Batttle Of Glass And Plastic!!!!!

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Originally Posted by landofthelost

i have also gandered this topic. the one thing keeping me from plastic is having a scientist friend of mine in the plastics industry. he will not have plastic anywhere near him for eating or drinking. he drinks water out of mason jars when he hikes. he told me that all plastics leech. they are toxic. period. i wonder what the long term affects of this could be on our snakes in say ten years or more. i am in limbo on the subject.

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I think your friend is too paranoid. Plastics do not just leech out deadly poisons for no apparent reason. Most plastics are made out of Hydrocarbons and Chlorine molecules combined under tremendous heat and pressure. The only way they can be harmful is you hold a flame under it! In other words plastic has to burn, melt and give off toxic fumes in order for it to be considered harmful, period!

i like my glass tank for several reasons


a- it was free

b-i only have one snake and i dont mind taking the extra time to clean o=it out because i have the luxury (and parental limit might i add )of only haviing one

c i cover 4 sides of it bottom right left and back with opaque stuff the front with transcluent covering and the top is see thru (the top is the side u see it from at my eyelevel---so i feel my pet feels secure

but my reasons only work for me

Great thread! I KNOW that plastic is better for ease of cleaning and husbandry, and I know that I will switch eventually when I begin to add more BP's to my home, but for now we're working with the glass aquarium, partly because we already had it when I began researching about balls before getting Kashmire.


And I just got a 20 gallon long from Matt, so I'm going to have a case of empty tank syndrome soon. I think I've talked my pet store into letting me give them $10 to take one of the adults they have to the vet to get vet checked (and probed - but I'm not telling them that) and hopefully will get a clean bill of health and a sexed female! But that's not for another month. They keep the $10 whether I purchase the snake or not. They said they were comfortable with the vet I used. I didn't remind them that they called him an idiot since he said that you could safely probe (although they didn't know it was him when I said "my vet said....") ....best not to remind them of that when I'm trying to "work" them! LOL

I don't see why everyone says that tanks are hard to clean. When my snake "goes," I just remove the mess and the cypress mulch that has become soiled. Then I fill it in with clean mulch. About twice a year, I take each tank down completely, bleach and strip it, but I don't see it necessary to do this very often. I will change the mulch completely, roughly once every two months, and I wipe out each tank when I do that using a paper towel and water.
I just preger the display properties of the tanks. They look sweet with their green plants (I use aftificial; they are easy to bleach and clean every few weeks.) My house always stays at 75 degrees; my boyfriend has a thing for coolness in the house; he can't stand it. And we don't pay for heat, so it stays warm. My UTHs keep the warm hides in my tanks at a consistent temp. So I don't see anything whatsoever, wrong with my glass tanks.

EDIT: let's not let this actually become a "war", where we harbor resentments and hatred. We all have our own ways of doing things, and if it works, that is fine!

Maybe not harder to clean per say (though rounded inside corners are easier to clean than right angles) - but when dealing with a lot of them it is easier lugging 14 plasic bins for cleaning than the same number of appropriately sized in glass.

I was all about glass for the longest time simply because i loved the perfect transparency - I've learned to deal with settling for transluscent when it became obvious housing numerous in glass just would not be practical. At this point even Smynx's beloved Zephyr outgrew his glass tank (the rats are happy for the new communal housing btw). But we do have about 3 "spares" which make swapping/cleaning easier - no more moving the snakes twice to accomodate them in that process.

It is all a matter of preference balanced with the effort you are willing to put forth to make it a healthy environment for your snake - there is no right wrong, etc. And no - we didn't buy a bunch of fish to fill the tanks (for those tanks r 4 fish folk) but rather rats :P

Gin, before I make this comment I want to say I'm not trying to bash you and definately don't want to start an argument.

That said and I appologize for using your post as an example but to me...personally thorough cleanings need to be done more than 2 times a year. For me personally...and this is just what I do...but I clean tubs at least once a week and that includes a full enclosure wash. Any snakes that leave me a poo present in their tub also get the thorough wash down...just because its that easy to do.

Again I in no way mean to direct this at you (Gin) personally or mean for it to insult you. If it does please have a mod remove it. Its just to give another possitive reinforcement for the use of plastic.

I really do clean the tanks in between; when I do my bi-monthly mulch change; I do hose the tank down to remove the old stuff; I guess I will start bleaching the tanks down when I change the mulch after all. I am always just so paranoid about bleach residue, and it seems like I can never get the smell of it out no matter how much I hose it.. I had this trouble with rubbermaids as well. I kinda feel like a dweeb because it did come across as though I was saying you can get away with only cleaning your cages, twice a year!

I didn't mean to point you out and I have no doubt you take the best of care for your animals. I don't like using many chemicals if I don't have to either and definately not at close intervals.