How to Setup a Glass Tank (20 long) With Pictures!

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Originally Posted by Yirra2112

This is actually my first post on this forum, although I've been poking around for the last two weeks or so. I've already encountered a tremendous amount of helpful information while perusing the shared experiences on this site. I used this guide to help set up my ball python's home. He's my first bp, I've always kept corns before. I'm encountering a problem keeping up the humidity in his enclosure though. I live in the desert, the ambient humidity in our house is about 15%. His enclosure has an UTH w/thermostat, dimming switch heating lamp (w/zoomed infrared 75watt), somewhat large waterbowl located directly beneath it and foil covering 2/3 of the top of the tank, most of the space that isn't dedicated to the lamp. The foil covers both the basking side, and cooler side. Beside that he's got the usual reptibark substrate. two hides, some plastic leaves he seems to like more than the hide and two thermometers, one for each side of the cage.


The lamp seems to actually be drying the air our rather than encouraging the water from the bowl to evaporate and raise the humidity. Before I got the lamp the humidity seemed to hang around 45% (when i wasn't home to spritz the cage, if I'm home I can maintain the 50% -60% ideal). Today was the first time I left the lamp on while I wasn't home and I checked on it on my lunch break and in the 4hrs I was at work the humidity had dropped from 58% when I left in the morning, post spritz, to 35%. However, if I turn off the lamp, the cool side drops to about 78 degrees. I'm not sure what I can do to promote both a steady temperature and steady humidity in the appropriate range. Is there a way for me to keep the lamp on and still get the humidity to rise? Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated as he was already in shed when I brought him home a few days ago and I really want to make sure he can get the last of it off successfully/comfortably.

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welcome to the forum! try soaking a hand towel in water, ring it out so it's not dripping but still damp, and laying it over a hide. that will boost your humidity pretty good.

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

welcome to the forum! try soaking a hand towel in water, ring it out so it's not dripping but still damp, and laying it over a hide. that will boost your humidity pretty good.

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Thank you! That sounds like a great idea, I'll give it a shot as soon as I get home =)

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

my bad for misunderstanding. sometimes i just speed read posts and can miss stuff. yes it goes in the hot hide. 😀

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No worries! :)
I have another question regarding this matter; if my hot hide is around 90 - 91 degrees, is it okay if my hot side outside of my hide is a bit lower than 88? I hope that makes sense.
Thank you so much for helping out!

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Originally Posted by SimonPalmieri

No worries! :)
I have another question regarding this matter; if my hot hide is around 90 - 91 degrees, is it okay if my hot side outside of my hide is a bit lower than 88? I hope that makes sense.
Thank you so much for helping out!

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that's fine. 😀

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

that's fine. 😀

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One other thing I've noticed is that if my room's temperature is below 72-73 (I live in Canada) and I have to turn the lamp up a bit to maintain my 78 degrees, the substrate near my bowl gets to about 86-88 degrees. However, it only seems to be near the back(ish) of the bowl. The substrate in front is more around 85. The surface temp on top of my cold hide varies from 81 - 84. Is it OK if this substrate gets this hot and if the cold hide's surface temperature on top gets this hot?

I'm sorry if I have so many questions, just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

Thanks so much!

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Originally Posted by SimonPalmieri

Is it OK if this substrate gets this hot and if the cold hide's surface temperature on top gets this hot?

I'm sorry if I have so many questions, just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

Thanks so much!

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don't be afraid to ask questions!

since this is for the cold side, the temp of the substrate should range between 79-82°. 84°/88° is definitely on the warm side but i don't think it's that big of an issue as long as the substrate inside the cool hide is within proper range. just keep tweaking and trying out what works best for your environment, eventually you'll find that sweet spot. maybe you could get a space heater for the room to ensure it doesn't drop below a certain temperature, then tweak your lamps accordingly.

Does putting aluminum on the lid prevent enough airflow? Is there a certain amount of the mesh top that I should leave open?

hello all when i got my uth i wasn't told to get a thermostat, i have no issue adding one but i dont want to ruin a new mat to install the probe, so my question is this, can i use hot glue to attach the probe inside the tank under the cypress?

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Originally Posted by MrBeeBow

hello all when i got my uth i wasn't told to get a thermostat, i have no issue adding one but i dont want to ruin a new mat to install the probe, so my question is this, can i use hot glue to attach the probe inside the tank under the cypress?

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I hot glued my Herpstat probe to the bottom of the UTH = outside the tank... this will not ruin the UTH and you'll get 100% adhesion of the UTH against the tank bottom. Keeping the probe outside and monitoring internal temps with a temperature gun and an Accurite thermometer is preferred should your animal move it, defecate on it, water spill on it, etc. it's also a little easier when cage cleaning too.

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Originally Posted by vikingr

I hot glued my Herpstat probe to the bottom of the UTH = outside the tank... this will not ruin the UTH and you'll get 100% adhesion of the UTH against the tank bottom. Keeping the probe outside and monitoring internal temps with a temperature gun and an Accurite thermometer is preferred should your animal move it, defecate on it, water spill on it, etc. it's also a little easier when cage cleaning too.

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well my issue is that the uth is already stuck to the tank, and according to the company that made it i can not peel if off without ruining it, so thats why i was asking about using glue on the inside of the glass