Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, i'm thinking about building a simple rack. It will be my first, and i've been reading forums about rack designs and whatnot for months.

Im thinking about using tubs that are slightly bigger than most racks i've seen. the tubs i want are 39 x 20 x 6.5 tall, and a cb70 is 34 x 17 x 6. is there any downside to using a bigger tub? i'm thinking that a big female ball, or large male cornsnake will appreciate the extra room to stretch out in.

also, im only planning on having 5 or 6 tubs, and initially i thought about using human heating pads on each shelf. now im thinking about using one long heat cable for the whole rack. less wires, and only one dimmer switch to adjust.

any opinions, suggestions, or recomendations will be appreciated. thanks in advance.

Just my opinion but when picking tubs, the size for the species is not the only consideration. Yes, you need to have a tub large enough for the species but you also need to be able to heat the tub properly. If you can't properly heat a larger box and provide a good gradient, the snake will only use a portion of the box, kind of a waste of space. There are other tub considerations. Such as availability, ease of replacing a tub. Durability because you usually end up dropping one and breaking the corner. Also, when building a rack, most of us want the highest number of boxes in a limited amount of space. My racks are 10 shelves with each shelf holding a 32qt box sideways or 2 15qt boxes lengthwise. Very efficient use of space, no trouble heating either size box, durable, readily available but I do recommend having at least one extra full set. It's nice to have the extra set so you can do a complete change out at one time.

For adult cornsnakes and adult ball pythons, no problem. Although, the CB-70 is a great size and perhaps a little easier to make a rack out of due to the slightly smaller dimensions, but go with what you want.

Seems to me for snakes the mass of adult balls, you'll need a good amount of surface area heated. Two runs of 3"-wide Flexwatt on each shelf could do the trick, or one run of 11-inch wide Flexwatt if the room is cool.

For the 3" wide stuff, you would make 2 long pieces of Flexwatt and fish it through each shelf. During cool weather, plug both pieces in. During warm weather, only 1 piece.