Too big for my BP???

[gnome]

Ok here is the deal. I have a 3ft BP. My wife and I stumbled across a 75 gallon tank and are thinking about getting it for him. The tank has a really nice complete setup. I was wondering if the tank is too big for him??? I was thinking that it would be ok if we just put extra hiding in there for him if it would be ok.

[JLC]

I think your biggest issue with a tank that size is maintaining the proper environment. It'd be a beast to keep the overall temps warm enough without it getting too hot...and the humidity may be nearly impossible to maintain. Not to mention how much of a pain tanks that size are to keep clean.

Personally, I'd pass on it. But if you have the space and the inclination to try...and the willingness to go to possibly heroic efforts to keep the right environment in there...go for it. Just make sure you get it all set up and running properly BEFORE you move the snake into it.

EDIT: One more thought....also, be prepared to return to your original enclosure if your snake should decide it doesn't like such a large home...but at 3', he/she is probably secure enough to not be too fussy about that.

[Seneschal]

Take it from someone who has a 55gal with an adult BP in it (soon to change), it's extremely difficult to maintain temps and humidity in such a large tank, even using a ginormous UTH and red heat lamp and a large water bowl on the UTH and having aluminum foil over most of the top AND living in Florida where outside humidity is in the 60%-90% range almost every day. Trust me, it'll look great--it'll look fabulous, but you'll spend every minute of your day worrying about temps and humidity, misting left, right and center, and you still won't be able to maintain 60% humidity and 92F hot side. It will drive you completely and utterly mad. (I've even tried damp paper towels on the bottom of the tank, and that only sort of works!)

What JLC said is right--you'll finally get the hot side warm enough, but the cool side is still too cool; so you heat it up but then the hot side is WAY too hot by the time the cool side is at the right temp range, and by this time your humidity's down to 10% from all the heat. Eventually you settle on a mediocre medium where humidity is almost right and temps are sorta right...And then your snake poos in the corner and you have to turn the lamp off and take the humidity-saving lid off to clean, you loose all your humidity and heat in five minutes!

I think the problem is all of the air space you're trying to heat and humidify. Keeping live plants in there helps a LITTLE with humidity, but the snake will poo on it and kill it, and it has to be completely nontoxic...not worth the effort of maintenence, in my opinion--but if you're up for that, then kudos to you!!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It will be very, very, very difficult to maintain 80-84 on the cool side and 90-94 on the warm side at all time, and even more difficult during the winter, and I am not even talking about how hard it will be to maintain proper humidity. Finally 75 gallons is way more space than what your BP needs and will likely be a stressful environment for him.