Another newbie, thinking ahead

[Midwest]

I have a question, I am planning to set the tank up this weekend so I can see over the next week or so how the temps do. To keep people from having to read back through this entire thread I'll give a brief recap. I have a 20 gall on long tank. I have 2 UTH's, one to go on each end set for the high and low temps. I am going to put the thermostat probe between the mat and bottom of the glass. My question is should I let it heat up and use my heat gun to measure the temp of the glass before substrate is added, or do I want to add substrate and then set the stat to reach the desired temps when taken on the surface of the substrate?

[ballpythonsrock2]

I have a question, I am planning to set the tank up this weekend so I can see over the next week or so how the temps do. To keep people from having to read back through this entire thread I'll give a brief recap. I have a 20 gall on long tank. I have 2 UTH's, one to go on each end set for the high and low temps. I am going to put the thermostat probe between the mat and bottom of the glass. My question is should I let it heat up and use my heat gun to measure the temp of the glass before substrate is added, or do I want to add substrate and then set the stat to reach the desired temps when taken on the surface of the substrate?

Your first answer is right. I would set it up and let it heat up without the substrate. The bottom glass temp is what you should be concerned about. After you have to let it run a while keep and then check it every so often. You want to get the warm side bottom glass temp to 88 or (90 being highest) then say 82 would be a good temp mark for your cool side.

After you get it all like you want it, then add about only a half inch of substrate. With a uth you don't want it real thick, because it holds the heat down and can get too hot on the bottom. Don't worry about the substrate temp when it comes to uth's. Just get the bottom glass temp right. Then later you can see what your substrate temp is. But don't turn up the temp by raising your thermostat because of the substrate, because then your bottom glass will be too hot.

Many of the folks on here believe you can get by on lower ambient as long as you have 2 uth's and that is what they have advised you to do I noticed and that is the direction you have decided to go, (I understand that), and I hope they are right. As long as they have the belly heat in low ambient maybe that will work, hope so, I never did trust that belly heat alone was enough. Personally I rely myself on above heat and don't even have a uth. So we will find out if they were right I guess and hopefully they are. But they might also tell you though that your room temp needs to be at kept at least 75 or 78 to get by with using only 2 uth's and no above heat or rph. Well see what they say.

[Midwest]

I have been talking to the breader I am getting the snake from and they said the same thing. They if my room temp is around 70 degrees and have a uth at around 80-82 and another around 90 that I wouldn’t likely have to worry about additional heat.

[Midwest]

We got a lot of the set up complete tonight. I had my son help me and explained to him why we were doing the things we were doing. I put one UTH under each end with thermostats. As normal, the probe is sandwiched between the glass and the UTH. I used foil tape to help secure the UTH's. Just to test things I set the hot side at 92 and the cool side at 80 and tested them with my heat gun after a half hour. The temps were very close so I went ahead and added a layer of substrate. We have a hide on each each end over the UTH and a water dish in the middle. I didn't take any pictures yet, plan to after I either get a background or what ever I am going to use. I am planning to use something on the back and both ends to help he/she feel secure. I also plan to put in some type of branch and some fake ivy type plants we picked up this week. Once we get it the rest of the way done Ill post some pics. As expected my humidity spiked from 52 to over 70% once I put the substrate in. Ill keep you guys posted.

[Midwest]

Let's see if this works, first time adding a pic and I am on my iPad. So we are ready for our snake, which we are getting Nov 10th. I have a UTH under each end on the tank. I cut some black foam board to wrap the back and sides and also cut a piece of plexi glass to cover the top. I left the hatch uncovered for ventilation and will adjust the top coverage as necessary. I'm going to run it like this for now to see how the temps do. I can make adjustments as necessary before we get our snake. The ambient temp in that room is 70 degrees and plan to set the two UTH's, one at 78-80 and the other 88-90 ( I've read diffferent advice on what the hot and cold side needs to be).
The link the the pics in my gallery is working right, if someone else can get them from my gallary to here that would be great, if not I'll try it from my PC later tonight.

[Zincubus]

No photos on view sadly

Just download and use the free TapaTalk app to upload photos easily and instantly ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[ballpythonsrock2]

Your pics are in your gallery which is easy enough to see.

[ballpythonsrock2]

Here is the other pic.

[Midwest]

Thanks for that, I saw the tutorial and got them in the gallary but couldn't get them into the thread. There is some reflection in the 2nd pic that makes it hard to see. We might end up changing hides depending on what we end up bringing home. I just wanted something on hand, if those end up being too big I'll get something a little smaller for now. The wood is just a piece I cut off an ash tree that came down in a storm about a month ago. I peeled the bark and put it in the oven for an hour. Not quite the look I was going for but not much driftwood to choose from locally at my local shops.
The plan is to use this setup to see how the kids do and eventually upgrade to a PVC enclosure.

[ballpythonsrock2]

I think it looks good. I have the same problem I can post to my gallery pretty easy but don't know how to post to these post area's, I don't have a smart phone or tapatalk. But helping you I kind of figured out how to do it. I right clicked your pic in gallery when it was full sized and copied it and just pasted it to a post. Looked at it with the preview and then submitted the post. Came out surprisingly well. Now I know how to post pics but will have to post them from my gallery which is no problem. I bet the family is counting the days. Have fun at the reptile exhibit. Look around, maybe you can find other snakes and breeders to your liking as well, might as well make a day of it and you know competition helps bring prices down if you know what I mean. And you might find something you like better at another breeders exhibit. Which show are you going to? Might be some breeders from here, that way you can ask them questions on here.