Hey all!
Just wanted to introduce myself and the newest member of my family. A friend of my wife recently asked her if she would be interested in adopting a ball python. I really wasn't very keen on this idea, actually I was strongly against it. I eventually caved to my wife's persistence on the condition that I would have nothing to do with its upkeep. I have had some experience with reptiles, so I knew we would be doing some shopping in order to provide an adequate habitat.
Unfortunately we went to petco before doing any research and came home with the store advised 55g tank, 2 dial combo temp/hydrometers, a "cave" hide, a log hide, a water dish, a screen top, a couple of clamp lamps, a 75w combo of day and night bulbs, and a zoomed uth. Sure do wish we'd found bp.net first.
We picked "Morpheus" up and soon realized our "setup" was severely lacking. Temperature and humidity was a constant battle, the uth got to snake cooking levels (which we stopped using immediately), and Morph wouldn't go near the log hide. I decided I needed to do some homework and spent the following days reading countless pages. We put the lights and uth on lamp dimmers (until the hydrofarms showed up), ditched the log hide for a modified cat litter pan, got an accurite, and replaced the zoomed uth with an ultratherm uth (didn't want to take the chance of messing up the uth during removal for thermostat probe). Things were coming together but the nights are getting cooler, and even with 3/4 of the tank covered we were having trouble maintaining ambient temps. We upgraded the clamp lamp and went with a 150 che. Temps improved slightly but were still too low. After some more homework, I decided to insulate the tank sides, top, and bottom. Temps came up but the surface temps were very high. I got to thinking that a little more air flow might help. So I thought to myself an old computer fan and a power supply wired to the che thermostat might do the trick. Bingo!! Ambient and surface temps are within two degrees of each other (verified by IR thermometer) and the che/fan only kick on for a few minutes compared to the che alone staying on majority of the time.
I've got to say I have really enjoyed this expirience and have become really fond of Morpheus. He is just the sweetest thing. We've had him for three weeks now and he seems to be doing great. He really seems to like being handled and is eating great.
Thanks to everyone who have contributed to such an awesome resource that is bp.net!
The Mrs. and Morpheus
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Yummy!
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps9525c953.jpg
New home.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...psdc363dd8.jpg
