Heating issue with my tub, should I switch to a tank?

[Aaron Speciale]

I have a tub for my ball python, and the ground temp on the hot side is 92 degrees and the cold side is 82-84. The problem that I'm having is that the ambient air temp is only around 68-69, and my parents won't let me turn on the house heater to 80 because it costs so much money: they don't seem to be very happy about getting a space heater either. So, should I just switch all my stuff to a glass tank and get a ceramic heat emitter in order to raise the ambient temperature, or is there a way to use a CHE with a tub? I know that a CHE will make keeping a good humidity level much harder, but I can't really think of another option. Any bit of advice would be very helpful, and if any of you have any other ideas please send them my way. Thanks!

[withonor]

I'm still a novice but I see two things that may be incorrect. Are you measure the ambient temperature of the room the tank is in? Or the ambient temperature of the enclosure? If you are measuring the ambient temperature of the enclosure you may be measuring too high. Check near ground level where the snake spends most of his time, not near the top.

[Aaron Speciale]

I'm measuring the ambient temperature in the tub itself and I'm using an acu-rite digital thermometer. Plus the tub is only about six inches in height so the thermometer is pretty much on the ground.

[withonor]

There is a solid lid on the tub? With that much heat at the base I don't think it should be escaping that badly unless the room itself is that cold. My room gets down to about 65 degrees but I have a UTH and CHE. I don't know if a plastic tub can handle the heat of a CHE without melting. We need someone with more experience in here.

[Kaorte]

Many people who use tubs use them successfully in colder rooms because they are in a rack setup which helps insulate the tubs. For you, it probably isn't practical to build a rack just for one tub.

You could try one more thing before switching to a tank if you really do want to keep the tub.

Try getting another UTH and a piggyback light dimmer from the home depot. Plug the UTH into the dimmer and then into your thermostat and dim the UTH until it is around 80-85*. This will hopefully bring up the cool side/ambient temp to acceptable levels.

If that doesn't work, then I would just go with a tank. The tank will cost you a bit of money though so I would be prepared for that.

[thenosuchlibrary]

I wouldn't use a CHE on a tub, as for the air temp and humidity you can try a few things. People that seem to have a humidity problem with a tub or tank can try to add some coconut husk mixed in with the normal substrate, the coconut husk works well with raising humidity levels.
For the air temp in the tub, it seems you are right on with the belly heat, but it seems like the heat from the ground is just escaping so try and put a nice thick towel on top. You can get a good size one and fold it so it fits the top of the tub. Anything that will prevent the heat from rising so quickly should help you maintain the air temp.
Hope that helps you out!

[Aaron Speciale]

Thanks for the advice guys! I decided to get a more accurate reading of the ambient air temperatures of where he is actually spending most of his time (hot side hide), so I pulled up my thermometers probe and put it at the top of his hide and the ambient temperature was 79.3. I'm definitely going to take your advice by getting another UTH with a dimmer and using that on the cool side. Hopefully that will solve the problem and up the rest of the tubs air temp. If it doesn't work, do you think it would be a good idea to just go out and buy a new tub and put less holes in the top/no holes at all in order to trap the rising heat (just have holes on the side)?

[Kaorte]

I normally don't put any holes in the top of the tub for that exact reason. A lot of heat will escape out of the top holes. I just make holes on the side of the tubs.

You could plug the top holes with some hot glue and see if it makes a difference.