Where do I put the heating source lamp?

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Originally Posted by hammerhead

Also can you advise me in which one of these to get?

Substrates:
Coconut Husk Brick
Cypress Mulch
Bark
Aspen

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any one of these substrates will work well for you. its just a matter of preference. some people will choose one over the other because one may not make as much of a mess as another or maybe because one will hold humidty better than another. you may use which ever one works best for you and your ball python.

Hey guys. If i can get few responses to this that would be awesome. I wanna order everything today so hopefully by friday (4 business days) ormonday i can have all the stuff.

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Thanks everyone for the replies! VERY appreciated!

Quick question: Right now i have humidity at 55% and temp at 87ish F in the air. I still don't have any other heat source other than a lamp and I did a quick test on turning it off and boom temp dropped to 70 so I quickly turned it on. My question is, are 55 and 87 okay for now until i can figure out what to order online (the under tank heating pads, and better thermometers) Right now I only have a stick on one.

Also, I'll take your advice and worry about the temp/humidity for now. Here's another question. I'm pretty sure I wanna get 2 UTHs. What else do I need. How do I regulate the heat between the two sides (the warmer and cooler) How do the thermostat thingies work? I can't seem to figure out. I read that thermostats can help you adjust the heat, but do I have to buy the heaters, thermostats and the digital temp display thingies all seperate and put them together?

Also what do you guys think about the reptile deN?: http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/reptile_den.php!

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Oh and can you guys recommend one general site for purchasing most of my needs from? Stuff like the heating pads, thermostats, digital thermometer, substrate. I wanna get everything from one site so that i dont pay too much for shipping.

55% humidity is just fine, and 87 is not bad for now, but you said that you only had the stick on type gauges for temp and humidity??? (unless I read it wrong).
I am not sure where you are located but I would try going to Walmart and getting an accurite digi. thermometer/hydrometer. It is about 12$ and will read temps and humidity much more accurately than the stick on types (which are very unreliable).

I would definately get the UTH and a thermostat ASAP (as well as a digital thermometer)!!! But for now I would leave the light on over night. How they generally work is that you plug the UTH into the thermostat (the thermostat is what is then plugged into the outlet) and then set the thermostat to the temp, although you may have to play around with it a little because you may have to set the thermostat to a slightly higher temp in order to achieve the correct temp on the UTH. The digital thermometer would then be placed inside the tank to be able to monitor the temps from the UTH (I have an accurite and I have the probe sitting under the substrate on top of the glass just over the UTH on the hot side and the unit itself is placed on the cool side, in my tank). My temps stay right around 92* hot side 82* cool side, with humidity between 50-60%, but I bump that up to 60-70% during shed. If you do get 2 UTHs then you would need either 2 thermostats or a thermostat that will be able to control 2 different heat sources at the same time, since they would be set to different temps...one for hot side and one for the cool side.

As far as the substrate, I have tried them all, and usually I try to get the cypress mulch (it is pine and cedar that has the oils in them that can harm your snake, so stay away from those) but sometimes it depends on what the petstore has in stock when I go to buy more substrate. Currently my BP is on repti bark and that seems to hold humidity in well also.

I don't think that the reptile den woiuld be suitable for a BP. One of my BP's has hides made out of the bottom part of a flower pot (the piece you put underneath to catch excess water) and the other has plastic bowls turned upside down and cut down to size slightly. Both are very inexpensive and very easy to clean!! You will need one hide for each side of your tank, identical.


Hope that this helps you out some!! :)

**Sorry this was so long!!**

or maybe i got it mixed up with a different mulch

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Originally Posted by Sunny1

55% humidity is just fine, and 87 is not bad for now, but you said that you only had the stick on type gauges for temp and humidity??? (unless I read it wrong).
I am not sure where you are located but I would try going to Walmart and getting an accurite digi. thermometer/hydrometer. It is about 12$ and will read temps and humidity much more accurately than the stick on types (which are very unreliable).

I would definately get the UTH and a thermostat ASAP (as well as a digital thermometer)!!! But for now I would leave the light on over night. How they generally work is that you plug the UTH into the thermostat (the thermostat is what is then plugged into the outlet) and then set the thermostat to the temp, although you may have to play around with it a little because you may have to set the thermostat to a slightly higher temp in order to achieve the correct temp on the UTH. The digital thermometer would then be placed inside the tank to be able to monitor the temps from the UTH (I have an accurite and I have the probe sitting under the substrate on top of the glass just over the UTH on the hot side and the unit itself is placed on the cool side, in my tank). My temps stay right around 92* hot side 82* cool side, with humidity between 50-60%, but I bump that up to 60-70% during shed. If you do get 2 UTHs then you would need either 2 thermostats or a thermostat that will be able to control 2 different heat sources at the same time, since they would be set to different temps...one for hot side and one for the cool side.

