Setting up a GLASS tank - question about lights and lids

[Coluber42]

@Usa: Thanks! I've been reading a lot since my friend got a BP just about two weeks ago. There was a second at the store that got returned because the owners charred his mouth with a skillet-cooked rat. He's in isolation until he's better, and I want to adopt him and give him a better start.

@Coluber: What is a RHP? And, a UTH on the side will heat the ambient air better than a lamp - which will draw up all the moisture? Ok, that seems fair!

Holy crap, someone actually fed their snake prey hot enough to burn its bleeping mouth?!? Good thing that person doesn't have the snake anymore!

Re. Lamps: It's not really the lamp that draws up the moisture; it's the wide open area of screen the lamp needs to shine through. Normally, if the humidity in a tank with a screen top is too low, you just cover up more and more of the screen until it isn't. That may well mean covering the entire screen and just leaving a couple of small holes for ventilation. If you have a lamp sitting on top of the screen, you can't cover it all up because you have to leave it open where the lamp is. Heat is heat; but if your heat source requires you to leave a big hole for the moisture to escape through, it will dry out your enclosure. Radiant heat panels are mounted on the inside and don't get hot enough to burn; a UTH is on the outside, but it works by heating the glass, and glass is airtight. So it can be independent of how much ventilation you have.

As long as you can control how much ventilation there is (i.e, cover some holes if the humidity is too low), aspen can be just fine for humidity. Lots of people also use paper towels, newsprint, etc, and those things hold less moisture than anything. There are plenty of good substrates, and as long as you don't have an uncovered open screen top, humidity shouldn't *have* to be the reason for using or not using any of them.

[Moosefriend]

Yeah; they took a frozen rat and tried to "heat it up faster" in the skillet... the snake bit into it and immediately refused. They brought him back to the store and said he "wasn't eating" when they found the burn marks in his mouth that got infected and... needless to say they're not allowed in the store anymore... I check up on him every once in a while to see how he's healing, cos I wanna give him a better, less burny, home...

But uh...
Is a RHP something I can get at the petstore? Would one of them heating wires work the same way?

[Scottywelsh]

An RHP direct the heat down so there pretty efficient at heating. Heat cable doesn't and it also gets very hot in some places. I have heat cable in an incubator and if I plug it in with no thermostat it gets above 100°C
As for buying one. In the UK you have to get them online. Not sure about other countries tho.

[Eric Alan]

An RHP direct the heat down so there pretty efficient at heating. Heat cable doesn't and it also gets very hot in some places. I have heat cable in an incubator and if I plug it in with no thermostat it gets above 100°C
As for buying one. In the UK you have to get them online. Not sure about other countries tho.

Above 100°C?!?!?!?! That's INSANE.

[Moosefriend]

There's a 45$ 25w heat cable 70% off at the store (they're going out of business).

@scotty: i'm in Canada, but I'll look around!

[Scottywelsh]

50W Zoo med repti heat cable is what mine is if I remember rightly.
When it's stretched out the single strand gets about 60°C but when coiled together it's absolutely insane !! Needless to say a thermostat is needed lol
But if I'm not mistaken when a heat Mat malfunctions it turns all the way on and burns your snake but when heat cable doesn't it just turns off. . Don't quote me on that tho !

[bcr229]

But if I'm not mistaken when a heat Mat malfunctions it turns all the way on and burns your snake but when heat cable doesn't it just turns off. . Don't quote me on that tho !

It's not the matt that malfunctions, it's the thermostat controlling it. Some run wide-open when they fail, others shut off.

VE's are notorious for running wide-open when they fail. A dimmer switch between the t-stat and the appliance set so that the appliance maxes out in the upper 90's if there is no t-stat in the circuit will help ensure that while your snake may be uncomfortably warm for a while, it doesn't get badly burned.

[Scottywelsh]

It's not the matt that malfunctions, it's the thermostat controlling it. Some run wide-open when they fail, others shut .

Sorry I should have said when not connected to a thermostat. Everyone knows that they shouldn't be run without one but if they are that's what I have heard is the case when they malfunction.
I know first hand that when a microclimate on/off thermostat malfunctions it turns on full !! I was lucky to catch it relatively quick before anything bad happened.

[Firemaniv]

Hey, I kept my BP in a 46gal bow front tank until I built an enclosure. I had to have it self sufficient as I work a 48 hr shift that can go to 72hrs. I learned the hard way about humidity and heat the hard way before I found this forum.

You will have some trial and error as the climate in your home is different than mine but here is a video I made about being able to control heat and humidity using a glass tank.
https://youtu.be/f4zpIxNDGPs

I also have a few more about building the lids for the 46 gal and lids for a 120gal tank. In the long run, if you can get something to fit your needs that you can install a rhp in, they are the way to go.

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