Heat Lamp for Kingsnakes

[Jackins]

Quick question,

I have the general gist for supplies for a future kingsnake, but the one concern that I have currently is the use of a heat lamp for the cool side of my enclosure.

I will be using a 20gal terrarium w/ locking screen lid (of course) and UTH on one side. My concern is that the house that I currently reside in has central air and heat that cycles through automagically to keep us fleshy, warmblooded inhabitants comfy cozy at all times. Because of this, I need to regulate the temps on the cool side as well, as the ambient temperature in this house is generally kept to about 68 degrees, unless it's during the day when nobody is in it, and the the AC/Heat doesn't run, so it can vary anywhere from 55 -75 depending upon the time of year.

Temps that I have seen listed range from 75 -89 for cool/hot sides of the tank and I need to be able to provide these ranges. UTH is fairly simple, but the lighting has me concerned.

To summarize:

1. What size heat lamp should I be looking to procure for this type of set up?
2. Do i need multiple lamps for Day and Night temp setting?
3. Is there another sort of heater I can use for evening temperatures; IE. Is a ceramic heat emmiter something I should look into/what is it?
4. Would a Dimmer/Timer combination be more appropriate than multiple heat lamps?
5. Am I asking the correct questions?

Thank you for your time.

[Mikoh4792]

I would ditch the glass tank. Glass tanks work for some people, but in temperatures that have that much of a variable range it won't hold up well in terms of maintaining the proper conditions.

I would invest in a plastic or wooden snake enclosure, and use a radiant heat panel or heat mat(or both) as the heat sources.

You do not need multiple lamps, only one heat source is usually needed, provided that the enclosure being used is a good insulator with very little ventilation. Lots of ventilation means harder time keeping temps in place. The main culprit with glass tanks is the screen top. I've tried covering the screen top and it's worked in terms of holding in humidity, but during the winter it just doesn't hold up in terms of heating.

[Mikoh4792]

Forgot to add:

Every heat source needs to be controlled by a thermostat(not to be mistaken with thermometer).

The high end thermostats will have their own night drop/timing system where you can make the heat source increase or decrease it's output depending on the time of day. So for example you can set the hotspot to 90F for 12 hours and 78F for 12 hours, or any which way you want.

Two thermostats with the timing/night drop feature:

- Herpstat from spyderrobotics.com
- vivarium electronics(just google to find a site that sells them). You need to pick the model with the night drop system, some models do not come with it.

[Starbuck]

I agree with mikoh. Inc you have a front opening tank I think you'll never keep a reptile in a glass tank again haha :-)

Further, I would add that if you can maintain an appropriate hotspot of about 89 on the warm side, controlled by a thermostat, and the snake feels comfortable using that area (enough cover etc) it will not matter if you cold spot is below 75 or ideal, because there will be a range of 89 to ** and an ideal cool temperature coil be found somewhere by the snake. Mist of these animals are from areas that can get below 50 degrees in the wild, and theyvcan mechanisms to cope with this. Not that you should toss him in the fridge just because, but some environmental and seasonally appropriate variation, in my opinion, is not a problem.

[Jackins]

Duly noted. Thank you both!