Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, I feel so stupid for missing this because this type of topic is more up my alley than snake care.

I have a few tubs on a wire rack with flex watt for heat and a biostat for control. The probe from the biostat is in a mock up tub with aspen, and the probe is under the aspen on the warm end over the heat tape.

The issue I found is I use various amounts of aspen from cage to cage. I rarely use hides, just deep aspen. Well, in short, the aspen or I imagine most substrates you can build up become an insulating device in the cage. This drops the ambient temps a lot. And if the snake is not wanting to borough down, he's not in the temps he should be.

I've been watching my temps very closely for a few reasons. But I have found that the biostat I once thought was good, actually SUCKS. It may have a 4 degree swing in temps on and off. Sounds ok, but so does my room as it is on electric heat on a wall stat. That stat also have a 4-5 degree swing. As I re-adjust my wall stat for my liking I have to adjust my rack. One would think you shouldn't, but on my tubs I do.

So, between on and off temps of my biostat, changes in room temps, and using deep bedding on the same system I use light bedding, I see way to much temperature variations.

Most of this I knew to some degree, but with the aspen depth issue, I see a need to re-analyze my setup. And it's not just a simple stat change. Cage setups may be more important in many setups.

Just something I came across a month or so ago. One of the threads talked about bedding insulating the heat, so I thought I'd bring it up as I never so a post on it before.

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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

Well I think you already touched on the solution:

Make all of the cages uniform and get a new thermostat. Maybe use paper towels and a couple of hides (I use clay flower pot saucers with an opening chipped out because it's heavy).

Here's some food for thought. Heating across a UTH is not always uniform. The temp can vary by a lot across the surface. I imagine heat tape has similar issues.

Oh, but before you lose the thermostat - Sometimes it helps to keep an air gap between the heating element and the thermostat sensor. If the sensor is right on top of the heating element, the thermostat will turn on the juice when its too cold and crank the temp up. The UTH will heat the cage really fast and the temp will overshoot. The thermostat will switch off and the temp will drop rapidly until the thermostat clicks on again. So the temp will constantly swing up and down.

If there is an air gap between the UTH and the cage, it takes longer to raise the temperature of the cage. It creates kind of a lag time that gives the thermostat a chance to more precisely control the temp without overshooting. And it makes it harder for the UTH to heat the cage so it has to run longer and will provide more even heating.

Also also - if you have an air gap between the UTH and the cages, the cages will probably heat more evenly.

Get some little stick-on feet for the cages to raise them up 1/4" or so.

You follow me?

My setup is quite different than most.

This is the type of rack I use.
www.metro-wire.com/MFG-PRODS/Metro/SASE-01.jpg

I'll list the layers as they are from top to bottom of the heating setup.

6" Aluminum Flashing -- To pretect the flew watt mainly
4" flex watt -- Heat source
6" fiberglass sill sealer -- To push heat up.
6" Aluminum Flashing -- Protective layer

I mainly use work force tubs. They aint cheap, but I weigh near 300lbs, and can stand on the lid of a 14" tub with lid.

Some day I will clean the junk off the shelves hot used for snakes and take pics, but don't count on it soon. lol

My sensor is in a mock up tank, I felt this was best, I use to have it on the tape, but never studied it closely as I just had the 1 male corn and he was doing great.

Yes, I see cages should be uniform, but the idea of an open rack was to use various cages. WHOOOPS

Another HUGE issue is my house and a cheap wall stat for my room heaters. My house is also a log home, and logs are 9-11" thick. They gain a ton of thermal mass if the sun is out. So in the evening it can be 60 outside, but if it was 90 during the day my room can go over 90 at 10pm. NO TYPO. The thermal mass heat does not radiate fast. So I'm always fighting my room wall stat. And I know someone will ask how the room can go over 90 when it was only 90 during the day. Much like the road goes over ambient temps. The logs are dark and collect may forms of energy. This is an issue in the winter if the sun is out at all.

So. My easiest solution is to swap the stat for a dimmer/rheostat. I'm always home as I'm retired. So I could tweak it easier than the stat. But eventaully I want to build some racks. Find a size I like make 10 of each. Much easier to jig up forms for a project and make a run of them. But I need my pole barn. Then hopefully the ole HerpZillA will get off his arse and start doing some things. Rat racks, mouse racks, snake racks, custom cages, play with poly's for husbandry items, lots of log ideas and plenty of wood,, Oh yea, the wife first wants me to finish the inside of our log home. WHOOOPS again

Thanks many for the reply

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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com