Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My current project is a big wood tank, whats the best way to go about heat? Im not sure on the efeectiveness of just a heat lamp because the tank is 5ft tall. Was thinking about putting a under tank heater inside with plexiglass or linolium or something on top. maybe along with a lamp. ideas? experience?

oh yea, its for various rat snakes.

I definitely recommend some sort of overhead heater for that large of a space, but I also think that some sort of substrate heat would be a good idea as well.

The quick and easy choice is to just use a Kane or Stanfield heat pad that can be set directly in the cage. But they are more expensive.

For regular heat tape or UTH's that can't go directly in a tank I prefer to cut a rectangle out of the cage floor that is 2" wider and longer than the size of the heat source. Keep the cutout away from the walls so it does not overlap screws/nails and also so the structure of the floor itself is intact.

Then cover the entire floor with some sort of rigid plastic that the heat pad can be attached to from underneath. This keeps the heat source protected and also gives it an air space. It also makes the cage a bit lighter. The plastic makes the floor easier to clean.

If you use this idea be sure to route a groove for the electric cable to run through.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

Can you still stack if you cut out floor? and can you router out a path and lay heat cable in it?
Tom

Yes, you can still stack the cages. You can router out a groove for heat cable in a solid floor but I'm not sure how well the heat would transmit since I have no experience doing this myself.

You can also use the idea I mentioned and tape the heat cable to the underside of a plastic floor. I think this would work fine.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

Being that ratsnakes will bask on branches/shelves, I think you should use overhead heat. However, like Chris said, some substrate heat is a good idea as well in a large cage.

Here is how I made in-cage heaters for snakes and a leopard gecko. Warning: I use a thermostat with these - actually, all are on the same controller, and the temp probe is attached to a similar heater not in any cage. This way, no probes in the cages getting knocked off the heaters.

Anyway, I took a heat pad, ZooMed to be specific, and attached it to a piece of Sintra PVC product. Then I cut some strips from more Sintra and glued those on around the heat pad using PVC cement. Where the cord comes out, I filed a groove.

Next I cut another piece of Sintra to fit on top. Where the heat pad has a bulge (where the cord attaches to the heat pad), I simply cut a hole so the bulge sticks out a bit. On one, I made a housing to cover the bulge as well.

I added spacers cut from Sintra to all four corners so the heater sits off of the ground 1/4" so as to not heat the cage floor as much, just the substrate.

Anyway, these are moisture resistant and super tough.

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Mark

what thickness of sintra did you use? this sounds like its pretty easy to do also, i think this will be my best option, as i could move them around as needed and even put them in hide boxes and whatnot. Also how did you route cables? groove in door?

I stuck the heat pad (sticky side) to the 3mm thick Sintra (what we all call 1/8" and that is the surface I expose to the animal. The other side I did 6mm (or 1/4" - that is the side facing down in the cage. It likely does not matter what you do, but the above formula yields a good amount of heat out the top. If you want less heat on top, use the 1/4" Sintra for the exposed surface and the 1/8" for the bottom piece.

BTW, the strips I used for the spacers between top and bottom piece are 1/8" Sintra.

You can do this same approach with Flexwatt or any heat pad really. I just happen to like the sizes of the ZooMed pads, and I had some on hand not being used, so I went with those.

Wires in cages for these pads go up and out near the top. When I tried the wire exits at the cage bottom, the snakes excreted on them sometimes. Now I just go up and out and live with seeing the cord.

>>what thickness of sintra did you use? this sounds like its pretty easy to do also, i think this will be my best option, as i could move them around as needed and even put them in hide boxes and whatnot. Also how did you route cables? groove in door?
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Mark

Rat Snakes are pretty forgiving of temperature and don't really have crazy heat requirements. I have built a few wooden enclosures and I think overhead heat works best, at least for me.
You can always hook up 2 fixtures for heat lamps and you should have no problem at all keeping temps sufficient for a rat snake. In fact I have a very cold room and still maintain good temps with this setup.

I haven't actually used heat tape or the like inside a wooden tank. I guess I'm just not comfortable with setting it up that way. However, people seem to have done it with success so it's probably more of a personal preference for me.

In addition I think a radiant heat panel might be perfect for this type of setup as well if you don't mind spending a few extra $$ to get started.