holes really depends on where you live. Is it normally humid where you live? As stated above start with a single row, then add more as needed. As far as heating, I use back heat, I have a closed rack system & it works well for me.

[Raf702]

I actually have a 45qt tub, I did a long line of air holes on the sides of the tub. Then I also did several in the front, both top and bottom. Then realized I wasn't holding enough humidity and temp, so I had to close up the bottom air vents. And that made it much better than before. So on my next enclosure I will just be adding air holes/vents on the sides only, but that's just me though.

[SiQ']

use a 1/4 bit the holes really depend it's better to star with less then adjust.

[Simple Man]

I had to make a decent amount of holes on my tubs. My humidity is 60% where I live pretty constant. If I didn't make the holes the humidity shot up high enough that the digital hygro couldn't measure it. Setup your tubs and let them stabilize for a few hours. Measure them and then put in a few holes if you have 70+% humidity. I slowly added more holes until I got the humidity right. Mine are between 60-65% across the whole rack now. I also found the holes helped stabilize my ambient temps. Without the holes my hot side and cool side temps were really close. The air flow allows the tub to be ambient at my room temp with the hot side at 90 degrees because of my Flexwatt.

Regards,

B

[kitedemon]

simple man has said that well. I'd only add that I like to make sure I am getting good flow across the tub so at the back where I have the hot side I have holes low in the side and high in the front. as the air rises it will draw in fresh air and the hot air will exit via the top holes in the front. It generates a gradient where I am the room temp where the rack is is quite cool so it also limits the amount of the cool air entering the tub. The air from the back is partially heated by the flexwatt at the back.