Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I'm converting my 240 gallon plexi fish tank into a snake cage. The dimensions are 72"L X 24"D X 30"H.

Here is a rough drawing of my first thoughts. It's going to house a growing Black Headed Python. He's about 6.5 ft. at the moment, and I'd like to make this his permenant home.

I'm going with Pro Products RHP's, and flexx watt on the bottom 2/3rds of the way accross, and a proportional Big Apple Thermostat. It's a big cage and will require a bit of heat to keep it at the proper temps during the winter. I'm in Calif. but I like to keep the house pretty cool in winter. The snake really likes to climb, and I think he'll like the levels and different basking spots. The top shelf on the left is 8" from the top, and two below are set at 11" respectively. I'm thinking of one shelf on the right set right in the middle at 15". The shelves will go all the way accross front to back, but not the length of the tank, so that I can put a divider, top to bottom if the need ever arises in the future. This is my first attempt, and I'd like to get it right, so if I'm way off base please let me know! One thing I'm concerned about is the RHP being only 10-11" above the shelves on the left, is that enough room? Maybe it's a better design to have just one shelf in the middle going all the way accross the tank left to right, but I really like the idea of more levels than that.

Right now he's in a vision 332 heated with an UTH (about a third of the tank), a Pro Products RHP, and a ceramic bulb. In winter the tank barely keeps the temp where I'd like it. My snake is growing like a weed, and I'd really like to get this project going. Any help would be appreciated! Curt

A 6ft acrylic tank - cool.

I would suggest simplifying it a bit and just going with 2 shelves total: one shelf on the left at about 12 inches high, and the one on the right at about 18 inches high. RHPs on the top of the tank, one on each side. Flexwatt below the left shelf.

This way you setup zones that will be at different temps if the RHPs are controlled by the same controller (i.e. 90 deg measured on the right shelf top where you have the thermostat probe might mean slightly less on the left shelf due to the 6 inch difference.)

So you can have 4 zones, fewer heaters, and one controller for the RHPs and one for the Flexwatt.

Nice cage.

It probably does make more sense to have just two different level shelves. But your suggestion doesn't have a RHP basking spot on the bottom of the cage. Do you think that this would be the right way to go? It might be good, as I'd like to find a way to make sure he doesn't just go under the newspaper on the bottom of the cage and stay there (even though like I said he loves to climb), and the multi-level basking spots on the shelves may accomplish this.

Thanks for the post, I can't wait to get this done! I'm going to have two large doors one on each side of the front of the cage, both made of clear plexi, and I'm even hoping to find clear plexi hinges!

The bummer though, was that I had to get rid of my fish that I've had for 8 years. But even that was good for the fish, as my tank works out as a 225 gallon, and they went to a 403 gallon tank. I just gave them away to the best habitat person that responded to my ad.

Curt

Any other thoughts out there?

Have you thought about the herpstat PRO, it has 4 probes and is able to control 4 seperate temps wih one unit.. Just a throught
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