Hi there, I'm new to the forum. I've been searching around, but haven't found a thread that is specific to my questions, I apologize if it's been discussed before and I overlooked it.

I've had mostly corn snakes when I was young (and looking back I know they were not taken care up properly) and now I'm getting into ball pythons and working on my husbandry skills. I got my first ball python a month ago and set her up in a 40 gal tank with a zoomed UTH and zoomed t-stat that attaches outside the tank. The tank is NOT holding heat well at all, so I added a heat lamp to the t-stat, but in my reading I've decided to switch to a small rack system since snakes seem to thrive in them and it will allow me to have more snakes in a small space. Rack systems just make sense for snakes. My husband is going to build me a small (< 20 tubs) rack.

So, my questions. I'm really paranoid about using heat tape and starting a fire. Has anyone had problems with heat tape (while also using a t-stat) and having a fire/burning their snakes? What about the plastic melting? Head pads vs heat tape- any thoughts? Can heat pads melt plastic?

Any advice on economical ways to have a t-stat system? I've seen nice ones for $130, do those come with multiple probes for each tub, or do you buy a system for each tub? Or do you only put a probe in a few tubs?

Thank you thank you so much in advance!!