Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't need air conditioning in the summertime, but I'd like to get a black milksnake, which does best in temperatures below 80°...

Is there any way to cool a terrarium using an aquarium cooler to create an efficient below the tank cooling system? I've never seen "cooling pads", but they'd be a good idea!

Thanks!

Dan

They have cooling blocks made for PC's, you could do something similar for under your tank. However their are no commercially available "cooling pads", Ice packs are the closest available.

Essentially you would need to make a heat pump to draw heat away from the enclosure, unfortunatly any custom product would probably cost more than an air conditioner.

What I find strange is I'm uncomfortable in rooms above 80°F how can you tolerate it and what temp does your room reach?

Their maybe other peripheral ways to cool your room, finding the source of heat is the best way to start.

Cheers
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Thanks for your answer, Jeremy!

I myself am very comfortable with temperatures in the 80's with overhead fans...

Dan

I have never tried this, but have heard that you can create a cooling coil by having several loops of flexible pipe below a tank and circulating water through it. I imagine if you embedded it in concrete it would be even more effective. The one I read about years ago had cermic tile resting on copper pipe and a tank set on top of the tile. I don't recall if an aquarium cooler was used to cool the water of it they just relied on the evaporative cooling effect.

I'm not sure how much water and coil you would need.

Not knowing the setup of your room, I think you might also be able to create a cool zone by hanging some Reflectix like a drape to block some of the heat.
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This is one important application missing from our hobby, and at the moment it can likely be done with Peltier Effect heat pumps, just like the small, inexpensive wine coolers use.

The heat pumps can heat or cool an enclosure or metal plate, making them quite useful for herps. But this is a home job. ZooMed, ESU, etc does not offer a setup.. yet.

If you search the Internet for heat pumps or PE controllers, you will see what I mean.

I like the idea of pumping cool water through copper pipe and into the enclosure. Seems cheap to accomplish, though the water won't be cool after awhile, but still likley cooler than the tank.

Unfortunately, there is no heat-pad-sized cooler available.
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Mark

What I do with my cool loving critters is just move them onto the concrete floor in summer heat. This seems to work very well and kept my leopard rats comfortable in Louisiana Summers.

I have in the past done "swamp coolers" where I put the Leopard Rat cages in shallow water pans on the floor in really hot weather but since we moved north a bit I have given that up as just being on the floor seems fine.

My Black Milks do fine in the regular racks although I do have them on the lower shelves.

Peter
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Beouf River Reptiles