New Tank Setup! Thoughts?

[ian_mersereau]

Hey guys!

So I know I've kind of been spamming the forum for the past couple days, but you guys have been super helpful so I'm milking it for all it's worth . Anyways, I've taken a bunch of your advice and I've put together a new tank setup. Tell me what you think! I know it's not much, and there's nothing really fancy about it, but here are some pics:

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NOTE: Ignore the readings on my thermometers. Right now I'm working on getting the humidity and temps right. I started out using a couple of analog thermo/hygrometers, but clearly they were off. When I placed the digital one in the tank, the analog hygrometer read 55% humidity, but the digital one said 75%. So clearly one is wrong, and I trust the acurite more than the analog one. I also just installed the UTH so I'm messing with my thermostat to try and get the temp right.

Here is a breakdown of my setup:

• 20G long reptile terrarium (from the Zilla starter kit)
• Coco husk substrate
• Large water dish. If Z wanted to, she could probably fully submerge herself in it.
• Two identical plastic log hides. One placed on the cool side, the other on the warm side on top of my UTH.
• Plastic climbing log in the middle of the tank.
• Blue daylight heating lamp (from Zilla starter kit). I have it raised because I'm not using it as a main heat source. Mostly it's to just keep the air temp up during the day. I still need to get a dimmer switch for it, but for now just moving it away seems to be working.
• Acurite thermometer/hygrometer with temp probe and ambient temp. I keep the actual reader on the cool side where it reads the ambient cool temp. and humidity level. The probe is underneath the substrate on the warm side (up against the bottom glass) directly below the harm hide.
• Generic analog thermometer/hygrometer. I mostly just keep it in there to keep track of the air temp. The thermometer part seems to work fine, but the hygrometer is terrible.
• Zoo Med UTH on the underside of the warm side of the tank. Right now I'm kind of uncertain about this UTH. I'm dumb and accidentally put it on backwards the first time (the cord was coming out the from of my tank). I know removing the pad can damage it because of the bending, but I tried to remove it as carefully and flatly as I could to turn it around. I know it's giving off heat (the thermometer is clearly picking up heat), but I can't tell if it's giving it out evenly or if there are dead spots.
• Hydrofarm thermostat with the probe sandwiched between my UTH and the bottom of the tank. I'm going to start saving for a Herpstat, but for now the hydrofarm is the best I've got. Still working on adjusting the temp to get it just right.
• I'm using some folded up and duct taped cardboard as feet to elevate my tank, haha.

For the most part, thats my set up. I went to Lowe's and bought a General brand infrared heat gun as well to help me keep track of substrate temp. Thoughts or suggestions?

P.S. Recently I've been having a hard time with humidity at night. Even if my humidity is around 60% during the day, once the lamp turns off (I have it on a timer) the humidity tends to jump to around 70-75%. Not really sure how to prevent this, or if it's a bad thing. I just know you usually want to keep humidity around 60%.

[Vanthios]

Very nice, I like it.

If you're on a budget, I'd use black construction paper to cover the three sides of your enclosure (on the outside, of course). If you've got money to spend, I've always been fond of using cork tiles to line the inside of the vivarium using low-profile velcro.

I'd also buy a few plastic plants and put them on the sides where you have holes in your plastic logs, then drape them over so that they reduce the number of holes on the side of your hides as shown in image 2. Personal taste, really, but I like my hides one way in, one way out. My BP hasn't used his Habba Hut since I put in a single-entrance rock hide.

I really like the coconut husk substrate versus the other stuff out there. Good choice.

I really dislike my ZooMed UTH. I'm almost positive that they have a heating element in the center of the pad then use heat-conductive metal sheeting for the rest of it because it seems like the heat radiates from the center. I'd recommend a flexwatt.

I'm not sure if sandwiching your thermostat's probe between the tank and pad matters, but it seems to me that you'd lose conductive heat transfer by doing so. I place mine on the other side and tape the probe itself to the pad, despite that others here would recommend against doing so. Personally, I've found that taping the probe against the pad gives me more accurate readings than not doing so.

Consider yourself lucky regarding your humidity issue. I'm right on 50% at all times and I wish it was higher. Try getting a second inexpensive lamp and a black heating bulb or ceramic bulb and turn it on at night. Those things suck humidity like crazy. Like with everything else, make sure you dial it in first.

[ian_mersereau]

I'd use black construction paper to cover the three sides of your enclosure (on the outside, of course). If you've got money to spend, I've always been fond of using cork tiles to line the inside of the vivarium using low-profile velcro.

