Just purchased a rack from RBI, A few questions :D

[Benjamin Serenity]

Hey guys, I finally got my boys out of aquariums, and into a RBI Iris Sweaterbox! I have it set up with good temps, and humidity, but I have a few lingering questions that I could not find from searching Can you all help me answer these? SOME of them are probably dumb..

First off, here is my setup...



Lucas Tub (Baby Male)


Stanleys Tub (5 year old male)



I am using unprinted newspaper as substrate, and AccuCheck Thermometers. I also have a VE-200, and a Temp Gun I bought from RBI!




Questions

1. I bought two large hide boxes for Stanley, but his tub really only fits one.. Will he be okay with just one hide in his tub? Is my placement of his hide correct? Or should I try and put it so half is over the heat tape, and half is over the cooler pert of the tub? I could put both large hide boxes in his tub, but then he has pretty much only room to go from one to the other, and His water bowl wont fit, I would have to find a tiny bowl for his tub if I put two hides inside it. What do you guys think?

2. When I use my temp gun, should I be measuring the temperature of the plastic tub, or the top of the newspaper substrate? I find that the newspaper always measures 4-5 degrees cooler than the actual plastic. My guys haven't gone under the newspaper yet, but I don't want them to figure out that they can, and burn themselves.

3. No matter how many holes I make, or what my ceiling fan does, The humidity usually reads about 70-75.. Is this okay for them? There is never any condensation build up.

4. I find the temps vary quite a bit between tubs.. My top tubs hotspot gets only to about 88 degrees on the plastic above the heat tape, but the third tub down (Stan's house) gets to about 92-93. The second tub down from the top (Lucas house) gets anywhere from 89-93 degrees. And i notice the temps on my cool side vary from 78-80 degrees. Am I doing something wrong here? Or do temps just seem to vary slightly?

Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope my boys are much happier in their rack, as opposed to aquariums!

Ben

[Benjamin Serenity]

Anyone with an answer to my hide question? I'm sorry if these questions are dumb, I'm just really obsessing over them..

I fed both of my snakes today and they both put a rat down in 5 minutes, so that's a good sign right?

[Rickys_Reptiles]

1. I bought two large hide boxes for Stanley, but his tub really only fits one.. Will he be okay with just one hide in his tub? Is my placement of his hide correct? Or should I try and put it so half is over the heat tape, and half is over the cooler pert of the tub? I could put both large hide boxes in his tub, but then he has pretty much only room to go from one to the other, and His water bowl wont fit, I would have to find a tiny bowl for his tub if I put two hides inside it. What do you guys think?

1 hide is fine. It doesn't really matter where you put it, your snake will probably move it around anyway.

2. When I use my temp gun, should I be measuring the temperature of the plastic tub, or the top of the newspaper substrate? I find that the newspaper always measures 4-5 degrees cooler than the actual plastic. My guys haven't gone under the newspaper yet, but I don't want them to figure out that they can, and burn themselves.

your newspaper must be very thick if its 4-5 degrees different from the tub. I'm not sure what to say here, I don't even know how it's possible

3. No matter how many holes I make, or what my ceiling fan does, The humidity usually reads about 70-75.. Is this okay for them? There is never any condensation build up.

Add less moisture, 55-60% is best

4. I find the temps vary quite a bit between tubs.. My top tubs hotspot gets only to about 88 degrees on the plastic above the heat tape, but the third tub down (Stan's house) gets to about 92-93. The second tub down from the top (Lucas house) gets anywhere from 89-93 degrees. And i notice the temps on my cool side vary from 78-80 degrees. Am I doing something wrong here? Or do temps just seem to vary slightly?

heat rises, so the top tub will naturally be warmer than the bottom. I would calibrate your temps to the middle tub, that way the top and bottom will only be off by a little instead of a lot

Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope my boys are much happier in their rack, as opposed to aquariums!