As far as the substrate, I have tried them all, and usually I try to get the cypress mulch (it is pine and cedar that has the oils in them that can harm your snake, so stay away from those) but sometimes it depends on what the petstore has in stock when I go to buy more substrate. Currently my BP is on repti bark and that seems to hold humidity in well also.

I don't think that the reptile den woiuld be suitable for a BP. One of my BP's has hides made out of the bottom part of a flower pot (the piece you put underneath to catch excess water) and the other has plastic bowls turned upside down and cut down to size slightly. Both are very inexpensive and very easy to clean!! You will need one hide for each side of your tank, identical.


Hope that this helps you out some!! :)

**Sorry this was so long!!**

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It helped lots. So, a UTH on one side(with the thermostat) and a lamp on the other side would be fine? Right now I already have a lamp so I am thinking about getting a 75 watt bulb of different color (red) or the blue ones for night time.

Also there is no wallmart around here. I'm in santa barbara. We have K-mart home depot, costco, but no wallmart.

The digital thermometer doesn't necessarily need to be an accurite. Here is a link to the accurite that I have, but any similar digi. thermometer can work really. I am sure that you can find them at Kmart or at any hardware store.

Link to the accurite:
http://www.partshelf.com/acu00891.html

And using a UTH on the hotside and the lamp on the cool side can work too. I have a lamp on my tank that I use on occasion, at times it gets a little cold in my house. You can also cover up 3 sides of your tank to help insulate it and that will help hold in the heat of the tank. Since it is getting colder, I have covered 3 sides of my tank with Reflectix (found in the insulation section of a hardware store) and that has really helped my tank hold in heat. I have read others suggest foam board to cover the tank with. I am not sure what holds the heat in better, the reflectix has been working well for me so far.

And if you haven't covered your screen yet, I would do that as well. It works very well as far as helping to keep the humidity in the tank. Please make sure that if you do cover the screen though that you put any tape used on the outside of the tank. You don't want your snake to come into contact with any tape, that can be a BAD situation.

Thanks a lot sunny.

Guys another question.

Is it ok to have 3 hides? My snake is only about 16-17inches and the tank is 20g 30x12x12. I have a half log hide right but wanna get 2 caves for each side since i wanna have 2 similar ones, but don't like the log one. So is it okay to have 2 identical cave hides on each side plus the half log in the middle somewhere?

Having the 2 cave hides plus the half log in the middle should be fine. Most likely your BP won't like the half log as much because he'll feel more exposed under it than the others.

The reason 2 identical hides is recommended is so that a snake doesn't decide to stay in its favorite hide that makes it feel the most secure, when really it should be going somewhere else to thermoregulate properly. So 3 identical hides would also be fine, one warm, one cool, one medium.

In your case, they won't all 3 be identical. If the different one was likely to become the favorite, that would be a concern. If you do happen to notice your BP spends all or most of its time under the half log, then I'd try switching them around so the different hide is no longer the "medium" hide. If he still stays under the half log mostly, you will need to go to 2 identical hides. If he stays under whatever you have moved into the "medium" location, then you can assume he just likes that temps best.

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Originally Posted by Sunny1

And using a UTH on the hotside and the lamp on the cool side can work too. I have a lamp on my tank that I use on occasion, at times it gets a little cold in my house.

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so what would be the best arrangement in this scenario?
lamp on the hot with uth on the cool
or
lamp on the cool with uth on the hot
:confused: :confused: :confused:

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Originally Posted by rottendj

so what would be the best arrangement in this scenario?
lamp on the hot with uth on the cool
or
lamp on the cool with uth on the hot
:confused: :confused: :confused:

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In the case of my house and my tank, IMO, the best scenario would be to put the UTH on the hotside, the UTH is going to heat up the substrate much better than lamp will without getting rid of all the humidity, and the BP is going to need that constant 90-94* temp to be able to bring up its body temp when it needs to. If you have some problems keeping heat up in your tank (ie. it gets really cold in your house at night like it can get in mine) that would be when I would use the lamp and I put that on my cool side since that is where I keep an eye on my ambient temps. Normally my temps stay basically stable, it is just lately at night now that it is starting to get cooler and we have not yet turned on the heat in the house, that the ambient temps in my tank drop a little also. So that is really the only time that I ever use my lamp, overnight.
I wouldn't use the UTH as the primary source of heat on the hot side because of how it sucks out ALOT of the humidity in the tank. Plus BP's get the majority of their heat that they need from the substrate (belly heat) as opposed to an overhead heat source since they are nocturnal creatures and in the wild they wouldn't be basking in the sun.
To be honest, I am not an expert on this, this is all just what I do and what works for me and being able to keep my tank temps constant. I do hope that this helps you out though!!! :)