Heat and Humidity concerns, pre-snake nervousness!

Hey all! I am going to be getting my first snake, a pretty little boy Thursday -- and before I actually pick him up, I want to make sure that his new home is setup properly. I have read tons of care sheets and information pages, and have also combed this sub-forum. As of right now, I feel I have a good start, but I know what I have still needs a lot of work. I am 100% sure I am having a case of pre-snake nervousness. Haha.

This is what I have so far:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6453/picml.png
Cool <------------------> Warm
Tank is a 20gal, 30X12X12


At the moment I am really struggling with humidity and proper heat. Unless I mist, the humidity refuses to go above 40ish. I just covered the top of the tank with foil and am hoping that helps, and am currently testing the affect that different size containers of water have on the humidity (hence the Tupperware haha). In the picture I have carpet on the bottom of the tank, but I also have a bag of Aspen to try out.

I am also worried about having a proper temperature gradient. On the cool side the temperature seem to stay at around 74-76F, and on the warm the thermometer reads around 83F, and directly under the hide it is about 86F. Is this alright?

I am not sure just how accurate the readings are since I am using analog meters for now. However, I am planning to head to Walmart before Thursday to pick up a temperature gun and hopefully find a digital hygrometer along with a thermostat.

One of my major concerns is the heat and humidity. I work EMS and my shifts are 48/48 (twice a month) and and 24/48 hour shifts and I want to make sure that my enclosure is exactly how it needs to be, especially for those shifts where I am stuck at the station for 48 hours.


Any help on the humidity and temperature issue would be greatly appreciated! Along with any other pointers ya'll can give to a newbie.

:P

I have set the temperature of my room to stay at around mid 70's in hopes of that helping to keep it from fluctuating.


One day... one day... I'll have a super awesome pretty enclosure! *Shakes fist.*

Haha don't worry! Your enclosure looks awesome so far! The hot side could bump up a few degrees, but 86 isn't horrible. The foil should definitely help with the humidity. Relax, it looks perfect to me :)

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Haha don't worry! Your enclosure looks awesome so far! The hot side could bump up a few degrees, but 86 isn't horrible. The foil should definitely help with the humidity. Relax, it looks perfect to me :)

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Thanks! I've been biting my nails like an expecting mother for the past three days trying to get things right. Any ideas on how to bump up the hot side? especially on the outside of the hide? I currently have a 6x8 UTH of unknown wattage, given to me by a friend who owned a snake a few years ago.

It is on a thermostat or just going full blast? And are you using repticarpet stuff?

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Originally Posted by LGray23

It is on a thermostat or just going full blast? And are you using repticarpet stuff?

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It's going full blast at the moment, I really want a thermostat but at the moment cannot afford one. Tuition and rent has sucked me dry until I get paid Tuesday evening.

Yup! Totally using repticarpet. I also picked up a bag of aspen bedding about an hour ago to test as well to see how it affects the humidity of the tank.

The repticarpet is probably keeping the heat from penetrating, which is probably why the temps seem low. I think as long as the snake can't touch the bottom of the glass, which will be much hotter than 87 degrees, than it will be okay for now. Once you switch to aspen, just make sure you have a thermostat first because snakes are known to burrow and lay directly on the glass.

I am hoping to have the thermostat and digital means of measuring temp and humidity before Thursday. Do you know any affordable and reliable thermostats? I am also considering getting a temperature gun instead of a digi thermometer.

I assume your snake is a ball python, correct? You never said what kind of snake it was. LOL :P

Thermostats on your UTH are necessary to control your temps. If you are worried about humidity or having problems keeping the humidity up in the tank, you might want to think about getting a humidifier. just as you've bumped up the ambient temperature, you could humidify the whole room. misting once or twice a day helps too if you don't take the humidifier approach.

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Originally Posted by Reakt20

I assume your snake is a ball python, correct? You never said what kind of snake it was. LOL :P

Thermostats on your UTH are necessary to control your temps. If you are worried about humidity or having problems keeping the humidity up in the tank, you might want to think about getting a humidifier. just as you've bumped up the ambient temperature, you could humidify the whole room. misting once or twice a day helps too if you don't take the humidifier approach.

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Whoops! I thought I mentioned I was getting a BP lol. I would go back and edit that in, but it seems that the edit button has ran off.

I considered a humidifier - but the one I saw was way out of budget for now, but it does seem like a future investment I will be needing to make. I was hoping the fact that I live in a humid state would help me, I guess not. Lol.

