Making the move to tubs...

Hey guys. I'm making the move from a glass tank to plastic tubs and was just wondering if any of yall had any tips/tricks to building a new enclosure. I've had humidity problems in the past with the glass tank, and a lot of yall recommended plastic tubs instead.

Where's the best place to drill the air holes? (top/bottom)
What kind of UTH's do you recommend? (I think the one I have is a ZooMed uth...sadly, no thermostat yet...)
Just got a new digital temp and humidity gage
Been using Aspen bedding (Recommend any other kind of substrate?)

Any other suggestions welcome! And thanks for all the help!!! :D

Firstly, do not drill the holes. Drilling leaves sharp edges that could harm your snake. Use a soldering iron if you can, a wood burning tool works well to. As to where to melt the holes, I think that is personal preference, but I could be wrong. For what UTH, I would recommend getting flexwatt heat tape. And IMO paper towels or newspaper make good, easy to clean substrate.
but this is all just my opinion. I'm sure a more experienced user will steer you better than me.

Tubs are fantastic, and I'm definitely not ever switching back to tanks.

I just drill the holes near the top of the tub all along the sides.

For the UTH, I just get those ZooMed UTHs and they do just fine. I do recommend you get a thermostat. Try a ReptiTemp 500R, cheapest one you can get http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.php?products_id=75

Does the digital thermometer have a probe? If it doesn't, try buying one with a probe. Put it on the bottom of the tub right above the UTH and that should accurately tell your temps.

Aspen is fine to use, it's what I use as well. Most people like using paper towels or newspaper but I like loose bedding a lot more. Just easier spot cleaning. You can try out the newspaper or paper towels and see how that goes for you, or you can try other stuff like cypress mulch.

Thanks for the advice! I'll get that thermostat ASAP!!! And I'll try to burn the holes, or at least make sure they're smoothe and won't hurt my snake.

Oh yeah...The thermometer takes the Temp at 2 places, where it sits and then it has a probe to measure another temp too. I got it so I could measure the hot and cool side of the tank

All of my tubs, the holes are drilled. It's a circle, so I'm not sure where the sharp edges would come from unless a little bit sticks out, in that case, sand them down

I have some tubs that I used a soldering iron on and some I drilled. If you drill just becareful not to carck the tub. When I was done drilling I went back over all the holes with a razor to make sure there were no edges. I like the look of drilled holes better personally and only do it that way now but using a soldering iron is eaiser and faster imo.

I use paper towels for my babies to sub adults then I use newspaper when they go into their adult 41 qt tubs personally. I am a clean freak so it is eaiser for me to keep everything clean this way. I also don't have to worry about my snakes getting substrate in their mouth etc. I do not have humidity problems in my tubs but if I did I would consider using a substrate.

Oh lord cracking tubs.... Yeah when I made my first tub I ended up cracking like 5 lids. Not good. Use the soldering iron, or go really slow with the drill.

So just finished my new snake tub!!! Turned out great! Thanks for all the advice and tips (esp. about using a sodering iron to burn the air holes)...Thought i'd post some pics just to show yall how it all turned out :)

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...NagiCage02.jpg

http://i1035.photobucket.com/albums/...NagiCage01.jpg


Nagi (my girl :snake:) seems to like it and that's what counts right? :gj: She spent all night doing laps around it checking things out. It took a while cuz I was waiting for my new thermostat to get in ( so the plastic wouldn't melt or anything )

Oh, and ignore the temp/humidity readings on the thermostat...I took the pics right after I put it all together and had her out for a while until it heated back up. Don't worry...they're now more like 93 on the warm side (where the probs are in the pic) and 80 on the cool side with at least 60% humidity. I also used another tip from a diff post and added some damp sea sponge to keep humidity up (not shown in the pics)