*Room Temperature and Enclosure Temperature (What are the Limits for the Room?)

[Sauzo]

Ok Two Lines of questioning specific to the T8 and RHPs.

RHP's:
Several people recommended the RBI RHP's over the Pro Series. I'm down with that but wonder how difficult they are to instal as animal plastics could install the pro series for me.

Either RBI or Pro Products are good. I personally use a Pro Products but will probably try an RBI one. They are easy to install. Just lay it on the roof of the cage where you want it and then mark the 2 holes with a piece of chalk or a scribe or anything you can see. Then drill the 2 holes with whatever size bolts they give you, I think mine were 1/4". Then put the bolts through the RHP and put it inside the cage and put the bolts through the holes and tighten the nuts.

T8:
I've read quite a bit how the T8 can hold two of most full grown adult Ball Pythons. The question that I am left wondering is how difficult it would be two house a corn and a BP (this would be for in the future) if I am relying on RHP's for heat because of the possibility of big temperature fluctuations in my classroom.

A T8 wont hold a adult ball pythons or at least I wouldn't want to. 2x2 is just too small for a full grown snake unless its something like an adult male Hognose. Also there is the problem of you would need 2 RHPs, probably 40 watt ones on each side. And there is the whole quarantine process but that's another story.

Has any one looked into maintaining two separate temperature gradients using RHP's in the T8? I searched around the site and checked Serpent Merchent's post on the T8 but did not come up with a clear answer to this one. I ask know because it could shift around some of the other plans for purchasing if I want to have the option of adding a corn down the road.... (for example going with two 40watt RHP's as opposed to one cheaper 80 watt).

With that small of an area, you wont maintain a temp gradient really. You just heat the ambient with the RHP to about 86F and call it good. Smaller the area, less room there is for a gradient.

[HellsAekel]

Alrighty then, sticking with one snake for now then

Bit of an update. During the day the room has been holding steady at 72 degrees. I will be going in later tonight or tomorrow night to see what temp it sits at at night after a weekend with no one in there.

I still plan to get the following for sure:

Herpastat or herpatat 2

80 what RHP

Basics (hides large water bowl, etc)

However with regard to the enclosure the following has come up:

It seems unlikely that I would be able to get the AP T8 within a good time frame for this year's students (they leave in early june) and their parents helped with raising money. The same applies for constrictors northwest which I am actually leaning more towards now due to the type of plastic they use.

On top of all this the parent that offered to donate a glass tank sent me a pic. I'm now considering modifying it with insulation and to hold an 80 watt RHP, as was described ealier by Coluber42.

This will enable my student and I to enjoy the snake sooner and I can still get the T8 or Constrictors northwest down the line.

[Coluber42]

This is how I got my 80-watt panel onto my screen lid.

Underside of lid:


Lid closed:


The panel is screwed into the two wood scraps across the top right through the screen. As you can see on the underside, the panel fills most of the lid; the remaining screen is covered with foil. The panel is just slightly too big to get all the way inside the rim of the tank, plus there needs to be room for the cord to come out. So I added blocks (just screwed through the screen as well) around the rest of the lid to set it up a little higher. The luggage strap is nice and snug and keeps it from sliding around, since it's really just resting on the blocks; the edge of the lid doesn't actually overhang the rim of the tank anymore.



In this last photo you can see that there's actually a bit of a gap (where you can see the running light for the panel) all along where the panel is; the cord comes neatly out the back the same way. A leetle baby corn snake or similar-sized critter could escape through that gap conceivably, but not a BP, even a baby. But it provides plenty of ventilation, so the screen can be completely covered. There's also a heat mat under the cave-looking hide and an extra UTH on the side of the tank just in case anything else ever fails and I need an additional heat source. In the winter, our programmable thermostat goes down to 52 during the day when no one's home, and 55 overnight when we're in bed under about eight big blankets. The living room usually doesn't go much below 55. But between the herpstat and the RHP, the tank temp stays very stable.

I already had the tank... but when our little guy outgrows it, I'll be building a new enclosure out of PVC, and hopefully the 80-watt panel will still do the job.

Anyway, as you can see, this is a very simple way of mounting the panel, and it probably took less than 20 minutes, including digging up the scrap pieces. It would be very easy to do a nicer job (or just build a new top for the panel) but I'm too lazy since he'll just move into something bigger later.

[HellsAekel]

Thanks Coluber42! That's awesome.

So I hit up Coluber because after speaking with ALL of the plastic cage makers I learned that the shortest time for delivery out of all of them would be 4 weeks. At that point all of my students would only be with me for another month and a half and their parents donated most of the money.

I've also heard back from the parent who offered to donate the tank and he will be dropping it off for me at school tomorrow. Tomorrow is a pretty crazy day but at some point I hope to upload pictures and brainstorm what I can do. Depending on the size of the tank I may need to go for a snake that is not quite full grown but still old enough that it has been handled a lot and get a plastic tank down the line.

My plan at the moment is to do something similar to what Coluber42 has done and see how it works out for me.

I may also pull some ideas from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u3GIcX_Djc

The parent also offered me a really nice exo terra tank similar to the one in the video, but I think it might be even larger (in all dimensions).

That does not seem like a good fit for a ball python (and it might be a heating nightmare too), but I am curious to hear what you all think.

In any event I will have pictures of the smaller glass tank which looks similar to Coluber's from what I saw and I will upload them tomorrow or the day after as time allows.

[HellsAekel]

Quick Update (More to follow)

Thanks for all the help guys!

This is what I have set up:
40 gallon breeder
Insulated twice on both sides, the back and about 75% of the top with reflective plastic insulation
Accurite Thermometer (prob near glass by hotspot main device near glass on cold side)
Herpstat II (1 prob on UTh and 1 2 inches about the ground in the center of the tank for ambient temps)
150 watt CHE
Daily access to Temp gun
Exo Terra UTH (was gonna do flexwatt but garuntees and no exposed wires better for classroom due to legal issues)
a base layer of craft paper
Shredded Aspen
Sphangum Moss
A half log hide
a cork "tree trunk" hide with 3 openings
A large ceramic water bowel
12 feet of fake plants/vines much of which is at the bottom front of the tank for extra cover
humidity is holding at 55% and temps range from 80 to 92 degrees in a non-linear fashion (I started a new post on this entitled "Temperature Gradient (Does it have to be linear?), Snake Size and Thermal Regulation"

I'm planning on getting a 2 1/2 male pinstripe

Any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!

Thanks again for all your help!