New enclosure heating advice

GyGbeetle · 04-13-17, 10:20 AM

Just bought custom made melamine 5'x18"x18" enclosures for our boas. We're buying 4 total (2 have already been purchased). And I really am at a loss as to what would be the best heating source. I'm thinking UTH probably won't penetrate the floor of the enclosure. Currently, we have a ceramic heat bulb inside (75w), but it gets way too hot, and warped the top of the plastic hides that were directly underneath the bulbs, so I freaked out and turned off the bulbs. We have the heat source back on, hide is on the opposite side of the enclosure, water dish is underneath the hot side, but I'm still freaking out.

Was thinking maybe an RHP? But that will take some time to ship. What about heat tape? Inside/outside the enclosure? Inside the enclosure, what do we do to cover it up?

Please no mean comments. I'm seeking advice and learning here. The snakes are safe and we can always put them back into their original enclosures until we get things figured out with the new ones. Ambient temps in the house are 78 degrees, and ambient temps in the enclosures have been 80 degrees, so not having a heat source 100% of the time for a short duration won't have a major impact on their health. I just don't know what the best thing will be. We've always used UTH on glass enclosures, and they've worked out really great. We just got a boaphile, and attached an RHP; took about a week to figure out if it was providing enough heat or not. Now we have these ceramic heat sources, and I'm not happy that they warped the top of the hides.

trailblazer295 · 04-13-17, 10:36 AM

A UTH or heat tape will only heat the area it's making contact with. The rest of the cage will be room temperature. Only a heat bulb or rhp will heat the cage. They do make cages to cover a che. I believe ziggy posted a link for Amazon once with them.

GyGbeetle · 04-13-17, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trailblazer295

A UTH or heat tape will only heat the area it's making contact with. The rest of the cage will be room temperature. Only a heat bulb or rhp will heat the cage. They do make cages to cover a che. I believe ziggy posted a link for Amazon once with them.

But I don't think the cage will prevent it from warping the hide. that's my issue right now. We were going to buy some cages, but it's all open. yes, the animal won't burn himself on it because it has that weird space-agey material that prevents the cage from heating up. But the bulb will still cause the hide to warp, and that's why I'm freaking out.

Do you think it would be better to get RHP? What about getting a lower watt bulb? Another heat source entirely?

dannybgoode · 04-13-17, 10:51 AM

You are using a thermostat with the che aren't you? If you are they should not get hot enough to warp a viv. If you're not you need to otherwise they do go nuclear.

I would not use a uth for a heavy bodied snake such as a boa and yes - installed outside the Viv would be next to useless. In the Viv with something covering it maybe but I wouldn't go this route

**Andy_G** · 04-13-17, 10:51 AM

Shame that the CHE somehow warped the hides. I have heat tape for my bulls in melamine enclosures and they work just fine providing the correct hot spot since ambient doesn't need a boost, but for boas, definitely use an RHP.

trailblazer295 · 04-13-17, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GyGbeetle

But I don't think the cage will prevent it from warping the hide. that's my issue right now. We were going to buy some cages, but it's all open. yes, the animal won't burn himself on it because it has that weird space-agey material that prevents the cage from heating up. But the bulb will still cause the hide to warp, and that's why I'm freaking out.

Do you think it would be better to get RHP? What about getting a lower watt bulb? Another heat source entirely?

For boas a non light emitting source would be ideal. What wattage che are you using? An rhp doesn't get nearly as hot so it wouldn't warp anything.

GyGbeetle · 04-13-17, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trailblazer295

For boas a non light emitting source would be ideal. What wattage che are you using? An rhp doesn't get nearly as hot so it wouldn't warp anything.

75 watt bulb. I'm wondering if we went down a wattage? Also, the hides are pretty tall, and laying underneath the heat source. They are those Reptile Basics plastic hides. So with 18 inches, maybe they are just too tall and too close to the heat source. But then, I have always thought that boas needed their primary hide underneath heat.

There's the added bonus of having cats that stare at the snakes that are now at ground level, so we need to keep the hides in for their own stress levels.

I don't know. I'm rambling. I'm going to try and take a pic to show you what I mean

jay's reptiles · 04-13-17, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GyGbeetle

Just bought custom made melamine 5'x18"x18" enclosures for our boas. We're buying 4 total (2 have already been purchased). And I really am at a loss as to what would be the best heating source. I'm thinking UTH probably won't penetrate the floor of the enclosure. Currently, we have a ceramic heat bulb inside (75w), but it gets way too hot, and warped the top of the plastic hides that were directly underneath the bulbs, so I freaked out and turned off the bulbs. We have the heat source back on, hide is on the opposite side of the enclosure, water dish is underneath the hot side, but I'm still freaking out.

Was thinking maybe an RHP? But that will take some time to ship. What about heat tape? Inside/outside the enclosure? Inside the enclosure, what do we do to cover it up?