I saw someone say something about this in another post. Is this more of a comfort thing for the BP, or does it have some sort of functionality? Not saying I'm not going to do it, just figure it'd be good to know the reason .

I'm almost positive that they have a heating element in the center of the pad then use heat-conductive metal sheeting for the rest of it because it seems like the heat radiates from the center. I'd recommend a flexwatt... I'm not sure if sandwiching your thermostat's probe between the tank and pad matters, but it seems to me that you'd lose conductive heat transfer by doing so. I place mine on the other side and tape the probe itself to the pad

I think you're right about that. I stuck my hand under the tank to feel the pad, and the center was definitely hotter than the rest of the pad. Since my thermostat holds the middle of the pad off the glass I can definitely see how it could be an issue with heat transfer. Flexwatt definitely looks like it would work better than my current UTH, but I've also heard good things about Ultratherm UTH pads. Thoughts on those? Also, let me clarify how you attach your thermostat. From top to bottom, I have mine set up:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > Thermostat > UTH

But you do:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > UTH > Thermostat?

Thanks again for your help!!

[Vanthios]

I'm not sure what functionality it provides. Next paycheck I'm definitely trying it out, though. I'll have to record my current averages in temperature and humidity, then record what I get afterwards and post it here for your evaluation.

I haven't tried Ultratherm pads myself. Open a new thread and title it 'Flexwatt vs. Ultratherm' and create a poll to see how many people use each. I'm interested to know.

And yes, Substrate > Glass > UTH > Thermostat Probe

Like I said, I think that putting the probe between the glass and UTH like (Substate > Glass > Probe > UTH) creates a loss of conduction between the UTH and the glass. So if you set your hide over the center of the pad, it would be on top of a zone that doesn't even have direct contact with the glass, you're just counting on the heat rising into the glass. I'm not sure if it has any major effect, maybe a loss of a degree or two, but I think it makes more sense the way I have it.

[M.P.C]

The down side to placing the probe on the outside of the uth instead of between the glass and uth like most recomend is now your prob is reading the ambient temps around the probe and the uth instead of the temps of the uth and the glass witch is what you want the temps of... the little space you get from placing the probe between the uth and glass is nothing to even be concerned about

[ian_mersereau]

I haven't tried Ultratherm pads myself. Open a new thread and title it 'Flexwatt vs. Ultratherm' and create a poll to see how many people use each. I'm interested to know.

I found an old post that had this question already asked. It seems like both work well, the biggest difference is Flexwatt require more setup and are usually better for racks, and Ultratherms are out-of-the-box ready UTH's that work better for a single tank. So I think I'm gunna go for the Ultratherm then, even though it's a bit more expensive.

[The Golem]

I saw someone say something about this in another post. Is this more of a comfort thing for the BP, or does it have some sort of functionality? Not saying I'm not going to do it, just figure it'd be good to know the reason .



I think you're right about that. I stuck my hand under the tank to feel the pad, and the center was definitely hotter than the rest of the pad. Since my thermostat holds the middle of the pad off the glass I can definitely see how it could be an issue with heat transfer. Flexwatt definitely looks like it would work better than my current UTH, but I've also heard good things about Ultratherm UTH pads. Thoughts on those? Also, let me clarify how you attach your thermostat. From top to bottom, I have mine set up:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > Thermostat > UTH

But you do:

Substrate > Glass bottom of tank > UTH > Thermostat?

Thanks again for your help!!

I didn't know better, and stuck the UTH on first, then realized the probe had to be on it too. So I ended up taping the probe on, like this:



One good thing is that the heat pad sits flat against the glass.

I think covering the sides of the glass tank will help the snake feel enclosed and safe. For $10-15 or less you can get background graphic vinyl sheet to provide a more natural look.

http://www.petsmart.com/reptile/habi...pfm%3Dcategory

My local pet shop has various rolls of this stuff that they cut in whatever length you want.

[BWB]

Don't mean to butt in on this thread but I'm setting up a 4 foot tank for my boa and bought a 25 watt heat cable. The instructions say that I can use electrical tape to attach it but in my experience when shiny, black tape gets warm it loses it's adhesion and I would be constantly retaping the thing. Do you guys have a better heat-resisting tape idea and is a heat cable better than a UTH? One good thing pointed out to me is that you can remove or change the tape without destroying it (as opposed to the heat pad). Hopefully this helps the OP as well as me!

[The Golem]

Don't know if heat cable is better than UTH. But aluminum (aka aluminum foil aka HVAC) tape, as in the picture I posted, works quite well. Probably leaves adhesive residue if you're removing it after a long period of use, but the heat cable would be okay to use again.

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/air-...il-tape/941521