Quote Originally Posted by Elkhntr98 View Post
I have a 30 gallon breeder critter cage that wasn't being used. I decided to split it up and put two young bps in it. Each side.of the enclosure will be 18lx18wx12h...I have blacked out all 3 sides of the tank and have plexiglass and foil waiting to be cut to size for the top. I did a quick experiment today and threw in some aspen a hide on the hot side and a water bowl. I cover most of the top and put a 100 watt bulb over the one side that had everything in it. The accurite said it's 84 on hot side and 78 on cold with humidity of 39%...could I use a larger uth (11x17) under the tank and split it right at the divider? I was thinking of that and then putting 2 lower watt heat lamps over the center/cool side to help raise ambient Temps and have water bowl under heat lamp to raise humidty. Does anyone think this will work or have any other suggestions on what's the best way to attack this. Thanks
Quote Originally Posted by Sauzo View Post
A Hydrofarm is going to give you the same chances of failure and end result as a lamp dimmer will. Both will fail wide open. You need to look at the thread on here about how to set up a 20g tank. Its helpful for newer people. There is nothing wrong with dimmers and stuff. The issue is you are starting with such a small enclosure that it is going to be hard to get any kind of temperature gradient to start with not to mention if you have a failure of any type, it will be magnified by the small space.

If you haven't gotten both snakes yet, my advice is only get 1 and use the whole tank for him. You are putting the cart in front of the horse by getting the snakes first without having proper setups and you are just asking for trouble. I never order a snake until I have the caging set up.

And for a UTH, you definitely need a t-stat. A CHE, you can get away with a dimmer but ideally, you want a good t-stat first and foremost. I personally use Herpstats.
There is no snakes that are going in it right now...I currently have 3 bps in an open sided rack. I should probably just butera the bullet and order a couple t8s set up. I like the rack but my house in the winter is a constant 65 degrees and I have a hell of a time keeping air Temps up (blankets/foamboard) I just don't like the look of it. Kinda looks tacky to me. I just had the tank here so I was trying to make use of it. Maybe I'll go with the t8s for the ball pythons and put one of my corn snakes in the glass tank.