There has to be an easier way....

Alright, I'm about fed up with this blarging heat lamp and I want to go with just an undertank heater....I just really don't know how to regulate the temps with something like that. Do any of these temperature gauges have an option of turning the heat source on and off when temps hit a high and low?? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

Thermostat!!


http://www.mgreptiles.com/

Check out that site. Give Matt a call. He's extremely helpful and will happily answer your questions and teach you the ins-and-outs of t-stats, even if you don't plan on buying one right away.

I would definitely suggest a proportional thermostat over an on/off type to keep a better regulated temp, but either one will do the job for you. I agree that Matt is the guy to call!

The method I use is two UHT's and one overhead ceramic heat emitter, and two thermostats per enclosure.

I set it up as follows:

One UTH under the cool side, one under the warm side. CHE mounted centrally above the enclosure.

I use two Alife thermostats, one to control the cool side (thermostat set to 82) one to control the warm side (thermostat set to 92).

The probes are burried in the substrate over the UHT's.

Being as one Alife can control three heating devices (all to the same temp) I connected the overhead CHE to the warm side Alife unit, so it clicks on / off with the warm side UHT, I find this keeps ambient air temps in the right range.

We use 20L Critter Cages at the moment while both are snakes are small. These have a mesh top - which is bad. To counter the loss of heat and humidity we do the following:

Get the local plastics supplier (S&W Plastics) to cut a piece of plexiglass to cover the mesh up top. with a hole in the center that I mount the CHE above. Directly below this hole I place the water dish. The combination of the heaters + CHE + plex + thermostats means that we get a set up with air temps at 78-80, cool side belly temp of 82-85, warm side belly temp of 92-95, and a stable humidity of 55-65%.

We use aspen as bedding, we tried cypress mulch for a while, and found that it is GREAT at increasing humidity, so much so that it was hard to get it under 80% lol, so we decided on aspen as our bedding of choice. During shed we put in some moisted spagnum moss, and now we'll also add some cypress mulch (we have a big bag of it) to keep the humidity at 80% during sheds.

I check all temps using a IR temp gun for belly temps, and we also have a Flukers combo digital temp / humidity gauge for monitoring ambient air temps and humidity levels in each enclosure.

When we upgrade the enclosures in a few years once our snakes have out grown the 20L's there are in now now we're going to go with vision cases (or similar) and probably splurge on Helix or Herpstat controls, as these are much better with proportional heating control, as opposed to the on/off of the Alife units. But for the price (about $27) the Alife's are working well for us at the moment :)

Hope that is of use to you :)

To me, that seems like overkill unless you have a major issue with the temp in the room where the enclosure is. For most indoor, room temperature rooms, a single thermostat with a UTH on one end kept at 92-94 should create a sufficient temperature gradient in the rest of the cage.

Yup lol!

I agree... overkill.

But it gives me great peice of mind to know everything is under control :) I want everything to be a close to optimum as I can get it... it's just a thing I have to do!

I've been in contact with the designer of the Herpstats, he tells me that once HerpstatII Pro is finished he's working on the next version that will incorporate a humidistat than can be used to monitor and maintain humidity and control an automatic mister. To me that's great! I love that kind of stuff... hell I want a HerpstatII because it will email me with the current enlosure temps and keep ongoing logs lol.

As long as you know than thats cool! I think everyone here will agree that neurosis when it comes to our snakes is pretty normal.

My setup is a bit different, but it works for me. My room temp is stable at 75, not warm enough for only one UTH. I have a Ranco T-stat set to keep warm side at 92-94 and I have another UTH running through a dimmer switch plugged into the same t-stat for 82-84 degrees on the cool side. No worries here, my temps are constant as can be.

Just send matt an email and tell him the size of enclosure and all that good stuff and he will tell you exactly what you need. and not the crazy give me all your money version, EXACTLY what you need. Best customer service around and very good prices.

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Originally Posted by The Cannibal Monkey

Alright, I'm about fed up with this blarging heat lamp and I want to go with just an undertank heater....I just really don't know how to regulate the temps with something like that. Do any of these temperature gauges have an option of turning the heat source on and off when temps hit a high and low?? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

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For anyone keeping snakes....Plastic is your friend. For regulating proper temps and humidity, I'll take the strong stance and say that glass tanks suck. The post above about all the t-stats and heat pads and CHEs and all that stuff just go to show how much trouble glass tanks are. The user above has successfully set up a glass tank- but look how much trouble they went through to do it.

Simplify your life with a rubbermaid/sterilite/whatever tub, about 10" of flexwatt, and a thermostat. MUCH easier!

I agree it's all about the aesthetics.


Plastic tubs = quick, simple to maintain and cheap.

Glass Viv = expensive, time consuming, and requires much more effort to maintain.

Vision Cases (or similar) = a half way point, but very expensive.


For me, I don't want to keep snakes in tubs, thats my choice and I'm sticking with it heh :) We have two, with an outside chance at a third (will be an orange Corn for Cass). Now if we were planning on lots more I would go tubs in flash. But as it stands I find the whole set up with glass to be a challenge and enjoyable. Plus it gives me something else I want, to look at our snakes in a visually pleasing enviroment, somewhat resembling (as best we can) where they would live in the wild. I can't go to W.Africa to see Balls, or S.America to see BCC's. Also part of me thinks that the snake would be happier in such an enviroment (with the corrent enviromental control) - but that's a whole other discussion!

It costs $$'s to do it my way, but I'm happy doing that too. The snakes are pets, and thier enviroment is another hobby I enjoy.

Thanks a bunch for all the great advice guys! I just shot Matt an e-mail and am considering a few different options.
elevatethis: I have him in a nice little rubbermaid right now, the main problem is the heat lamp just won't keep anything steady. At a given point in time during the same day, it can get down to 82 all the way to over 100 on the hot side. Fortuantely I'm usually able to check on him pretty regularly but I want to KNOW that he's not getting baked or cold (it's mostly the baked that scares me) just in case I can't check on him. Plus there's the humidity issues and the fact that it's basically bright as midday in there....not cool.

Ok I see, with a tub though, flexwatt is a much more efficient way to heat the tub relative to an overhead lamp. Just something about incandescent bulbs that dry the crap out of the air and surrounding environment. It allows you to seal your tub with minimal adequate ventilation to maintain humidity and will conserve lots of heat as well, requiring less energy. Also, there's no light- a very good thing for a ground-dwelling, nocturnal animal such as a ball python!

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

For anyone keeping snakes....Plastic is your friend.

Simplify your life with a rubbermaid/sterilite/whatever tub, about 10" of flexwatt, and a thermostat. MUCH easier!

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:yes: I wholeheartedly agree! It also helps curb the OCDness just a bit!

I agree with you Rick that as long as you have the time to handle the glass enclosures for a couple of snakes and they are set up properly they can be very nice to have. For me and Mike, with 6 ball pythons, 1 BCI and 1 milksnake (let alone the rapidly expanding breeder/feeder rat colony) it just would drive me nuts trying to maintain the bp's in glass tanks so the plastic is just the right decision for us completely.

I think like the decisions we make on what to feed and how to offer it, the decision of glass tank vs plastic tub comes down to the particular person's decision (as long as the snake is maintained well then it's all good right?)


~~Jo~~