Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Guys,
I want to upsize the enclosures for my IJ pair so I can add some stuff for them to climb on.

Right now, I've got them each in a 15qt Sterilite, and was thinking about putting them in the 18qt Sterilites that are much taller so I can add some grapewood or manzanita for them to climb on until I get a vision for each of them.

The question is does anybody else have trouble with mold/mildew grown on grapewood in their more humid enclosures?

For some reason, when I add the climbing stuff in these 15qt containers, this white, hairy stuff grows on the wood. To get it off, I put the wood in my oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, but within a day or two, it grows back.

I think I'm having the problem because of it's close proximity to the water bowl? Or, maybe it's just the grapewood? While the wood is not in direct contact with the water, it is pretty close because of the size of the tubs.

Anybody have any pics of their rack arboreal/arboreal tub setups with climbing fun they could share?

Thanks!
//Todd

PVC has a lot of advantages as a climbing/perching material. It's cheap, easy to cut to size, easy to sanitize, and non-porous.

I realize it isn't great looks-wise, but in a rack that probably doesn't matter as much. 10 foot lengths of most small to medium gauge PVC run around $2-$3 at Lowe's, and they will even cut it to size for you.

Yeah- was thinking about just using PVC, but the grapewood/manzanita looks REALLY nice!

I can cut the pvc- that's the easy part.

The question is, how do you secure it? Do you just drill holes in the sides of the tubs, and slide it through?

Got any pics of your setups?

Thanks!
//Todd

i don't have any tubs myself. i've seen people drill and put the PVC through both sides, and i've seen people use little mounting plates that are screwed through the outside of the tubs. i've also seen people mount them flush with silicone or something similar.

i'm snakesitting a little diamond coastal intergrade right now, and i've got him in a glass tank, with an "x" made out of pvc and a twist tie for climbing. it works very well for my purposes, and is easy to remove for cleaning and so forth:

In my opinion, you've got the humidity too high. I've used grapewood in several of my smaller enclosures, and use large manzanita branches in my larger ones. The only time I experienced the type of mold or fungus (not sure what it is exactly) was when I tried using grapewood in a dart frog tank. I keep the relative humidity in all my carpet enclosures at about 50 - 60% (except hatchlings). I only mist them once or twice a week unless they're paired up to breed. Then it's every day or two. I've never had any problems w/ shedding. A. Caponetto makes some interesting points on his website regarding internal hydration vs. high humidity impact on carpet python shedding and health. According to my snakes, he's onto something.
Mike

Cool- thanks for the info, Mike.

I'll pop over to his site to take a look.

//Todd

-----
[FONT=Century Gothic]Addicted [/FONT]
Carpet Freak
Just alittle some-in some-in
Post pictures- [COLOR="Red"]ITS THE [COLOR="Blue"]LAW