Controlling Tub Temp in Colder Climates

Hello everyone,
This is my first post. I am new to this hobby, I currently have a young corn snake and a 2 year old ball python. I have had them both for less than 4 months. I live in Michigan and I have t had any problems maintaining the proper temps in their enclosures yet but I do have concerns about this winter. I normally only heat my house to 68F or so.

My main concern is for my ball python. She currently lives in a 28qt steralite tote set up as a stand alone unit. I have a piece of 10” x 12” piece of heat tape on one side at the moment set at 88F. But that only ever raises the ambient temp by say 2F on the cold side. So in the winter that obviously wouldn’t be enough. I don’t really want to heat my whole house that much more (although I will if I have to) and I’d rather not run a space heater all winter either. Any advice would be great on how to handle this, as adding a heat lamp or CHE doesn’t seem like an option on a tub. I was considering building a single tub rack, so it would be enclosed more and possibly adding back heat as well? Does ianyone have experience with something like this?

thanks

You can modify a tub to accomodate a CHE. Here's a rhread where I talk about how I've done it in the past.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...with-pictures)

I am now thinking about building a single tub rack system and adding a CHE to the top by cutting a hole and adding some screen. Any other ideas?

A Che in a rack will only heat the top tub. You need heat tape under every tub in a rack system. No bulbs are used in a rack system. And put the heat tape under the warm hide. Uth are only for belly heat and do not raise ambient air. There is a tub set up thread for you to look at. It's awesome!

i see now you said single tub rack....I gotcha. Yes a bulb would work for that...regulated with a dimmer or thermostat of course. :)

You could also add a second strip of heat tape to the cool side, and set its thermostat to 82*F or so. During the winter I would set the one on the warm side to 90-92*F. Then put a hide over each strip of heat tape.

So I ended up buying a VE 2 tub rack from Reptile Basics and it is working great. Totally worth the money.