I use these thermostats
Hydrofarm

Herpstat

Johnsons

I also suggest a temp gun, I LOVE mine!

you could also keep water on the hot side to help promote humidity or keep some moss in the hides to at least keep the humidity up in those, which they will spend most of their time in anyways. ideally, you'd want 60% humidity and 70% when shedding. u r close. I think with a couple adjustments, you'll get it.

Even if you can't get the humidity correct in the entire tank, you can easily make a humid hide, which work pretty well for people struggling with humidity :)

Nice looking setup. I'm new at this myself, and I have to say that the non-contact thermometer (temp gun) brings a lot of peace of mind. You can check any surface instantly, and often as you want. Makes this "fretting father"a lot more relaxed.

I got mine at Harbor Freight for about $30 on sale. Checked it against other thermometers I believe to be accurate to see how far off it was and it's pretty good.

I have a screen-top tank, and finally got the humidity stabilized by putting foil over 2/3rds of the lid and putting in a shallow bowl of water with a bit of terrarium moss in it. Don't drown the moss... most of it has to stick up out of the water.

Even with misting, my humidity kept dropping below 30%... with the moss, it hangs at 55% consistently, even though I have a heat lamp. I placed a terracotta saucer in a deeper bowl... it wicks up the water in the lower bowl and transfers it to the moss, while keeping the moss from drowning. I only have to add water every few days.

Don't let the moss touch the substrate... it'll feed the water right into aspen and such, making a soggy mess.

Oh, yeah... I'll second the hydrofarm thermostat. For the money, it's doing a fine job for me. I tried a rheostat (dimmer) and had to adjust it multiple times a day.

Amazon has the hydrofarm and even though they're meant for seedling tray heat mats, many of the reviews are from herpers.

I'll definitely look into getting the hydrofarm thermostat! It looks promising and is right in my budget. Also, I am pretty much sold on the idea of a temp gun... mainly because I find it so much cooler then a thermometer lol.


I'll have to try the moss in the hide method! Thank you for mentioning it, It didn't even occur to me to try that. :(.


The terracotta saucer sounds amazing. I am gonna run to the store after work tomorrow and pick one up to give it a shot.


I think after getting a thermostat, the aspen bedding may be my best bet since it will raise the hot side temperature, and it will be easier to set up some form of humidity control in the tank.

I really appreciate everybody giving me input! You all are awesome. <3

On a side note... the plain black backdrop due to blacking out the tank drives me crazy...so I am in the middle of painting a backdrop to give it some pizazz. :cool:

using cypress bedding will help bring the humidity up if nothing else helps. Everything sounds good, glad to see you did your homework and prep..........

Since you are using an Under Tank Heater to provide a warm spot, the air temp on the warm end does not need to be high. As long as you can maintain the ambient temp of 75-78F. After you get your thermostat and temp gun, I would suggest getting a larger Under Tank Heater. Something that will cover approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the floor space. This will give you warmer spot to place the water bowl over. which will cause the water to evaporate a little quicker and help with the humidity.

It looks good. What brand of UTH are you using? Some brands are designed to not get over 90º if you are using a self regulated one you might be able to get away with out a T-stat (it is ALWAYS recommended!! but the regulated ones usually under correct operation do not get much hotter than 10º over the room temps it is painfully imprecise but it seems to work for some) I would second Lgreys t-stat selection I suspect you will end up looking at the hydrofarms the issue they seem to have is when the probe (the part that checks the temps and allows the controller to adjust things) is not exceptionally accurate (it might read 80 but the correct temps could be something 76) With this in mind a hydrofarm IMO must be accompanied by a reasonably accurate 'set up' thermometer. With out getting too detailed (one of my tendencies) I'd highly recommend a liquid crystal type they are about as accurate as you can get on a budget. Don't stick it anywhere is it is a stick on just place it until you figure what the hydrofarm should be set on to give you the correct temps then you can remove it from the enclosure and use that to check digital ones against.

I'm not sure what type of UTH I have, it has no writing on it and is a hand-me-down from a friend. :(

However, I seem to have gotten humidity fixed. It has stayed constant at just under 70% since last night. Now, I need to find a way to lower it some lol. As for the warm spot under the hide, it still reads at around 86-87F. the cool side is still around the same, same for the warm. I'm going to be nabbing a temp gun and thermostats tonight hopefully. All depends on what time I get off work.

Do you think it will be possible to find a temp gun at Walmart, same with a thermostat?

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Originally Posted by Toxic Tessa

Do you think it will be possible to find a temp gun at Walmart, same with a thermostat?

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I don't think so, these are easier to find online. The temp gun you may find at a hardware store...

I'll check the Hardware store before work, and if they don't have them - I'll go ahead and order online so I get the stuff before thurs. Thanks again!