HEating TUBS that are not in a rack system?

[John Bolli]

Anyone ever heat just one tub without it being on a rack? Is there any kind of heat mat etc. that i could place under one sterilite tub without building a rack with flexwatt or herpstat? Just thinking outside the box for those without the means of big money for racks and or expensive heating etc. Would a UTH melt a tub if stuck to the bottom? things like that....thanks in advance.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Any UTH will work, but all UTH's require a thermostat to regulate them. Some thermostats are cheaper than others but you get what you pay for. A thermostat is the most important piece of equiptment any reptile owner uses.

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Check out this thread:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...e-Basics-*DUW*

[Tfpets]

Any heat mat or Flexwatt COULD melt a tub, even on a rack! That's where the thermostat comes in, to keep that from happening. There would be no problem attaching heat mat(s) to tub(s) as long as they are properly regulated.

[kitedemon]

Thermostats is not optional!!!

Tubs heat very quickly (thin plastic is a very poor insulator) this is good in same ways and bad in others. It heat quickly using less power. It cools quickly too. The hot spot is easy in a single set up the cool and ambient air temps are not. Typically they take on the temp from the room. Ideally that is 80ºF this makes a single tub inefficient. It can be done and can be balanced but if you are seriously looking at a single snake I would suggest it is cheaper and better for the animal in a custom enclosure like a vision animal plastics or any of the other competitors too numerous to mention. The other alternative is a glass tank side turned it behaves like an enclosure of this sort but used tanks are often cheap and available. A small amount of leg work builds the door required to solve the heat humidity loss issues of open tops.


http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution

[RetiredJedi]

Before I got my rack system I was heating two seperate tubs each with one of ULTRATHERM HEAT PADS from Reptile Basics using one of THESE HYDROFARM t-stats and it worked great. So I was on a budget getting my tubs and hygrometers from Walmart, and my waterbowls and "hids" (cheap bowl with a hole cut in it turned upside down) from dollar tree. I went to Home Depot and got a roll of packing paper, 70 sheets for $4, as substrate and it worked out great. For anyone that is military or knows military people, whenever someone is moving to a new duty station ask them to get one of the rolls of packing paper the movers use when they come pack your stuff.

[Redneck_Crow]

I use a single tub with a lid for my "cootie" (isolation) cage, an approx 30 quart tub with a locking lid. I have a non-adhesive under the tank heater hooked to a thermostat, and I cover the tub on the top and sides with a double layer of towels. The vent holes are drilled on the ends of the tub.

I have a little jigsaw in there right now that I bought last month from Rich's Ball Pythons. He's eating well, snooting around at night, and he shed perfectly the other day. It's not much to look at, but it meets their needs. What I really like about it is that it's portable so I don't necessarily need to keep it in the snake room. I've got it in my bedroom at the moment.