Controling temps with substrate?

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Originally Posted by spaceturtle

Humidity is perfect though. Putting anything around the enclosure would result in too high humidity. I have the holes drilled to keep the humidity at 55% most of the time.

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You could just put in a couple of more holes ;)

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Originally Posted by starmom

You could just put in a couple of more holes ;)

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Yeah, problem is that I already have like a billion holes on all sides of the enclosure now. Maybe that's why my cool side temps are so crappy? I'm finding the humidity hard to keep below 60 even with as small of a water bowl as I'm willing to use. Room humidity is about 40-50 usually. I keep the tub between 50 and 60 but it requires lots of holes and low amounts of water. Water is on the cool end too.

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Originally Posted by spaceturtle

Yeah I see what you mean. It is a bit too risky...

It sucks that I can't keep the cool side warm enough. I'm basically going to need two thermostats per snake now. I have two of them in different sized tubs. I had originally hoped to just have everything off one thermostat, but I'm finding tub size has an effect on temps, even though all my flexwatt is the same size and plugged into the same thermostat. Only if I use the same tub size positioned in the same way do I get the same temps.


Surely I'm not the only person in the world with a house heated to 72 degrees that houses their snake in a tub exposed to the open air. Are there any other options other than a 2nd heating source? Maybe I need to look into insulation for my tub. I also thought about stacking the smaller tub on top of the larger. I'm hoping some of the heat from the smaller tub will carry down the larger tub's cool end down below, and vice versa.

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If you have the warm side at about 95 on the substrate (even going up a few degrees if you have to) the cool side is ok at 79-85F. When you have one side that is really that warm, then it will transfer enough heat. If the snake feels too cold then it should just go to the warm side to thermo regulate.

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

If you have the warm side at about 95 on the substrate (even going up a few degrees if you have to) the cool side is ok at 79-85F.

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Would be great if that happened, but the cool side is instead about 74-77 when the substrate is 95 and tub floor 100. I haven't seen it get to 80 unless I play with the thermostat for my apartment.

The open air and cool table below the un-heated side just counteracts the UTH way too much. This is with the flexwatt covering about half the enclosure. Weird, huh? This is with a 28qt sterilite tub. Same problem w/ the 12qt.

I believe you have table, then flexwatt, then tub, right?

Maybe if you put a layer of aluminum foil between the table and the flexwatt, it would help bounce some of the heat back up?

Doesn't cost much to try it! :D

Where is your snake spending most of his time? It's really a balancing act and lots of people have to compromise one thing or another. People in humid climates have higher humitity etc.... It sounds like you have too many holes in your tub. With fewer holes your temps would be good, but your humidity would be high. Sometimes you just can't have perfection. All my temps are a little low and my humidity runs a little high (tubs and tanks). But my snakes are all happy and healthy.

Okay- here's a crazy thought: How bout looking into a reptile cage?
If you're thinking of using to t'stats per tub, a reptile cage is not much more $$ and the cage will control the humidity AND the temps... :P

^^^ I was not seriously considering buying 4 thermostats. But a reptile cage is something I hope to get for all my animals once I have more time to save money. It's just not a good time, finacially, for me to throw money around.

I have foil tape securing the flexwatt to the table. I will try covering all the flexwatt w/ the tape though.

And yeah I think I may be getting too caught in "perfection" and maybe should just let it be a lil imperfect. I suppose the cool end being too cool is better than the warm being too hot. My snake spends 95% of his time in his warm hide anyways.

Afterall, my sister in law has had a BP for 10 years living off nothing but a heat rock in a room temp 20gal tank with a screen lid. She's now 2200 grams and looks fat and healthy to me. She's never once had any vet trips or problems. She goes off feed during breeding season, but other than that she's been ok. I'm pretty confident my husbandry is at LEAST better than this =)