Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can I put the reflextic on the shelf and put the flexwatt on top of that then put the bins on?
Im having one really nasty time heating my bins.Ive already had my one boa regurge on me because they keep fluctuating so much.
Ive never used small bins before or the 3inch flexwatt.Both bins are on the same piece of flex but one reads 92 and the other reads 88 directly above the heat.

Why doesnt the heat stay even across the whole 4ft of flex?
How do I get these temps stable when my house temps fluxuate?
I seriously need some help here.I thought I had it all figured out.

At least in a large cage, if the basking gets too hot they have plenty of room to move away and a greater temp gradient.I hate these bins.
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I'm not sure this would make much difference. If anything you would need to wrap the majority of the bin loosely with Reflectix.

I would also increase the thermal mass inside of the cage. For now try a couple of large bottles of watter resting partially on the heated area. If this works to your liking you can come up with a more permanent thermal mass source. I think you will find your temps are more stable.

I'll leave the other questions to those more familiar with flexwatt.

>>Can I put the reflextic on the shelf and put the flexwatt on top of that then put the bins on?

>>Why doesnt the heat stay even across the whole 4ft of flex?
>>How do I get these temps stable when my house temps fluxuate?
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

Are you saying that the water bottles will act like heaters, soaking in the heat from the flexwatt and holding it and that will help balance the heat?
Im not the brightest crayon in the box so simple explanations are best for me.
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Basically yes. For a simple explanation, thermal mass is any material that has the ability to store heat. In your situation it will help distribute heat around the tub and make it more even.

This is why those radiator style space heaters are oil-filled and why old steam powered radiators are made from cast iron.

Try it and let us know how it works. Just take the largest seal-able plastic container or bottle and fill it with warm water and place it in the cage. I'm sure within hours you'll have more even heat within the tub.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

I put the water bottles in each bin and so far so good.But it might because the temps in the house are stable right now.I will give it a few days to see..
Also I wonder if oil filled bottles would work even better? Does oil hold heat longer then water?
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Oil filled bottles would be better than water filled, but I think if you get to that point you should be looking at things like ceramic tile, etc. instead of water or oil filled bottles.
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Currently keeping a small collection of various Gonyosoma. Both G. janseni and G. oxycephala.

I have ceramic tiles.I put them under the bins and flexwatt trying to make the heat spread out but they dont really seem to be making a difference.Should I put them inside the bins(not really sure if they would fit and wouldnt they spread the heat so there wouldnt be a basking spot?
I have newspaper in the bins the heat has to go through as well.
Right now the temps are 80/94 in one and 81/94 in the other.
The basking is a bit hot but the fact the female regurged makes me scared to let it cool any further.
The other day it was 77/88 and the other was like 78/92.
First one is ambient second is on heattape.
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"Why doesnt the heat stay even across the whole 4ft of flex?"

I'm not really sure exactly why but i've noticed it's similar with the flexwatt I'm using. I have limited experience with flexwatt so I'm sure someone else can better help you here. i have found that using small peices of flexwatt, I'm using 6 peices of about 1 foot each, seemed to give me more stable temps.

"How do I get these temps stable when my house temps fluxuate? "

It's not easy. Chris made a great point about insulating the rack, this will stabilize the temps. Thermal mass will help also. Try placng the probe inside an empty box, on the same size heat tape set up exactly the way the other ones are. This will allow the heat tape to run hot enough to heat the inside of the box rather than just reading the temp of the heat tape itself. It makes the hot spot inside the cage at the temp you want, this is what the snake cares about.

"At least in a large cage, if the basking gets too hot they have plenty of room to move away and a greater temp gradient.I hate these bins."

This is a great point. I haven't really found a way to heat larger snakes or lizards enough with heat tape. It seems way easier to me using light bulbs or ceramic heat emmiters. Big cages are way easier to maintain than smaller cages at least in my opinion. You can make mistakes and it doesn't hurt the animal. Like you said they can just move away from the heat. I have the heat tape on my cornsnakes and it works great. I only have one boa and he is heated with light bulbs.

Hope this helps a little

Good luck.

I have seriously been thinking about switching over to all ceramic heat emitters when they go into a bigger cage.Is it possible to hook those up to a thermostat?
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Yes you can use a thermostat to regulate the ceramic heat emmitters. You can also use dimmer switches which are cheaper and in my opinion perfectly sufficient in a larger enclosure.

It's not about hitting a perfect temp for the hotspot. It's way more important to have a hotspot together with a temp gradiant that allows them to escape the heat. I have noticed with the limited number of reptiles I've kept that they will use the hot spot for as long as it takes to heat up. The hotter it is the less time it takes to heat up and the quicker they move on to something else. Then they leave and go hide or eat or whatever. This is why a large cage is soo much better. You can have one side real hot, the other cold, and a gradiant in between. Then they pick the temps they need and you don't have to do anything but watch.

I only have one boa but I think using some sort of overhead heat (light bulb, CHE, RHP) will make it much easier to get the temps where you want. Im sure it can be done with heat tape but I found it to troublesome and it wasn't worth my time trying to get it right, when the cage was so much easier to get the way I wanted.

Well I have one 48x26 empty now(put the geckos in tanks) and am working on putting my cornsnake in another cage so I can empty the other, im sick of dealing with these bins.Unfortunately they are stacked and i havent figured out how to put overhead heat in yet but the flexwatt in those seems more stable anyway.
Thanks for all the help, this regurge is a first big problem Ive encountered and its got me nervous.
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