Plastic home-made DIY snake/reptile rack Q's

file:///C:/Users/Mary/Pictures/2012-11 (Nov)/DSCF8160.JPG So here is my new Snake/gecko rack Its a 72Hx36Wx24D (height is before i cut it to fit the bins 6-28 quart tubs and 3-16 quart tubs) and i just had a few Questions about heating/humidity and others,1) since this is a plastic rack should I put foil down before the flex watt or not worry about it? (I did buy a Ranco thermostat with 15 feet of flex watt) and I plan on doing one sheet of it just going thru the shelves. and as for humidity I'm not sure what to do....I have water bowls in the tubs that will be full when I start buying ball pythons but i want to make sure everything is right before I start getting them. I'm also planing on them being on aspen bedding cause my other snake is on it and i like how nice and easy it is to use. and what should the thermostat be set for? i was thinking around 80-86 degrees F.

all answers are taken seriously and gratefully :)

The picture might be helpful! We can't view anything from your computer unless you host it on the internet. You can use flickr, photobucket, or the gallery right here on bp.net

The thermostat setting depends on your specific situation. Play around with it until the temp inside the tub reaches around 90*F (for ball pythons). This might require you to set your thermostat a little higher than your target temp.

ya I figured the pic didn't work..... and ya I'll play with it and get it to the right temp:) if I cant get the pic up use this http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...a0c556_300.jpg this is the storage unit i bought...it fits 2 28 quart tubs side by side on each shelve

I actually plan to buy the same shelf in the next few days for the same purpose. I only have 1 snake right now but she needs a bigger tub, the breeding bug has bit me so I know I might as well get a setup that will work as a rack down the road ;)

From what I've seen this shelving unit will work perfectly for what I want, I like that I'll be able to fit 41qt and 28qt tubs in the same unit and with the same shelf height. Its a huge benefit IMO to be able to use a shelf for 2 28qt tubs now and down the road switch that same shelf to a 41qt if I need it.

I would be concerned with a plastic rack, flexwatt, and an on off tstat. When powered flexwatt gets hot very very hot. My 11 inch hits easily 190º I would be concerned about subjecting a plastic rack to on off cycles with this kind of heat. this is the nature of on off. The turn on until the over and under set point values are reached on the probe. The time between the probe changing temp to the set point is a 100% max heat period. This temp is delivered to the rack, the tubs are raised a bit so there is a buffer. But the rack must with stand that max temp and tolerate the cycles cold to warm and back again. Remember this will also be longer and greater as the ambient temp in the room is lowered, slowing the probe response.

IMO I would not use an on/off type on a rack carcass as you are suggestion at all. i would instead use a proportional unit that will never allow the temp to hit max and never cool thus reducing the cycles.

Flexwatt is an odd product, it is capable of producing high temps maxed out, higher than its recommended max operational temp. I wonder about its use with any on/off tstat I know this is common but I sometimes am concerned with the safety of such a thing. Especially with the number of facility fires in the past few years.

That's a good point and something I'll definitely be testing before moving to the system full time. I'm not expecting to see too big of an issue though, the shelves in this unit are ventilated so that should help avoid too much heat building up in the plastic and I wouldn't expect ~200 degrees to melt the shelving.

That said, I'm actually considering combining this with a rheostat I am using right now. Thermostat ---> rheostat ---> flexwatt/heater. This way I could use the rheostat to put a fairly accurate max temp on the flexwatt and the thermostat would maintain the temperature accurately.

I'll at least go this route until I get bored enough and make my own flexwatt controller with a spare arduino chip ;)

So far its working pretty well for me....... I got the flex watt and ranco thermostat the other day and wired/setup everything and its working fairly well the only thing i will change soon is that i will put foil sheets under the tape b4 it gets taped down to keep valuable heat from dropping thru the rack.....cause so far I cant get the temps over 73ish(the thermostat is set for 100 with a temp difference of like 2) on the warm side(no pythons yet so no worrys) but ima try and do this fairly soon so I can start adding all the items to the tubs........its actually better than i expected so far and way lighter than melamine.