Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 29gallon with a baby ball python to soon be the inhabitant. And I was wondering should I have like the basking lamp on the one side..and the under the tank heater on the same side as the lamp..or the oposite side...

Just wondering because the hide box is on the other side of the heating lamp..and I dont want to put the under the tank heater on the wrong side and heat up his hide box too much.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks in advance,

-- Paul

An IR lamp or basking lamp over a UTH usually breaks the glass of most store bought tanks...if you used 1/4 " tempered you'd be OK....this also tends to create 120ish degree temps at that spot which is too hot for a Ball Python. Typically you do not need a basking lamp in this sized tank, just the UTH. If you have a huge tank a lamp on the opposite side is helpful to elevate th eentire tank temp.
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Mike and David at 3-D Pythons
www.3dpythons.com

So what your saying is I do not need a basking lamp and should have only the UTH..

OR

I should have the basking like and NOT the UTH.

Thanks for your help,

-- Paul

Weither you need overhead heat or not is really dependent on your ambient temps int he room the cage will be in. What I would recommend is using the UTH(on a thermostat) to make a nice basking spot for the ball and then using the bulb to provide suplemental heat to raise the ambients in the cage(on the cool side)if the UTH alone will not raise the temps into the 80's If you already have the bulb you can put it on a dimmer to lower the wattage so to speak or you can use a different watt bulb to get the same effect...
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www.MGReptiles.com
Professional Reptile Heating Supplies

Well I have the under the tank heater..and I can't find my basking lamp fixture I had to put my basking bulb in to set everything up and test it before I get the snake tommarow...but this under the tank heater isnt doing anything at all..its making the bottom kinda warm..but its been like an hour or a bit more..and its not keeping the inside of the tank warm..or so the thermometer says... I have the themometer on the back glass(on the inside) towards the bottom... Should I have it some where else? Its one that looks like a circular guage.

do heating pads take a long time to warm up or ...am I just missing somthing haha

Well actually you need to pickup some digital thermometers as the analog dial ones are pretty much junk.. The element should warm within 1 minute of being plugged in...
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www.MGReptiles.com
Professional Reptile Heating Supplies