Let's talk about heating!

Ok, so my little peanut is not a BP, but I figured this would be the best place to ask questions, nonetheless. Feel free to move it if I am wrong :) A few months ago, I acquired a beautiful yearling Tanimbar scrub python. He is currently being housed in a 36x18x24 Exo Terra with a 100 watt CHE on the top of his enclosure. Over the past couple months, his temperature gradient has been pretty good. A couple degrees under on the cool side, perhaps, but he has plenty of access to a warm basking area. Now that it's getting colder, I've noticed his night drops are dipping too low. He divides his time about 50/50 between his hot spot and under one of his hides on the cool side. I measured the temp under his cool hide last night and it had dropped to 68 degrees! I immediately scooped him up to get warm and used the day lamp from my Dumeril's enclosure to warm up his temps until I could snag another heat lamp today.

But I consider that a band-aid. I feel like I am not heating his enclosure in the most efficient way possible, so I'd like to hear some thoughts as to what you guys use. I hear RHP's are basically the gold standard, but I'd also like him to have some light during the day. Currently, his enclosure is set up near a window, so he does get natural light during a normal day cycle. But I'd still like to add lighting to his enclosure. Up until literally an hour ago, my only trepidation with an RHP is that it wouldn't necessarily allow for a natural temperature drop at night. BUT, somehow I failed to realize until tonight that temperatures on his endemic islands actually don't drop noticeably at night!

Anyway, the point is, I need to raise the temperature of his enclosure and would like to know what the best way of doing this might be. The gradient should be around 76-90 degrees.

Oh yes, and here are pics of his home:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ur.com/pYzQw2Rhttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...m/pYzQw2Rl.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...m/XJdn1i5l.jpg

Well glass tanks are notoriously hard to get set up right. First i would cover 3/4 of the top of that screen with something like acrylic or even cardboard wrapped in tin foil to help hold in heat and humidity. Next i would cover the sides of the cage with black craft paper.

If you cover the top, your heating issues should be ok. I have no idea how cold your room gets at night or stuff like that but you can also maybe add a second smaller CHE on the opposite end to just heat the air. That combined with covering 3/4 of the top should take care of your problem.

I have seen guys use RHPs on Exo Terra tanks for GTPs. You need to highly customize it though. You would have to ditch the whole screen lid and then have a piece of acrylic cut to fit the top, then drill holes to mount the RHP and then silicone the whole acrylic top to the frame of the cage. I dont remember the name of the video but i'm sure you could find it on youtube. It was done really nicely but for the amount of work it took, better off just getting a PVC cage imo lol.

Bottom line is start by limiting the airflow as you are losing most if not all of your heat through the screen top.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Well glass tanks are notoriously hard to get set up right. First i would cover 3/4 of the top of that screen with something like acrylic or even cardboard wrapped in tin foil to help hold in heat and humidity. Next i would cover the sides of the cage with black craft paper.

If you cover the top, your heating issues should be ok. I have no idea how cold your room gets at night or stuff like that but you can also maybe add a second smaller CHE on the opposite end to just heat the air. That combined with covering 3/4 of the top should take care of your problem.

I have seen guys use RHPs on Exo Terra tanks for GTPs. You need to highly customize it though. You would have to ditch the whole screen lid and then have a piece of acrylic cut to fit the top, then drill holes to mount the RHP and then silicone the whole acrylic top to the frame of the cage. I dont remember the name of the video but i'm sure you could find it on youtube. It was done really nicely but for the amount of work it took, better off just getting a PVC cage imo lol.

Bottom line is start by limiting the airflow as you are losing most if not all of your heat through the screen top.

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Totally didn't even think about the fact that I can't attach an RHP to the top of a screen tank. Wow. It's not easily visible, but I have taped up 3 of the 4 sections of the screen top with packing tape to at least try to keep the humidity in. I think adding a smaller CHE to the other side might be helpful. He just loves to sleep in those stupid eggs and it gets so cold in there! Eventually I'll just invest in a PVC cage for him and move the Dumeril's into his spot, since her specifications are far less annoying. Thank you for the insight!

Lol no problem. You could also stick a UTH under those eggs if that is where she likes to sleep. Just set it to around 76F. That way the eggs are still within the cool temp requirements.

This guy has a very similar tank to yours and installed a radiant heat panel on the top. This should show an option if you research and go this route. Just posting this to show alternatives to ceramic heat emitters in exo terra tanks. Essentially he placed plexiglass on the section of the screen then secured a radiant heat panel across two sections of the screen. This would work for a ball python as well as it does for a green tree python in this case. Blocking off the majority of the screen top would also help with humidity. You would essentially block off 3 of the 4 sections with plexiglass. the laqst section you could either place plexiglass with holes drilled for ventialtion or say cover 1/2 of that last section to limit air flow and thus improve humidity retention.

For the radiant heat panel you would still need to control it via thermostat and would have the probe placed inside the cage to control heat.

You would maybe benefit from an UTH placed under the tank on the hot side also controlled by a thermostat.

If you wanted to further control heat you could use foam board or styrofoam on the outside back and sides of the tank to insulate the glass. You could also place foamboard or styrofoam under the bottom of the tank to insulate the bottom. This would get it closer inline to a PVC enclosure in terms of heat retention and humidity control.

Edit: remove the packing tape. Tape must never come in contact with the internal part of the cage. Plexiglass panels will work best and you can get them cut to size at home depot or lowes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u3GIcX_Djc

You can mount an RHP inside an Exo-Terra type enclosure with a screen top, we’ve done it twice; once screwing it into one or two pieces of 1x2 on the outside of the top, and once replacing the screws with long bolts and using fender washers on the outside. With the 1x2 we had to trim plastic, with the fender washers we didn’t have to. The RHP also limits air flow.


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Awesome; thanks so much guys!!