Temperature control question

Alright, I am a new bp owner and am just finishing up my first week with him. So I have a 55g glass tank and I know its big, but it was free. I have two UTHs both on thermostats, i keep one side around 91 and the other around 83 and the ambient temp currently is around 86. My house gets very cold at night and I just set up my second UTH today. At night should I run a infared light for heating purposes also? To avoid a drastic temp drop?, or should I towel over? or foil over? I was also thinking about attaching the infared to the basking thermostat, so it keeps the basking side around 89 at night and just adjust the temp in the morning and before bed? Any advice? or does my set up sound fairly good?

I also have a lot of things in my tank to give my bp his privacy, and have blacked out the sides with non-grip shelving liner so he feels safer :)

Well the first comment is the temps are a touch high. 80 on the cool side and the ambient temps should be in the low 80s. The thing to remember is snakes in general have a large lung it runs much of the body length. The lung will regulate the core temps a lot. How much drop are you getting?

The drop is about 4 degrees at night, but I can lower my temps on the T stats, Just need to know what would be best, I just wanna make my snake as happy as possible :) do you think if I foil treat the top, leaving a ventilation hole of course, I would be able to heat it enough with just my two UTHs? or should I put a dimmer on my Infared light and go from there?

4 Degrees off both hot side and cool side or just cool and ambient?

I wouldn't worry too much about the shift as along as the hot end in is still in the high 80s. Read this care sheet from VPI the bakers used to work in zoos there is a lot of debate on what temps are ok and how to manage this and that. The big thing is to maintain a hot spot. If the animal get cool they will move to it.

http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_...hon_care_sheet

Every snake is different, I have 5 enclosures and a rack. The enclosures temps are tuned to the animal they hold. One of mine always hugged to cool side so I dropped the hot side and ambient temps, the one beside him was the opposite so one enclosure is set with the cool side of 81.5º and the other is 79º The hot spots are both 90.5ºF. Before you start changing things too much let the animal settle in just keep a hot spot of 90º. Don't let the cool side get too far below 77º for too long.

What are you using for a T-stat?

Its more like a 2 degree on the hotspot and 4 everywhere, and on one uth I use a reptimed t stat which isnt digital which is annoying but I have the outside temp probe from my thermometer right next to its probe to make sure i can measure it correctly, and I cant remember the other type but its digital.

I'd not worry a 2 degree dip on the hot side is fine. There are many whom keep snakes at 88 hot spot I drop my hot spot 1.5ºF in the night so you are so close to that anyway. I'd not worry too much keep an eye on things and you might give thought to using rigid insulation to block the sides and top that will buffer the drop some and it will take longer to cool off.

Alright thank you, and my cool side is about 78-79 right now, what would you recommend insulating with? or do you have any experience with foiling over parts of your screen top?

No I have never foiled a tank i turned it. Um here is what I have done to a tank.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution

I have used this material,

http://www.kent.ca/kbs/en/product.js...2&catalogId=45

I glued a image to the snake side and the one side visible to me I just used black paper. then just taped it to the outside. if you get thick stuff it is hard to cut.

At the moment my cool side temps are at 78.5, 81.2, 80.1 and 79.3. each tailored to the occupants, I have 3 cool one hot at the moment. you sound like your temps are fine.

Alex

thanks a lot, you seem to be one of the most helpful posters yet on my posts, and being a new bp owner that means a lot, I definitely see this becoming a hobby of mine. :) Mind if I message you if I have any more questions?

Hey no problem, work is slow at the moment. Sure message away, I often check daily but not always. Glad to help.
Alex