Using Plexi to help regulate heat & humidity

[KWenger]

I've discovered a way to fairly easily regulate heat and humidity in my BPs enclosure that I thought some of you might find helpful. If this has been covered before, forgive me for repeating the procedure.

I have a standard 40 gallon breeder tank (36" long, 18" wide, 17" high) that I use to house my snake. Shredded aspen substrate. Two hides, one on each end. One 8" diameter water bowl on the cooler side. UT heater on one end and a 150 watt ceramic heat emitter positioned on the screen top in the middle. As seems to be a common problem, I was having trouble keeping the enclosure warm and humid. Then I decided to use plexi glass panels to cover most of the screen top. I cut three separate pieces of plexi; two equal sized panels for each end of the top and a third, smaller piece that fits in the middle. When all three pieces are in place there is a 7 inch square opening remaining which is where the housing for the ceramic heat emitter sits. The plexi is colorless and almost invisible.

I now find that I have no trouble maintaining proper heat/humidity. The hide on the warm side stays around 90 degrees (regulated by a thermostat) and the hide on the opposite "cool" side is in the 80 degree range. Ambient temperature measured about 6 inches up from the bottom is consistently 84-86 degrees. Humidity stays between 55% - 65%. Once every other day or so, when the hygrometer registers less than 55%, I lightly mist the inside of the tank. The infrequent misting combined with evaporation from the water bowl keeps the humidity level just right.

I think the plexi has excellent insulation properties. It is still pretty cold where we live and we keep the thermostat in our house on the cool side. Usually 60 degrees at night and 68 during the day. Also, central heat keeps the air dry in the house........about 30% humidity. This morning the air temp in the room where our BP is housed was 61 degrees but it was a cozy 84 in his tank with 62% humidity. Before the plexi I was using wet towels over the top, and that did work fairly well to keep the humidity up.......but looked so ugly. The plexi panels seem to work even better than damp towels and, as I mentioned, they are practically invisible.

[BPGuy]

You're giving me some hope I can salvage my two 40 gallon tanks and avoid having to lay out a bunch of $ for a T8. Would you mind posting a picture or two if your set-up, focusing on the olexiglass?

[Kaorte]

I use plexi/acrylic to cover the screens on my exo-terras. It works wonders! And I think it looks way better than using a bunch of tin foil!

[Aes_Sidhe]

I was using Plexiglass before i FL for my 20 gal long now I need to get some for my Exo-terras as well

[nachash]

Good post! I do a similar thing with the light panels they make for the ceiling mounts. I found it to be cheaper and it does a good job dispersing the light i have for the tank. I cut it down to size to fit a 55 gallon screen top. I also cut out a circle for the heat bulb I use. I will say I bet plexi might be easier to work with because the plastic I used was extremely brittle and took a bit of time. To be honest, if a ball python has more than 1/2 of any side of the tank open with only screen, and it isn't in a room with a correct humidity (most houses don't get to 60 because of central air) then it is probably not humid enough. Sure you have a giant water bowl, but humidity is based on atmosphere saturation. All a big water bowl will do is make the area an inch around the bowl a bit more humid. But underneath the hot hide won't be affected if the water can't stay to saturation the air.

An even cheaper way that I used for my pacman frog is to use double sided tape and those clear plastic window covers meant for winter to keep in heat. With my pacman I gave it full coverage but with a ball maybe leave the and inch open on the ends or maybe don't tape the ends down.

[BPGuy]

I've never worked with plexiglass before. Where do you get it? Also, what tools are needed to cut it?

[Raven01]

I've never worked with plexiglass before. Where do you get it? Also, what tools are needed to cut it?

Hardware stores, Lowes, Home Depot, McMaster-Carr, or order online.

It can be cut with most any saw, I prefer a fine tooth table saw for clean straight edges that don't require alot of work to dress.
You can also easily drill ventilation holes if you need to.

[BPGuy]

Hardware stores, Lowes, Home Depot, McMaster-Carr, or order online.

It can be cut with most any saw, I prefer a fine tooth table saw for clean straight edges that don't require alot of work to dress.
You can also easily drill ventilation holes if you need to.

Cool! Thanks. I hope the OP posts some photos of his set-up.

[KWenger]

I own an art gallery and picture framing business and have the professional equipment in our shop to cut plexi to whatever size I need. During the course of our regular business operations we generate lots of scraps of plexi that are either too small or oddly shaped to use for framing pictures, or, more often, have little surface scratches. Those odds & ends get thrown away.......or we are happy to GIVE them away to anyone who asks. I would suggest you see if there is a picture framer in your area and if there is, ask them if you can have their scraps of scratched plexi. My guess is they will happily give them to you for free. Or, call your local glass shop.....the type that sells glass for house/building windows, windshields, etc.....and ask them if they have any scraps you can have. Lastly, if you can't locate a picture framer or glass shop that will give away scraps, I would suggest you get a tape measure and determine what size plexiglass panels you need and then call a glass store and order the pieces custom cut. Standard grade plexiglass is cheap and small pieces the size you'll be needing shouldn't cost you more than a few dollars even if you pay full price. Plexi can be difficult to cut if you don't have the proper equipment (more difficult to cut than regular glass, and easy to cut yourself in the process) but you can certainly do it yourself with a little plexi saw that you can buy at Home Depot, Lowe's or a similar place. In the long run though, if you are only going to be using plexi for this one project, I think you would be better off getting it cut professionally. At our business, if someone wants a scrap of our scratched plexi we will happily cut it down to size for them at no charge. Takes us only a few seconds and is good for customer relations.

[Annarose15]

When using plexiglass to cover screen lids, please remember that you are further restricting what little poor air ventilation aquarium-style tanks already have. Yes, you are holding in humidity and heat, but you are also holding in stale air that can become a petri dish for bacteria. Although modifications can help, it doesn't change the fact that glass tanks are just poor choices for BP terrariums in cool ambient rooms with low humidity.