Incubator upgrade

[enginee837]

So two years ago I built a typical DIY incubator out of a wine cooler, heat tape, thermostat and some computer fans. It worked fairly well for our first clutch of ball python eggs hatching 6 of 7 successfully. Temps held within .5 degrees the entire duration of the process and condition of the eggs looked great the entire time. Egg 7 was under developed and passed a few hours after hatching, so not an incubation issue. One challenge I came across was the fact that the incubation medium was nearly dried out at the end of the incubation time causing humidity to drop to the high 80's for the last couple weeks of the incubation period. I wanted to avoid the temperature fluctuation of opening the egg boxes for ventilation so I drilled some breather holes in the lids of the boxes and used fans to keep the temperature in the incubator equal and constant. Unfortunately this led to one of the issues I decided to work on resolving. Again, these issues are not really big ones for ball python eggs however with our plans in the future being with Black-headed pythons, they are issues we need to fix. Black - headed python eggs are a bit of an oddity in that they require high humidity, lots of fresh air, constant temperature and will die nearly instantly if they come in contact with any moisture at all. This is especially challenging in an area where our ambient humidity is typically in the 30's. The goals I set to accomplish were as follows;
1) maintains 98+ humidity the entire duration of incubation
2) zero condensation on the lid of the egg boxes (eliminate drops of water falling on eggs)
3) constant temperature (within .5 degrees)
4) constant fresh air without the need for opening egg boxes.
5) no contact between eggs and incubation medium.

So my first attempt at this involves simply eliminating the lid to the egg boxes as well as the substrate and placing a open container of water on the heat tape at the bottom of the incubator. This is very similar to the old method of using a beverage cooler filled with water with a fish tank heater and open egg boxes on a shelf above. This initially worked however after a few days condensation began building up so bad that it was draining out the bottom of the wine cooler all over the floor. Scratch that idea, moving on.
My next attempt was a little more complicated and required a bit of trial and error to get it dialed in but eventually led me to what I have now. The idea is still rather simple. It involves a fish tank air pump, 2 fish tank air stones, 2 sealed tupperware bins and rubber fish tank hose with valves.
Basically how it works is the air pump is mounted outside the incubator, from there it pumps fresh air into the incubator. This is typically a bad idea as ambient air in my house is 73 deg and 35% humidity. In order to normalize this I plumb this fresh air into the two sealed boxes filled with water. The air is dispersed via air stones. Once passing through these water filled boxes (the boxes sit on heat tape at the bottom of the incubator) it is then plumbed up to each individual egg box. Flow is controlled by simple plastic valves also purchased at the fish store. Obviously since the egg boxes are sealed, the air pumped in needs a place to go so there is a second valve on the egg box for air to escape. The second valve being located lower than the first as C2o has a higher weight than oxygenated room air.
One of the most challenging parts of this build was finding boxes that would seal and hold the pressure required for this to work. Most tupperware type boxes are more made to hold vacuum that pressure. I ended up going with a rubbermade rigid clear plastic containers. Even with these however if I pump air into the box faster than I allow it to escape, the lit will lift and vent rather than flow out to the egg boxes as intended. Once the proper balance was achieved everything began working flawlessly.
To test it I put probes in the sealed egg boxes and ran it for 2 days without any incubation medium at all. Egg boxes held 96% constantly and temps rose .5 degree (after 15 min of turning pump on) and held solid. The only issue now was condensation on the lid. I resolved this with the help of a trick from and old friend. I use plastic wrap under the lid of the egg box. Condensation will not build up on plastic wrap.

Final results with substrate and running for a week. Thermostat set to 87 in the incubator, ambient conditions are 73 deg, 35% humidity
99%humidity in all boxes
87 deg top shelf
86.5 middle shelf
86 bottom shelf
zero fluctuation, condensation on the sides of the egg boxes that feeds down to vermiculite below eggs which wicks it up. Eggs separated from medium by diffuser.

Thanks for looking, pics posted below. Feedback is welcome and appreciated.

[enginee837]

Had to post photos via taptalk.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[EL-Ziggy]

Looking good. Best wishes for lots of healthy snake babies.

[Ax01]

very impressive rig Joe!

something wrong was bound to happen w/ your first attempt w/ the open containers. if it didn't leak, there woulda been a small flood as soon as u opened the incubator door.

i did a trial run w/ plastic wrap on egg boxes and i still got condensation. worse, it gravitated towards the middle and didn't drip down the sides. maybe i did it wrong or using the wrong stuff; i know some use Press 'N Seal. i don't think i wrapped the plastic flat enough causing the center to be concave causing condensation to move towards the middle. need better practice i guess.

how often do u anticipate refilling the 2 water containers at the bottom? i think u should rig it to auto-fill w/ water from a standing tank!

[enginee837]

very impressive rig Joe!

something wrong was bound to happen w/ your first attempt w/ the open containers. if it didn't leak, there woulda been a small flood as soon as u opened the incubator door.

i did a trial run w/ plastic wrap on egg boxes and i still got condensation. worse, it gravitated towards the middle and didn't drip down the sides. maybe i did it wrong or using the wrong stuff; i know some use Press 'N Seal. i don't think i wrapped the plastic flat enough causing the center to be concave causing condensation to move towards the middle. need better practice i guess.

how often do u anticipate refilling the 2 water containers at the bottom? i think u should rig it to auto-fill w/ water from a standing tank!

Thank you! Yeah I always try to apply the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) approach when possible and unfortunately it did not pan out on that first attempt. As for the plastic wrap, yes it is possible to get condensation if there is a big enough temperature differential between the inside and outside of the box and the egg box however even if you do get some you can use the flexibility of the plastic wrap to your advantage. Place a straw upright in the center of the box like a tent pole and the water will drain to the outer edges.

Not sure yet on time frame of refills. I am running it for a couple weeks to measure how much it uses and I will always keep a few extra water bottles in the incubator for refills so when I do fill it I do so with water that is already up to temp.