Temp maintenance

[Chard]

hey, just wondering if there are any tricks for maintaining a good temperature in a glass tank. Right now ambient temps hover around 70-72F (live in wisconsin, temps have been pretty low lately). I have a heat lamp which does well enough, but the temp drops quickly due to glass not being very good at retaining heat once I turn it off, plus it saps the humidity. Theres also the under-tank heating unit, attached, which raises the temp a good 5-8 degrees. my substeate is a combination of walnut shell 'sand' (like small pebbles) and ground fir tree bark pellets. Keep in mind, I am a finantially-impared college student, so real home fixits are my forte. Thanks!

[Ginevive]

Well, welcome to the site; I don't think I saw you around before
I have a piece of unsolicited substrate advice: ditch the walnut shell, and use newspaper. It is free or low-cost.. and the small pieces of walnut shell can become lodged in your snake's heat pits.
I am not Too much help in the heating department; I use tubs, and they are so easy to maintain. But when I used tanks for my snakes, I always heated around the tank (meaning, the temperature of the room was kept where it made the tank temps correct.)
I used a "radiator" style plug-in heater. (they are also called "oil filled."

[geckochick]

Boosting your room temp to at least 75 will help. You should never let your cool ambient air temp get under 75 degrees. Do you have a screen lid? putting something over that will help to keep some of the heat in and humidity up.

[juddb]

My girlfriend is from madison, WI..... Small world

[dr del]

hey, just wondering if there are any tricks for maintaining a good temperature in a glass tank. Right now ambient temps hover around 70-72F (live in wisconsin, temps have been pretty low lately). I have a heat lamp which does well enough, but the temp drops quickly due to glass not being very good at retaining heat once I turn it off, plus it saps the humidity. Theres also the under-tank heating unit, attached, which raises the temp a good 5-8 degrees. my substeate is a combination of walnut shell 'sand' (like small pebbles) and ground fir tree bark pellets. Keep in mind, I am a finantially-impared college student, so real home fixits are my forte. Thanks!

Hey Chard,


On the "home fixit" front you could try insulating the tank on all sides but the viewing one. I have used cork sheeting or scrap polystyrene for this in the past - poly is better but doesn't look as nice.

Most people recomend just raising the ambient room temps however to keep the cool end in the low 80's F.

I agree with Gin on the walnut stuff - there are a few reports of nasty problems with it on the forum such as impaction in bearded dragons etc.
Possibly the best solution for a cash strapped student is also one of the best for your tank - newspaper.

I'd also like to ask why you turn the heat lamp off? It might help us give you some more specific advice if you could post some pictures of your tank and the temp ranges it has at the moment in both the cool hides and the warm hides.

There are some great threads in the caging forum on setting up glass tanks so check those out for any ideas as well.

And, as I also have not talked to you before, welcome to the site.



dr del

[jotay]

When I first got into bp's I had a 20 gal glass tank and lived in an apt where the temps in the house was always low 70's .

I had a overhead lamp w/ a 50-75watt red heat bulb on cool side and a uth on the hot side. Humidity was an issue until I sealed up the screen lid all but about 1/2" wider than the bottom of the lamp and then a small corner on the hot side. I also would mist once a day and had the water dish a little over the warm side/uth.

I also had a small heater in the room to boost those temps but not much since in was in my son's room and he has really dry sinus and the heat caused nose bleeds. Anyway I was able to maintain 80-81 cool and 90-92 warm once I got it all together.

Somewhere ( mauybe someone else can chime in here ) there is a sticky thread on how to set up a glass viv to maintain good heat and humidity.
I would switch substrate from the walnut stuff to maybe cypress or reptibark which will help w/ the humidity issues. I had my uth on a Helix t-stat and the light on a small esu t-stat to keep from overheating but the light actually very seldom clicked off in order to maintain temps. You may have to keep light on 24/7 that is why a nightglow or red bulb is needed also a t-stat of some sort to keep it from ever getting to hot.

[Snikt228]

I have a herpstat II hooked to a 100W CHE for my ambient temp, set at 82.5 and a UTH on the hot side set at 92. This seems to work pretty well even in my room where the temperature changes from like 68-80s through the year.

Before I got the herpstat I had to babysit the temp much more. The proportional stat with a CHE is a winner though

[KIBPLOVER]

Our vet said do not use sand with ball, it could cause big problems.... I would take it out..

use, cypress, aspen, coconut bark, desert snow, news paper, or paper towels..

[dr del]

Somewhere ( mauybe someone else can chime in here ) there is a sticky thread on how to set up a glass viv to maintain good heat and humidity.

Is this the thread you were reffering to?

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=32800




dr del

[jotay]

Is this the thread you were reffering to?

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=32800




dr del

Yep that looks like the one