UTH on plastic tub ok?? please help

[teebyrd393]

Hello everyone! I'm finally coming over to the dark side and switching from a tank to a tub. My baby bp is 105g now. I got a 15qt sterilite tub. The UTH by zoo med says not to attach to plastic. Hmmm....how am I supposed to get belly heat? I have it hooked up to a thermostat right now and a temp of 100 gives me a perfect 93-94 on top of the newspaper and aspen. Would that be hot enough to melt plastic??
Oh, also...for those of you who use tubs with out racks, what is the best way you've found to secure the lid. This one latches, but I'm not underestimating her ingenuity to escape :-) Thanks!

[bsd13]

I have 2 tubs exactly the same size with UTH's attached to them. The warning is more important if you don't have a thermostat (preferably) or a rheostat (at least) attached to the UTH as you can't regulate the heat it puts out and it can possibly get hot enough to melt the plastic.

As far as how hot will melt plastic each polymer is different and thus they all have different melting points. Obviously keep an eye on it, but if you want to drop the temp of the pad a bit get rid of the aspen and just put her on the newspaper. Less "ground" for the heat to go through.

I just wrap mine with bungee cords to help secure the lid. I've not had any problems with it

[Sunny1]

Like bsd13 said, as long as you have a thermostat attached to your UTH then you will be fine. It takes a considerable amount of heat to melt the plastic of the tubs, the temp. required for a BP is not anywhere near hot enough.

And I would also definitely go with bungee cords for the latching type tubs.

I too recently switched both of my BPs to tubs and could not be happier!!

[teebyrd393]

Thanks! I'm currently drilling my air holes and I'm going to get it set up and monitor it for temp and humidity...then it's moving time for Jade!!

[hana]

You could also consider binder clips to close the tub. I use two at each short end and three at each long end (of the normal sized clip) They work really well, out of around 40 snakes I've never had an escape with the clips. Plus, they're cheap which is always a good thing.



hana

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Thanks! I'm currently drilling my air holes and I'm going to get it set up and monitor it for temp and humidity...then it's moving time for Jade!!

I learned first hand that drilling holes can easily mess up the tub. It can immediately crack the tub. It can also cause an undetected tiny crack that will some day likely turn into a BIG cack.

Pick up a soldering gun from the hardware store. they are like 7 bucks... it makes much cleaner, crack free holes.

even if you already drilled the holes, you can still ever so slightly melt the edges of the holes now... it will stop you from having crack issues in the future.

Just my 2 cents.