Plastic switch update & humidity question

My plastic tub has been sitting now for about 36 hours, and the temps have come out really nice so far. I have a 105 qt rubbermaid with an ultratherm heat pad under one side, and nothing under the other. Ambient and floor temps are good, but the humidity thus far isn't. I have been struggling with humidity in my aquarium, and that is what prompted the switch. Humidity in the tub this morning was 29%...there is no water in the tub at the moment. My question; when I get water in the tub, will it affect the humidity drastically, and get it to where it is needed? My aquarium levels out around 38% (more with twice a day mistings) with 85% of the screen top covered. The tub has holes soldered (best 9 bucks ever spent) around the whole thing...2-3 inches apart half way up, the lid has 6 holes in it (total of 30 ish holes)....what should I expect with the addition of the water?

BTW...there is no snake in the tub at the time!

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Originally Posted by sirhissball

there is no water in the tub at the moment.

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That's all it is - and all it should take - just place the water on the warm side and adjust if necessary. It is easier to deal with extra holes than too few. Covering them up when necessary is no biggie but I sure wouldnt want to have melt additional ones once the snake is in there.

You might want to also take a second and do a humidity reading of the room the enclosure is in just to get an idea on how that might be affecting the environment.

Best of luck sorting out the tub. The nice thing is once you've got it set they tend to be really easy to maintain and are an absolute dream when it comes to keeping them clean.


~~Jo~~

Right-o.

With no source of moisture in the tub it should be roughly the same reading as the rest of the room.

I love my tubs - quick response maintenance is easy - if i see water beading/running down the sides I know someone has either sloshed their water all over the place or just massively releived themselves and it's time to clean up.

With a plastic tub, would a heat mat on its own usually be enough to maintain good belly temps and ambiente temps (Using a thermostat)? The temps in the room where it would be kept vary between 65F and 75F.

It depends on how big the enclosure is. If you have a small amount of 'air' in the enclosure the heat mat should work fine by itself. But if you have a large open enclosure, you will most likely need a secondary heat source with a room temp of 65F.

What I have at the moment is a wood enclosure, 24"x15" and about 20" tall. It looks very nice but it's really difficult to maintain temps and humidity. I'm considering something like those sterilites that people seem to use, that are only about 6" tall. I'd imagine something like that would be easier to heat, but would that give my bp enough 'headroom'?

Ball pythons generally live in holes in the ground.....so 6" is just enough head room and it actually makes them feel more secure ;) I keep all of my ball pythons in 41 qt. sterilite enclosures in a rack. They are much easier to heat than my first enclosure that was 12" tall. I always suggest that you buy the tub and set it up the way you would like....then monitor the temperture inside....then put the ball python inside. That way your bp is never 'in cage' when you are messing around trying to get temperatures right. If the temperatures are correct with just a UTH, then you have a new enclosure ready to go. If they too low, you can always add a secondary heating element without much trouble.

Thanks for the advice Daniel! Sorry for kinda stealing this thread by the way!

I think I might pick up a tub anyway, as they are pretty cheap, and try to get it set up to see if it would be easier to maintain. I'll leave Bobby where he is til it's all set up anyway. If the temps did happen to be too low, what's the easiest option for a secondary heating element with a tub?

There are so many options for secondary heating. It all depends on the enclosure setup and what type of equipment you have (like thermostat, etc.). I would not even worry about the secondary heat for now, get everything set up and....hopefully, the enclosure will be just fine with just the UTH ;)