20 gal. tank, etc.

[therunaway]

i am getting a 20 gal. long tank when i get my snake, etc. i was curious of which is better a under the tank heater(uth) or a lamp, or will i need both? will an under the tank heater burn my surface its on? and will a lamp its self be enough or will a uth mat be enough its self? please respond.

[apple2]

Use a UTH. If used properly, it should heat your entire tank. Be sure to connect it to a thermostat, otherwise it will burn your snake. If you use the four little rubber feet that come with it, it shouldn't burn your furniture, but if you're putting it on an antique I'd still put a towel under the tank to be safe. Only use a lamp if you have to, and be sure to use a bulb designed for reptiles. Again, hook it up to a Tstat. The downside to this is the bulb sucks your humidity. You'll have to spray your snake a lot more if you use a lamp. If you live in a very cold climate, and don't have your house heat up high, you might need both. Don't put your tank against an exterior wall, this will help with keeping temps stable. Also, get your tank and equipment a week or two before the snake. Set it up, and make sure the temps are correct. When they are stable, you can bring in the snake.

[therunaway]

thanks a bunch . im a noob in snakes, im a bit confused on some of the info you gave, plz clarify?, i live in wv, its a cold climate in winter, warm in summer/spring. fall is moderate.

[mpkeelee]

From experience I can tell u that u will need both if it gets below 75 in winter where u r. Leave the UTH on all the time controlled by a thermostat so the snakes belly stays at 90-93. When it gets down to around 75 you will need the lamp to heat the enclosure to 80-85. The humidity will get sucked out so a big or multiple water dishes will be needed. I don't like spraying cuz then everything is wet which can make ur snake sick. This is y u should get it about two weeks early so u can play with it and get it right before the snake is in it. Good luck.

[Skittles1101]

Hi Jason, welcome to the site. Look over this caresheet to make sure you house your new ball python to the at least the bare minimum requirements.

I suggest using a UTH, you will need a thermostat to regulate the UTH. You can find them mostly on the web, depending on your budget. They vary from $26 on Amazon.com to over $100 for a Herpstat by Spyder Robotics, the most expensive obviously being the most reliable and safe one. I do, however, use hydrofarm from Amazon.com for 3 of my enclosures until I can save up money for better ones. If you do not get a thermostat, the temps of the UTH can exceed 130 degrees, which is more than enough to cause severe burns on your snake.

Depending on how cold your house gets in the winter, you can use a lamp or ceramic heat emitter (CHE) to help with ambient temps. I do suggest, if you decide to get either, to pick up a plug-in lamp dimmer from Home Depot for only $10 to make it less intense. Just be aware that if you use a lamp or CHE, the humidity will be effected negatively. If your humidity is not correct it can cause bad sheds that are a pain to remove. You can either mist the tank, being sure you do not soak the substrate, or provide a humid hide. If you use the search function on this site "humid hide" should come up with many results.

Again, welcome to the site, I hope I helped some. If you have any other questions feel free to ask

[RestlessRobie]

Hiya and Welcome to PB.net So here is how I set up my 20 nlong for our little guy and it took a little fussing but we finally got it working great. UTH on a Ranco T-Stat one 60watt CHE on a dimmer as needed and wecovered the back with aquarium background and foil. The Top is covered 3/4 of the way with A peice of Plexi from HD and we use EcoEarth as substrate. Temps keep great at 78-81 ambient and 91.1 hot. We ended up covering the Plexi on the top with foil tape for a little more heat retention. I would recomend covering 2 sides with either black paper or a background the puting foil behind that to keep the temps more stable but the kiddo likes to look at his snake at night so we only covered the back. Hope this helps and agian welcome to the sight and if you have any other questions ask cuase theres tons of great info and people here.