Ben

[Benjamin Serenity]

Thank you so much Ricky! I went from two layers of newspaper to just one, and it seems to be more stable! I was worried about his hide, but you're absolutely right, he does move it all over the place. I will figure out how to drop my humidity a little bit too. It's weird because my top tub seems to be the coolest, and my bottom tub gets way hotter than the rest. Maybe it's because I had my rack sitting on my carpet. I purchased a wood slab from Lowe's today and I'm hoping that sitting on that, my rack will even out temperature wise.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

I'm going to assume you're using either heat tape or cable? Is it wired from top to bottom, or bottom to top? If the plug is at the bottom the lower shelf may be hotter because it starts to warm up before the top tub. Only by a fraction of a second, but I have found from my own experiences that it does seem to make a small difference.

The only way to make 100% sure they are all the same temp is to have a separate probe for each shelf. I wouldn't worry if the temps are a degree or 2 off, it's not a big deal.

[Benjamin Serenity]

I'm going to assume you're using either heat tape or cable? Is it wired from top to bottom, or bottom to top? If the plug is at the bottom the lower shelf may be hotter because it starts to warm up before the top tub. Only by a fraction of a second, but I have found from my own experiences that it does seem to make a small difference.

The only way to make 100% sure they are all the same temp is to have a separate probe for each shelf. I wouldn't worry if the temps are a degree or 2 off, it's not a big deal.

I bought this rack from ReptileBasics, it's the four drawer sweater box model. The temperature range is only 2-3 degrees different now between tubs, so I won't worry as much as I was. I think I am going to use probes on all the belly heat tape strips now too, good idea. I have three extra temperature probes sitting around from my old aquarium setup. I have my thermostat heat probe taped to the middle drawers heat tape.

[Benjamin Serenity]

Oh, and after drilling a row of extra holes in my tubs, I now got my humidity to 60-65 yay

[CryHavoc17]

As far as the big hides go:

Id go with just the one, placed directly over the hotspot. This will trap your heat nicely, so he'll get a little extra ambient heat in the hide above what he'd get just laying on the tape.

You could also go with no hides and see if he does well. Most adults in tubs dont really need the hide, the nature of the rack helps a lot with their level of security. Thats totally up to you tho.

As far as the other stuff: you want to use your temp gun on the newspaper, not the bottom of the tub. Temp guns cant take very accurate readings on a clear surface like a tub. The difference in temp between the newspaper and bottom of the tub will be minimal, not nearly enough to be worried about.

Your temps are always going to vary a bit from tub to tub. Those snakes that have a slightly cooler tub will bask slightly more, those whos tubs run hotter will bask a bit less often. If you want to you can always experiment with moving snakes to different slots. You may fine certain snakes perfer the cooler vs warmer temps. Regardless its really not an issue.

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[Benjamin Serenity]

As far as the big hides go:

Id go with just the one, placed directly over the hotspot. This will trap your heat nicely, so he'll get a little extra ambient heat in the hide above what he'd get just laying on the tape.

You could also go with no hides and see if he does well. Most adults in tubs dont really need the hide, the nature of the rack helps a lot with their level of security. Thats totally up to you tho.

As far as the other stuff: you want to use your temp gun on the newspaper, not the bottom of the tub. Temp guns cant take very accurate readings on a clear surface like a tub. The difference in temp between the newspaper and bottom of the tub will be minimal, not nearly enough to be worried about.

Your temps are always going to vary a bit from tub to tub. Those snakes that have a slightly cooler tub will bask slightly more, those whos tubs run hotter will bask a bit less often. If you want to you can always experiment with moving snakes to different slots. You may fine certain snakes perfer the cooler vs warmer temps. Regardless its really not an issue.

Sent from my SM-G730V using Tapatalk 2

Thank you for the tips! I really appreciate it. I will experiment with my 5 year old. He seems less stressed in his tub. Maybe he doesn't even need a hide. Only time will tell. I'm definitely not as worried as I was thanks to you guys!

Ben