Substrate question (and let's throw in one about lights, too)

[Sonny1318]

I added a picture in my gallery. I made custom inserts that rest on the lip of the tank under the screen (no the snakes can not knock them down). I can add one or two depending on the season.

[melcvt00]

I have a ceramic bulb on one side of my tank. Hunidity has been an issue (aspen), and I was getting tired of keeping up with soaking the patch of sphagnum moss.....I also can't soak the moss if we leave for a weekend.

I just bought a bag of the All Living Things brand cypress to mix in my aspen. I am going to watch the humidity and make adjustments to ratios if need be.

Next purchase is going to be two identical hide rocks. My snake spends all his time on the warm side during the daytime because he prefers that hide.

[Captain23]

I personally use bioactive substrate. It's the best thing I've found as far as price, maintenance, and efficiency. It's simply top soil without any additives and leaf litter for your clean up crew.

Put in about 5-6" of top soil for any live plants. Leaf litter from outside. Add a bunch of spring tails and sew bugs and there's virtually no maintenance needed. The bugs are there to clean up any poo. The plants are to keep the air fresh and not stagnate. I've also added earthworms to help aerate the soil.

I've put in a shop light fixture and put a UVB in it simply for the plants.


The combination of the shop light fixture heat and my UTH pad keeps the ambient temperatures spot on almost through out the year and I never have to pay for substrate again.


Also, the tank I use is 5' long and roughly 2' wide.

[cchardwick]

Everyone seems to have their own preferences, but I like to use aspen bedding from Petco for all my snakes. It comes in a big compressed block and I think it's about $12 and it's kiln dried so no chance of getting bugs in it. About half of my snakes including some of my ball pythons like to burrow in it and they go down to the heat source, some just stay on top and some snakes move it all over the place LOL. I use cheaper pine bedding for my rodents from the feed store, I think it's about $8 per block but not as clean, sometimes it can get a little wet from sitting out in the yard. My mice don't seem to mind though, probably wouldn't use pine for my snakes as they recommend aspen. But the pine sure makes my rodent / snake room smell good!

[Moosefriend]

I like the smell of the cypress because it smells like petrichor But I wouldn't mind it smelling like Christmas all the time, either.

@captain, someone mentioned earlier not to use soil? Os it can get in the mouth/nose/heat pits. I mean, sure there's soil/dirt in the wild... I'd love to plant real plants in the vivarium (I love gardening!) But I haven'tseen much about that topic...


Hmm. Can you use a CHE with a lamp dome? It says it reccomends the wire lamp thing on the box, but I like my dome. Especially since it has a built in dimmer.

[Soord]

I like the smell of the cypress because it smells like petrichor But I wouldn't mind it smelling like Christmas all the time, either.

@captain, someone mentioned earlier not to use soil? Os it can get in the mouth/nose/heat pits. I mean, sure there's soil/dirt in the wild... I'd love to plant real plants in the vivarium (I love gardening!) But I haven'tseen much about that topic...


Hmm. Can you use a CHE with a lamp dome? It says it reccomends the wire lamp thing on the box, but I like my dome. Especially since it has a built in dimmer.

My che I have in the dome. Works fine for my needs

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[Moosefriend]

Do you rest it on the top of the tank?

My tank is 31.5*14.5 (and most lids/screens are 30*12) so we're making one out of plexiglass with a piano hinge and velcro to keep it down. I'll be drilling ventilation holes but I'm m worried that drilled holes won't be enough to let the heat in and melt the plexi... But, plexi melts at like 160c (320f).

I was also reading that it's advised NOT to use a dome cos it'll trap the heat, and that's why you use the cage lamp so there's lots of circulation. But that means it'll be hotter to compensate for the loss when it's open 360° like that... so they get way hotter. One post I read said she temp gunned it at 400f, which will melt the plexi. I wonder if she was using a dome? At least my dome would have a dimmer on it.

I think I'll keep the bulb for now. They must be tired seeing my face from picking up supplies from fish, axolotl, cat to snakes a few times a week. I would also feel weird returning something I had gotten from a previous return...

I like the words for CHE, being lightless and lasting way longer than bulbs, but it's the oft mentioned heat i'm worried about...

[Soord]

Do you rest it on the top of the tank?

My tank is 31.5*14.5 (and most lids/screens are 30*12) so we're making one out of plexiglass with a piano hinge and velcro to keep it down. I'll be drilling ventilation holes but I'm m worried that drilled holes won't be enough to let the heat in and melt the plexi... But, plexi melts at like 160c (320f).

I was also reading that it's advised NOT to use a dome cos it'll trap the heat, and that's why you use the cage lamp so there's lots of circulation. But that means it'll be hotter to compensate for the loss when it's open 360° like that... so they get way hotter. One post I read said she temp gunned it at 400f, which will melt the plexi. I wonder if she was using a dome? At least my dome would have a dimmer on it.

I think I'll keep the bulb for now. They must be tired seeing my face from picking up supplies from fish, axolotl, cat to snakes a few times a week. I would also feel weird returning something I had gotten from a previous return...

I like the words for CHE, being lightless and lasting way longer than bulbs, but it's the oft mentioned heat i'm worried about...

My viv has a partial screen top or of metal so yeah I do

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[chrid16371]

As far as thermostats I would stay away from zoo med and zilla, I've owned them both and returned them 2 days after I had them, they drop 4-6 degrees before they start heating again and that's really not good. If you can't get a proportional thermostat right now and have to get an on/off get one that only drops 1 or 2 degrees at most before it starts heating again. One option is if you or someone you know can do basic wiring is get an STC-1000 from EBay and a short medium duty extension cord from a hardware store, all you have to do is cut and splice extension cord and wire it to the stc-1000 and you have a cheap on/off thermostat that only drops 1 degree before it turns heating device back on. Make sure you get one that is 110v if you have 110 electricity. You can use this thermostat for uth, che, rhp, heat cable, heat tape, any non light emitting heat source. The reason you don't want to use on/off thermostats for red bulbs and other light heat source is bc they will constantly flicker on off, you will need a dimming proportional for light emitting heat sources. Pulse is also a good thermostat bc it will keep one constant temp but it is also only for non light emitting heat sources. Dimming can be used for any heat source.

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[Captain23]

[QUOTE=Moosefriend;2446045]
@captain, someone mentioned earlier not to use soil? Os it can get in the mouth/nose/heat pits. I mean, sure there's soil/dirt in the wild... I'd love to plant real plants in the vivarium (I love gardening!) But I haven'tseen much about that topicQUOTE]


Not many BP owners like the idea but mine have been in my set up for a year with no problem.

Here's a link to a thread I did. It's got some informational links on it you can check out.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...e-for-Reptiles