This is my first post so please forgive me if its in the wrong place. To save a bit of money I am making my own snake rack. Ive seen a few people do it, so I'm gonna try. I'm going to be using the HDX 36" long by 24" wide plastic vented shelving unit from home depot with 41qt tubs for my adults. There will be 5 shelves and I was planning on using heat tape. There will be white panel board on each shelf to prevent escape and 1/4" on each side of the white board to allow air flow into the tubs. Since our house is on the low humidity I was planning on using a mix of coco husk to help with humidity and use a humidity box during shed.
But this is where I need some advice. We keep our house around 65-70f during the day and about 60f at night, during the winter sometimes it gets into the 50's. So I was looking into putting white panel board on three sides to help hold in heat, would this be a good idea? I'm struggling to figure out the heat tape as well. It is going to be used with a thermostat, just haven't figured out which I'll use yet. Each tub will have a 4" by 12" tape section, can all the tubs and heat tape be connected together and on the same outlet and thermostat? Also, do I need to put window shims on the outside of the tub near the tape to allow air flow to the heat tape? I'll most likely have reptile basics assemble the heat tape for me. Just have to figure out how to put them all together. For this style, does the thermostat prob tape to the bottom of the tube of should it be inside the tub?
Thank you in advance for answering!
Any ideas are welcome!