Please no mean comments. I'm seeking advice and learning here. The snakes are safe and we can always put them back into their original enclosures until we get things figured out with the new ones. Ambient temps in the house are 78 degrees, and ambient temps in the enclosures have been 80 degrees, so not having a heat source 100% of the time for a short duration won't have a major impact on their health. I just don't know what the best thing will be. We've always used UTH on glass enclosures, and they've worked out really great. We just got a boaphile, and attached an RHP; took about a week to figure out if it was providing enough heat or not. Now we have these ceramic heat sources, and I'm not happy that they warped the top of the hides.

do you have a thermostat hooked up to the che?

TRD · 04-13-17, 02:00 PM

Would skip the UTH and CHE and go for RHP as the main heat source. Large surface area, better distribution of heat as a result. More ideal for the larger animals.

CHE would be nice if you get a high enough wattage and place it far enough from the animal to provide a nice spread of heat... in a 18" WxH enclose that isn't possible I think. It will be too focused and as a result too hot in 1 spot and cold everywhere else. With an RHP you can either choose to heat from the top or heat from the side. It has a large surface area and won't burn your snake.

GyGbeetle · 04-13-17, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRD

Would skip the UTH and CHE and go for RHP as the main heat source. Large surface area, better distribution of heat as a result. More ideal for the larger animals.

CHE would be nice if you get a high enough wattage and place it far enough from the animal to provide a nice spread of heat... in a 18" WxH enclose that isn't possible I think. It will be too focused and as a result too hot in 1 spot and cold everywhere else. With an RHP you can either choose to heat from the top or heat from the side. It has a large surface area and won't burn your snake.

Ok. We're switching to RHPs. That was what I was thinking too

trailblazer295 · 04-13-17, 02:17 PM

The only CHE i'm using right now is in an exo terra so the bulb is outside the screen. I have a CHE I'll be testing in a 4x2x2 wooden cage. Test run gets plenty hot but has more vertical space to play with. I still need to have a cage made for it. I would have considered both it just so happens his cage came prewired and sockets installed as it was a bearded dragon cage before.

jjhill001 · 04-23-17, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay's reptiles

do you have a thermostat hooked up to the che?

The thermostat isn't gonna matter if it's not positioned in the right spot. If the thermostat probe is a foot away from the CHE and it's set to 90 it's gonna heat as hot as it needs to in order to get that probe to 90 degrees. That means it can potentially max out trying to get the probe to temperature.

I'm tired of people just saying get a thermostat, or just set the thermostat to X degrees and you're fine without asking the necessary setup questions in order to help it get set up properly. A thermostat needs to be dialed in to make sure other parts of the cage aren't getting ridiculously hot. If it's not set up properly you might as well not use one.

Scubadiver59 · 04-23-17, 01:49 PM

Case in point...ZooMed large UTHs at the bottom of two 40gal viv's, ~1/2-1in of cypress mulch, and my Herpstats are dialed in to 92F to get a 85F read in my Albino King viv, and 100F to get a 90F reading in my BP viv. All temps read at the substrate w/laser thermometer.

You can't just set and forget...you have to keep an eye on things and test, test, test.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhill001

The thermostat isn't gonna matter if it's not positioned in the right spot. If the thermostat probe is a foot away from the CHE and it's set to 90 it's gonna heat as hot as it needs to in order to get that probe to 90 degrees. That means it can potentially max out trying to get the probe to temperature.

I'm tired of people just saying get a thermostat, or just set the thermostat to X degrees and you're fine without asking the necessary setup questions in order to help it get set up properly. A thermostat needs to be dialed in to make sure other parts of the cage aren't getting ridiculously hot. If it's not set up properly you might as well not use one.

jay's reptiles · 04-24-17, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhill001

The thermostat isn't gonna matter if it's not positioned in the right spot. If the thermostat probe is a foot away from the CHE and it's set to 90 it's gonna heat as hot as it needs to in order to get that probe to 90 degrees. That means it can potentially max out trying to get the probe to temperature.

I'm tired of people just saying get a thermostat, or just set the thermostat to X degrees and you're fine without asking the necessary setup questions in order to help it get set up properly. A thermostat needs to be dialed in to make sure other parts of the cage aren't getting ridiculously hot. If it's not set up properly you might as well not use one.

Yes, i know this, but its very important to have a thermostat, that was the only question i was going to ask first, i am building my reticulated python her adult enclosure and have the che and the thermostat lined up correctly.

dannybgoode · 04-24-17, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhill001

The thermostat isn't gonna matter if it's not positioned in the right spot. If the thermostat probe is a foot away from the CHE and it's set to 90 it's gonna heat as hot as it needs to in order to get that probe to 90 degrees. That means it can potentially max out trying to get the probe to temperature.

I'm tired of people just saying get a thermostat, or just set the thermostat to X degrees and you're fine without asking the necessary setup questions in order to help it get set up properly. A thermostat needs to be dialed in to make sure other parts of the cage aren't getting ridiculously hot. If it's not set up properly you might as well not use one.

I posted an extensive write up on how I place the probe for a che. Works exceptionally well...

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...snake-viv.html

Ignore my comments in the post re: uth's if you wish