Custom Racking Questions

PVCx look at proveer I have used the Atlantic guys for ages and they are rock solid service.
(Ontario
680 Steeprock Drive
Toronto, ON M3J 2X1
Toll Free: (800) 263-1421
Tel: (416) 635-6500
Fax: (416) 635-8640
Office Hours:
Mon. to Fri. 8:30am - 5:00pm )

If you decide on the VE300x2 I would HIGHLY recommend a failsafe. Tubs running over probes it has a high chance of pulling a probe loose and the T-stat trying to heat the probe that is no longer attached to the heat source. A failsafe protects all the animals. (why I suggest a herpstat it is cheaper to start with and has a built in fail safe.) VEs are carried in Canada by Cornells world (Greg is great guy BTW) and Exclusive Snakes (Robin / Jeff is also good to deal with slow on emails however) Any other reseller is importing from a third party or from these two, they are the only Canadian resellers.

I have never seen two rows of 4 inch either. I suppose you could daisy chain them but again I don't see why.

I have used an each shelf plugged into a bar it is fine.

Don't forget that most whom run racks heat the room to the cool end temp (80ºF) and the tool of choice is an oil heater and many use a separate t-stat for that too, usually a Ranco or Johnson. I personally don't but use dual heat sources cool and warm to keep the temps correct it takes twice the probes in fact in my case I use 4 per rack (two for the top and two for the bottom) I have quite cool floors (old house syndrome)

Would just one strip of 4" Flexwatt tape be enough to heat my 18" x 28" tub?

My floors are also pretty cool, I am living in a basement so the room that my snakes are in is pretty cool, but I managed to get the current tubs they are in pretty close to what they should be at.

Also I should add.. I just found out that I will be going to Ohio for a Mini Rex Nationals competition.. I am going to support my girlfriend in her hobby and I figure I might as well do some shopping for my balls while I'm down there :)
I may be able to pick up a few things for cheaper while I am down there
maybe someone can point me into the right direction? *wink wink* lol

Here are some of the DIY guides and videos I looked at before I sat down to build my rack:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...=920078#920078

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Rack-Complete

http://bamboozoo.weebly.com/diy-rack-build.html

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rack.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B52erUxXgJY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7JGr...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEjeT...eature=related

The dimensions on all these racks might be different than you end up using, and you might not need to go through all of this, but it was helpful to me to read/watch a lot to help me figure out exactly how I wanted to approach my build. I decided to make the sides and back of my rack out of solid melamine instead of just having supports for the shelves in order to hold heat better, as my ball pythons are in the room with my boyfriend's corn snakes, which he will brumate around December so the ambient temperature is going to get relatively low. For reference, here's a picture of what my rack ended up looking like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/kiaro/rack.jpg

I originally planned to turn it upside-down so that the bottom shelf sat a few inches off of the ground, but the boyfriend wanted to use that extra trim around the top as a little barrier so he could store a few of his adult tubs on top of it.

Edit: Again, for the purposes of holding temperature better, I used belly heat instead of back heat, although I've been told that side heat might have also been efficient, and would have allowed me to use 4 inch heat tape instead of 11 inch, but I imagine the wiring would be significantly more complicated to have heat tape running halfway down each wall on each shelf.

In addition to what everyone else has said, I highly recommend getting IRIS brand tubs.
They never change style and is cheap in bulk. Sterillite and Rubbermaid seem to change tub styles regularly, so getting replacement tubs in the future might be tough unless you buy a bunch in advance.

satomi325 is dead right on the changing sizes. iris are harder to get here i think they have to come over the boarder so that adds to the cost a fair bit. I would suggest to buy a few extras in case the tub size changes.

thanks for the DIY Rack guides! these will come in Handy :)

I may be sticking with the 41 Sterilite tubs, I like the way they look and everyone has said that they are great for BPs
I will look into the Iris tubs though :)