Heat concerns with my first rack system

[hoosierballs]

Hello! I got my first ball python when I was 16 and have recently acquired a large number of snakes as I have become interested in breeding. I haven't ever worried about a rack system but I have so many snakes now that it seems like a must. I have a good idea of what I want to build and the tubs I will be using. My concern is about the amount and placement of the heat tape. The tub I want to use is 30"x24", I have also picked up a tub that is 36X16 but i feel I will be able to utilize my space better with the 30x24. Either would be a suitable option depending on what works best with the heat situation. The room i keep them in stays consistently 70-72 degrees right now with my 13 snakes and all their heating elements. I keep the rest of my house slightly cooler. I assume the ambient room temp would stay the same with all the racks and their heating elements. My concern is that I don't know how much heat tape to use and where to put it to keep the ambient tub temp that I need. I know I will be running a strip along the back to keep that end at 90 degrees. I am worried that it will not raise the cool end of the cage to the desired 78 degrees for me though since i have chosen to use larger tubs. I have read about some options and I would love some opinions on what will work best.

1. running a strip of heat tape on the front of the rack and setting it to 78-80 degrees with a thermostat.

2. possibly running heat tape along the side of the tubs to increase ambient temp

3. insulation? if so what type does everyone use?

I am a worrier, terrified I'm going to burn my house down with my dogs in it with this snake room. So I am trying to be as safety conscious as possible while doing this. I am also building all of these from scratch and i would love to cut a shallow 1/8"-1/4" channel to run the heat tape in so it doesn't touch the bottom of the tubs. So I am trying to figure out the best method before i start construction to accommodate this.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[KMG]

Heat tape in a rack is probably not going to help your ambient temps enough. Not without raising it to an unsafe temp.

Adding a lot of it trying to do something it is not good at is also in my opinion not wise.

You could do as many of us do with a designated snake room and get a oil filled heater. With that you really wouldn't even need heat tape if you didn't want it. Heating the room makes keeping much easier when you have a larger collection.

If you do want heat tape the most common route is to take the heat tape and run it as one long piece from level to level in a zig zag fashion in the rack. Im sure you can find some plans online that show what I mean. Doing this you only have one thing to plug in and then monitor.