Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have my corn snake in a 40 gallon breeder aquarium. Not my inital cage of choice but Petco had them on sale for $40 and I couldn't pass that up. I am currently heating the cage using a 75W infrared bulb on one end of the tank which is on a 12 hour timer (turns off at 8pm). Well, winter is coming and the room I have it in can get as low as 65 degrees at night. I want to continue using the infrared bulb during the day but think I need to look at some type of belly heat during the night. I currently have 11" flexwatt available to me and was wondering what opinions others have regarding using this with an aquarium this size. Any suggestions or recommendations regarding other UTH's would also be appreciated. Substrate is nothing more than craft paper style cage liners with ceramic tile covering half the tank (warm side). Cage lid is a basic screen top with a sheet of polycarb covering approximately 80% of the opening, not including the 5.5" hole for the ceramic fixture. For what its worth, I also have several Zoomed heat cables available but am not sure I can use these efficiently.

Bart

With the tile in the cage temperatures might not be droping that much at night. As the temps start to cool you should get up early in the AM and check. You could increase thermal mass even more by adding more tile or flower pot hides and ceramic water bowls.

Also, now is a good time to check your local ACE Hardware and see if they sell radiant barrier insulation by the foot. The stuff looks like bubble wrap covered in aluminum foil. Reflectix is the most common brand. Just a few bucks worth to cover the sides, back and part of the top will do wonders. In fact you'll likely find that your bulb will be too much heat for the cage.

A piece of Reflectix underneath the cage or setting the cage on a piece of styrofoam will also really help.

I'll let others approach the flexwatt/heat rope issue.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Jave local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I just finished making several under tank heat pads using 11" flexwatt, reflectix, and some rubber "toolbox" drawer liner. I cut a square of the flexwatt, and then a square each of the reflectix and rubber slightly larger than the reflectix and sanwiched the flexwatt between. Taped around the edges with alum tape. I'm now using 4 of these on aquariums and one as a heating pad on my sore back! I have each one on a dimmer switch, but obviously a thermostat would be better.

The rubber drawer liner is an open "web", almost like a screen that is coated in rubber. I got it at Lowe's, and it is made by Kobalt. May seem a little counter intuitive, but the rubber faces up into the cage. The open weave allows the heat to go up.

Steve

You can always cool the snake during Winter, at least at night. The snake will eat far less and be none the worse for it.

Like Chris said, if you insulate the cage bottom and sides and back, you will likely not need an additional heater. Since the heater will not come into contact with the insulation, you can use the Reflectix as Chris mentioned or simple styrene foam insulation sold at Lowes, etc.

If you want to use a bottom heater, you can use the heat cables or UTH or whatever you want. For heat cables, use aluminum tape and make "S"-curves under the tank's bottom glass, leaving at least 1" between traces. Obviously you need to prop the cage up with something, like ceramic tile or MDF strips sold at places. Putting the ceramic tile over the heated glass inside the cage will help add thermal mass. Use a dimmer to control the heater.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think I will look for the radiant barrier insulation or styrofoam sheets and just line the back and sides with it, exterior of course. I would like to avoid a secondary heating device if I could and may just allow the temps to drop through the night.

Bart