Cocoa husk & uth? Pvc cages?

At Goodwill the other day I found a 20g tall tank complete with a screen top, hides, a water dish & uth for $7.99. Since I'm planning on rounding out my tiny collection with a boa, of course I had to buy it! The thing is, I have been very pleased with the way the cocoa husk I use as substrate has kept the humidity in my carpet's enclosure & want to use the same for a boa. It says not to use the uth with damp substrate, which is how the husk goes in, but if I soaked it in warmed water wouldn't that lessen the potential for a cracked tub? Or is there some sort of element to the physics I'm missing that would otherwise cause calamity? Anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

Additionally, this summer I'm going to be buying a plastic cage for Evangeline, I've read a lot on here about Animal Plastics, but was wondering if anyone has had experience with pvccages or nwconstrictors cagea?

Since a UTH is outside of the tank, the only reason I can see to not use wet substrate is because it won't heat nearly as much, as the UTH also has to heat the water and the substrate. Even if you do use substrate though it might be tricky getting correct temps on top of the substrate, then you have to ensure that the snake won't push the substrate around and come into contact with the glass, which will be considerably hotter to get correct temps on top of the substrate.

The tstat to control the uth wont let it get hot enough to crack the tank. Youll be fine running that setup

As long as you keep the layer of coco husk to 1/2" thick or less you should be ok to use it in a PVC cage.

Here is a thread I wrote on PVC cages incase you haven't seen it. I use and highly recommend AP cages

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

hey guys thanks for the help!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

As long as you keep the layer of coco husk to 1/2" thick or less you should be ok to use it in a PVC cage.

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X2 I have never had Coco Husk crack a tank and less then 1/2 an inch wont mess with your heat to much I use it with great sucess in my tanks :) bout 1/4 in or so works great