Successful Humidity levels in a glass tank!

I was all about tanks for the longest time. More power to you folks - there is plenty of room for it to work very well - and you can't match that transparency.

That having been said all my tanks now house rats :P For me it came down to the number of tanks to clean and the silly weight of the bigger ones. May take a little extra effort and vigilance but glass can work fine.

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Originally Posted by iceman25

I think I'll keep my opinions on glass tanks to myself. Although its not like most of you guys don't know them already :P :D

EDIT: The above is not meant to ruffle the feathers of those who keep tanks :)

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No Raj...you just like being difficult! :neener:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

With the constantly damp substrate, don't you need to be concerned about belly rot? I've never used the stuff, so I'm not positive. It just sounds a bit odd to me. (I'm tired this morning so you may have to talk slow and use big words. ;) )

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If you mix in a couple small handfulls of damp stuff into the dry stuff...it's not the same thing as having constantly damp substrate. In fact, if you made this stuff so damp that it could cause that, the humidity would be off the charts. (At least with that screen covered the way mine is.)

When the day comes that I have more than two snakes, I will DEFinitely be finding an alternative to glass. I already plan on getting a T3 anyhow, for Kisasa...it's just that using a tank I already had made more financial sense right now, especially as the T3 would be kinda big for a wee little '05. ;)

I certainly didn't mean to imply that because the humidity can be kept up, everyone should have glass! I used to keep gerbils and I definitely know what a pain in the tail these things are to clean! I just thought I'd offer a new suggestion (one I'd never seen mentioned here before) for maintaining relatively constant humidity in these somewhat challenging enclosures.

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Originally Posted by JLC

No Raj...you just like being difficult! :neener:

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But juuuuuuuudyyyyyyyyy....(whine). Lol.

To each his own...I imagine if I get into corns eventually, I'll probably look at tubs just to cut down the cost so I can have MORE! (Must - have - all - the - orange - ones!)

For now, for us, Rick and I enjoy tanks and the details and work they require - it's something we can do together for the health and comfort of our animals and for our own enjoyment (looking at the girls in their tanks and caring for them together). =)

Admittedly we are planning on fancy custom "vision" style cases, once our snakes grwo out of the 20L's we have. But for now we don't mind the maintenance.

I'm in the middle of writing up "Cap't Overkills Guide to Ball Pythons in a Vivarium" :) The text is 95% done, I just need to get off my butt and draw the diagrams lol.

You guys are silly. Tanks hard to clean?? Take out snake, take out furniture, roll in shop-vac, suck out substrata, spray down with chlorehexidine, let dry, replace substrata, furniture, snakes, Done! Takes me about 10 minutes of work, plus chlorehexidine drying time.

And they're heavy?? hmmmmmmmmmmm.................. I don't carry them around much, tends to stress out the snakes, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

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Originally Posted by monkeywrench133

You guys are silly. Tanks hard to clean?? Take out snake, take out furniture, roll in shop-vac, suck out substrata, spray down with chlorehexidine, let dry, replace substrata, furniture, snakes, Done! Takes me about 10 minutes of work, plus chlorehexidine drying time.

And they're heavy?? hmmmmmmmmmmm.................. I don't carry them around much, tends to stress out the snakes, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

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Multiply by 20. I never cleaned the tanks where they sat - rather took them out of the room to where they could be cleaned more thoroughly (snakes aleady out of course to avoid said stress :P).

A 30 gallon tank vs a 90 qt rubbermaid/sterelite bin - there is a significant weight difference. Not so much a problem as an inescapable truth. It was fine for a while.

I respect everyone's choice in what they use - neither is invalidated. Nothing used to irk me more than when I felt I was being belittled for using glass tanks (not just for fish ;)). So long as you're giving your critters the care they need to thrive more power to you.

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Originally Posted by Krynos

I'm in the middle of writing up "Cap't Overkills Guide to Ball Pythons in a Vivarium" :) The text is 95% done, I just need to get off my butt and draw the diagrams lol.

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Nice! Looking forward to reading it.

The bottom line is, one can keep a snake in a glass enclosure and provide security, temperature and humidity if one knows how to achive it. The problem is that most new owners do not know what is involved in providing the three factors and run into several problems. The advice given to these owners by experienced keepers is to switch to tubs, which based on their "polymerized" properties are know to hold and retain humidity/temperature better than glass; a material 90% of the time made out of silica, soda, and lime. This composition makes glass weak when it comes to resisting high temperatures or fluctuating thermal gradients. This advice is what usually comes off on many occasions as "putting glass tanks down." If one knows how to combat this weakness, I see or have no problems with them keeping their animals in tanks :)

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Originally Posted by iceman25

Nice! Looking forward to reading it.

The bottom line is, one can keep a snake in a glass enclosure and provide security, temperature and humidity if one knows how to achive it. The problem is that most new owners do not know what is involved in providing the three factors and run into several problems. The advice given to these owners by experienced keepers is to switch to tubs, which based on their "polymerized" properties are know to hold and retain humidity/temperature better than glass; a material 90% of the time made out of silica, soda, and lime. This composition makes glass weak when it comes to resisting high temperatures or fluctuating thermal gradients. This advice is what usually comes off on many occasions as "putting glass tanks down." If one knows how to combat this weakness, I see or have no problems with them keeping their animals in tanks :)

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Good post, I'd really like to see the data on insulating properties of glass vs. plastic though, because I don't agree that plastic is better than glass. I have one brother in law who is an A/C specialist, and another who is a glazier. Their opinion is that glass is the better insulator. As my A/C brother in law put it "If plastic is that much better, why don't houses come with plastic windows?"

And how is glass "weak" in resisting high temps? I spent all yesterday melting holes in tubs for my rats with a soldering iron, try doing that to an aquarium.

This is what I managed to find on the subject.

"Soda-lime glass:
This is the most common commercial glass (90% of total production), and also the least expensive. The chemical and physical properties of soda-lime glass are the basis for its widespread use. Soda-lime glass is primarily used for bottles, jars, everyday drinking glasses, and window glass. It usually contains 60-75% silica, 12-18% soda, and 5-12% lime. Soda-lime glass is resistant neither to high temperatures nor sudden thermal changes, nor to corrosive chemicals.

Lead glass:
As the name already indicates, lead glass has a high percentage of lead oxide (at least 20% of the batch). Lead glass has a relatively soft surface, making it especially suited for decorating using grinding, cutting, and engraving processes. This glass will not withstand high temperatures or sudden changes in temperature.

Borosilicate glass:
The third major group, borosilicate glass, is any silicate glass having at least 5% of boric oxide in its composition. It demonstrates greater resistance to thermal changes and chemical corrosion. Thanks to its properties, borosilicate glass is suitable for use in industrial chemical process plants, in laboratories, for ampoules and vials in the pharmaceutical industry, in bulbs for high-powered lamps, etc. Borosilicate glass is also used in the home for cooking plates and other heat-resistant products."

Source: www.glassonweb.com