Heya, guys and gals.
Okay - I'm starting yet ANOTHER ambient temps issue thread...but my situation is a bit different...so PLEASE be gentle.
I built my vivarium about 1.5 years ago. It's made of high-grade oak plywood and plexiglass. Flooring is sheet linolium (sp?) that has been silicone sealed. The heat pads are under the flooring, on top of the oak plywood. The lighting is via 18" flourescent 'day bulbs.' Substrate is cypress mulch.
The intent...when I built it...was to have a 4-stack condo to house my corn snakes. I have since transitioned to 50/50 (2 corns and 2 BPs). (Photos of my condo attached.)
I have all four Intellitemp heat pads working off of one thermostat...and I just plus-up the bedding in the corn cages to raise the floor a bit and keep the hotspot at around the requisite 82-84 degrees.
The BP vivs are up top...and I'm doing AWESOME with keeping their hotspot at 89-91 degrees, constantly.
During the day, the flourescent lights I use put their ambient vivarium temp at around 82-85 degrees.
At night, though...the ambient temp goes down to somewhere around 71-73 degrees.
Given the construction of my tank, it's not set up for RHPs or heat lamps. I suppose I COULD put down another heat pad on the cool side of each BP vivarium, and run them off of a second thermostat...but I'm just not sure if it's needed.
Both BPs are easy going, great feeders, hide all day, and come out to play at night. From everything I've read, they both seem to behave as a BP should...but I don't want them to suffer in silence, either.
Am I being to paranoid about the fluctuation in ambient temps between day and night...or is this (in your collective opinion) something I need to fix ASAP?
ANY AND ALL sound advice is appreciated. Thanks for your time, folks.
KD
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