I nixed the idea pretty fast. I went back to newspaper and the snakes are just as happy as they were on pine shavings. I had a 125 with gravel in it and didn't know if anyone had housed snakes on gravel before. The tank is cleaned out and i will be getting the UTH on it this week and have snakes in it by the weekend. I have to make sure the thermostat has things the way I want it.