Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is the most cost-effective way of heating several small plastic bins? I plan to eventually build a nice rack system, but right now, I'm just looking for something simple, and cheap.

Is heat tape the best way to go? And, what all do you have to buy to hook up the heat tape? I think most of the places I see it sell the tape only, without a thermostat and whatever else you need to run it. I'm clueless on this larger scale stuff. My experience has been limited to display tanks. Someone help!

I built a temporary rack quickly and cheaply using heat rope and rubbermaid storage shelves. Each set comes with five shelves, but if you saw the posts down to about 14 inches, you can stack two of these racks making 10 shelves at around a height of 6 feet. On each shelf I zig zagged heat rope so that one half of the shelf would be heated lengthwise. By the way, I secured the heat rope in place using electrical tape. In the end I was able to house around 50 baby balls. Oh yeah, don’t forget the tubs and a thermostat. I’ll post some pics later today.

Jose
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4.40 normal BPs
1.0 pastel BP
1.0 yellow belly BP
1.0 het albino BP
1.0 het pied BP
1.1 albino BPs
1.1 sunglow/anery corns
0.0.1 sunbeam
0.1 66% het stripe red tail boa
0.0.2 Strawberry hermit crabs
1.0 parakeet
1.0 spoiled rotten dog (Diego)
a crap load of rats and mice

Some pictures would be great for me too please!

What are you currently using for heat?

Heat tape only secures things in place, its a foil with an adhesive backing. I think you mean flexwatt - no?

I think you need to describe what type of bins you have, or, if you are going out to buy them maybe the people on here can help you save money.

Describe what you currently have, and how many snakes you want to house near term.

Signed,

F. GUMP

>>What is the most cost-effective way of heating several small plastic bins? I plan to eventually build a nice rack system, but right now, I'm just looking for something simple, and cheap.
>>
>>Is heat tape the best way to go? And, what all do you have to buy to hook up the heat tape? I think most of the places I see it sell the tape only, without a thermostat and whatever else you need to run it. I'm clueless on this larger scale stuff. My experience has been limited to display tanks. Someone help!

This is what I did, and was the cheapest I've been able to manage so far -

Got heat cable. 14' with a 6' cold lead. I keep three tubs on a plastic shelf, and so I just used electrical tape to tape the heat cable to the shelf in a logical fashion. Got a rheostat, plugged the heat cable into rheostat, then used my temp gun to monitor temps, along with a little indoor/outdoor temp gauge I left in there to monitor the highest/lowest temps when I wasn't around.

Finished product:

Costs:
Heat cable: $11
Electrical tape: dug it up in the garage
Rheostat: $19
Temp gun: already had, but $20.

If I wanted to use the shelf below for tubs too, I can plug another cable into my rheostat.

It took me some tinkering, and I still check the high/low temps every week, but it's worked great for me so far. I can rearrange what tubs I keep on there, and if I used smaller tubs I could probably keep more on just that shelf.
Hope that helps!

~jenny
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"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq!

Here are the pics I promised.I sawed down the corner posts so that there is just enough room to slide in shoebox tubs.If you saw down the posts, you can also make one rack out of two units which would give you eight shelves. The first pick is the shelves I used which you can get at Wally World for about 30.

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4.40 normal BPs
1.0 pastel BP
1.0 yellow belly BP
1.0 het albino BP
1.0 het pied BP
1.1 albino BPs
1.1 sunglow/anery corns
0.0.1 sunbeam
0.1 66% het stripe red tail boa
0.0.2 Strawberry hermit crabs
1.0 parakeet
1.0 spoiled rotten dog (Diego)
a crap load of rats and mice

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Yeah, I was talking about the flex-watt heat......... stuff when I said "heat tape".

The heat cable ideas you guys posted looks like a reasonable option. Are there any cons to using the cables?

Here's what I have right now......... nothing. I'll be getting 10 CH balls next week. I don't have the tubs yet. I don't have the heat yet. I'm trying to figure out what will work best before I go buy anything.

Can someone please explain to me all the components needed to make a flex-watt setup? The cables look good, but I just want to compare all the options.