Brainstorming about ambient temps....

[Darwin]

I was just sitting here brainstorming with myself as to how I could up the ambient temp of my enclosure... I want to move it into my den but the thing is, that room doesn't have any baseboard heaters and runs about 5-7 degrees lower than the rest of my place. Right now, I am keeping my air temp in the enclosure upwards if 75 (not for lack of trying to get it higher, and that's with a heat lamp running in addition to the UTH.)

So here's what i was thinking....I was thinking to remove the substrate from the warm side (I dont want to remove it completely because I like to see his little pathways from time to time so I will know he's been out and about). I was thinking that it might let more heat rise up into the air and warm up the cool end. A stretch? Possibly. Anyway, I was just going to put down newspaper on the warm end but I'd want to hide the newspaper so I was thinking about what I could lay over it that wouldn't block heat so much as, say, Repticarpet. I randomly came up with refrigerator shelf liner (hopefully you know the stuff I mean. It comes on a roll, assorted colors, used so your fridge or cupboard shelves don't get scratched up.). It's a foam type material and is a crisscross pattern so there is holes I'm thinking the heat could rise up through... I was just wondering if anyone knows if that stuff would be safe for reptiles? I cant see why not. Shockingly, my Google search for "fridge liner + snake" yielded no results aside from news reports of people finding loose snakes inside their fridges! :|

Does anyone even think that might work? Or have a better idea that doesn't involve increasing the wattage of the overhead light or running a space heater 24/7?

[FireStorm]

How big is the enclosure? What's the top made of?

[KMG]

The uth is not going to heat the air in the cage like you are wanting. Your best bet is to add another heat source on the warm side if you have a glass tank.

My living room is 68-70 so with a 40 gallon glass tank I have a uth, 100w che, and a 60w bulb on the cool side to keep the temps right. I also have my back and sides covered with thick paper which gave me a few degree rise. Using foam or some other insulator will help raise your temps.

Tell us more about your setup and we can try to suggest a more specific fix.

[Darwin]

It's 36x18x almost 20 tall. Its a glass tank. I have foam board coverage on 3 sides and a layer of reflectix atop that The top is screen but it is covered in much the same fashion as the sides with a cut out on each of the warm and cool side for ventilation and for light. I have the UTH running on one side and the heat bulb positioned over the cool end. It's only a 50 watt. The humidity seems to naturally balance out around 30% with this setup (of course, I mist to increase it but keeping it in the 40-60 range requires minimal effort.) Should I up the heat lamp to 100w, I think it will kill the humidity... I've never used a CHE...

What to do, what to do...

[KMG]

I use lamp stands so I can raise the heaters away from my screen which lowers the heat they provide. I bet that adding a sixty watt bulb on the warm side and keeping the fifty watt on the cool side will give you the temps you need in that tank.

If your fixtures are sitting on the screen a 100 watt bulb will make a hotspot to warm for your snake.

Now you could use a 100 watt bulb with a dimmer to dial it in.

[Darwin]

I have the lights on top raised up. On the warm side I have a day light that is on for 12 hours. Are you saying I could do away with that and replace it with a 60w red bulb instead? The room I want to move the enclosure to wouldn't get any natural sunlight during the day though. I guess I could always just flick on a lamp in the room when I leave for work in the morning.

[KMG]

I actually have a double fixture that has two sixty watt bulbs, one day and one red night bulb on a timer to give my light cycle plus heat.

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Combo-...eywords=zoomed

[Darwin]

Ok, I have the same type of thing but the day light doesn't provide any heat. It's a Repti Glo 2.0. The UVB bulb doesn't provide any benefit, it was just what was available last time I picked up bulbs. So are you saying I should replace the repti glo bulb with one of those blue day bulbs instead? The daytime temps will increase and the nighttime temps will be somewhere around what they are now once the timer turns the day bulb off? Maybe increase this red bulb I have with a 75 watt hook up a dimmer? Did I follow things correctly?

[KMG]

So you have the same fixture? If so, I would change the uvb out for a heat bulb. But what I'm trying to say is you may need another heat fixture on the cool side too.

I have the che on my warm side but it could not keep the temps on the cool side warm enough alone. That's when I added the double fixture with the sixty watt bulbs for a temp boost. I Trend to over do things that why I went with the double fixture to provide a light cycle.

I would try to get your temps to remain constant without a drop at night. Even if you use two red bulbs, one for the warm side and one for the cool side, I think that would be better than a temp drop.

I would guess that a 75 watt bulb would need a dimmer but can not say for sure. That's going to need some testing.

[Darwin]

Ahhh, I get ya now (or at least I hope...)

Yeah I do have that light. I wasn't currently using it though, I was just using a single fixture over each side. So I should swap out the single fixture over the warm side and use the double fixture instead with a day and night bulb. There will also still be the night bulb over the cool side. So essentially set up 3 bulbs and run 2 bulbs at a time.

I hope I got it right this time....