Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been toying with the idea of financing a new injection mold to make an all smooth and sturdier replacement for the Sterilite 32 qt tub and my question is, how tall would you ball breeders like the tub to be?

The current sterilite tub is approx 6 inches tall which only allows you to stack 10 tubs high in a 6 foot tall rack.

I am leaning toward making an all smooth and slightly stronger tub with the same footprint as a 32 qt tub, but only 4 inches tall which would allow a 6 foot tall rack to hold 14 tubs.

Since the 32 qt tub is really not big enough to breed most balls in, I am thinking that 4 inches tall is plenty tall enough.

Opinions?

i breed balls in 32 quart tubs and have not had a problem. lots of others do too.

if you were to make a mold for the 32 quart tubs would it be possible to fit the same 6" too? given they are now gone if we need replacements you might be the person to go to.

>>i breed balls in 32 quart tubs and have not had a problem. lots of others do too.
>>
>>if you were to make a mold for the 32 quart tubs would it be possible to fit the same 6" too? given they are now gone if we need replacements you might be the person to go to.

If you need to adjust to a shorter sized tub it would be rather easy. I used a pvc pipe cutter to make the adjustments to add a level to my hatchling rack. All you would need are some more levels and plastic tubes for the spacers.

I really like that idea! I just got one of your 32 quart racks and it does seem to be a bit of a waste of height space. I keep all my up and coming breeders in that rack. I also know a sandboa breeder that would kill to have the extra bins in the same height as they need it even less than balls do!

forgot to add...breeding balls in 32 quart tubs is all dependent on size of animal..3000 gram females are in larger racks

I realize that some people breed Balls in the 32 qt tubs, but I am guessing that most people use the longer 70 series tubs from Iris or from us that are 5.3" tall.

I can only finance one mold for one tub, so I need to choose the one that will make the most breeders happy.

>>I realize that some people breed Balls in the 32 qt tubs, but I am guessing that most people use the longer 70 series tubs from Iris or from us that are 5.3" tall.
>>
>>I can only finance one mold for one tub, so I need to choose the one that will make the most breeders happy.

I would buy probably replace all of my sterilites with your smooth bottom ones if they stayed the same height as the original. They would not be of much use to me if they were not the same dimesions though. None of my racks are adjustable so shorter tubs would not work for me. I also use PVC couplings and deli cups as water bowls and I don't know if 4' would be high enough to make those work either.
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John Vandegrift

I agree with John. I would like to see you make a tub that would be the same height and footprint as the Sterilite 32 qt (1756). I have a room full of 32 qt Boaphile RhinoRaxx and will need to replace those tubs at some point. I am already using your V35 and V70 tubs and they are far superior to the Sterilite and Iris tubs. I hope you decide to go that route.
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Louis Kirkland
Cornerstone Reptiles

>>>>I realize that some people breed Balls in the 32 qt tubs, but I am guessing that most people use the longer 70 series tubs from Iris or from us that are 5.3" tall.
>>>>
>>>>I can only finance one mold for one tub, so I need to choose the one that will make the most breeders happy.
>>
>>I would buy probably replace all of my sterilites with your smooth bottom ones if they stayed the same height as the original. They would not be of much use to me if they were not the same dimesions though. None of my racks are adjustable so shorter tubs would not work for me. I also use PVC couplings and deli cups as water bowls and I don't know if 4' would be high enough to make those work either.
>>-----
>>John Vandegrift

Same here..except i use those plastic crock water bowls.The type most people buy for a dog.
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Charles Glaspie
http://www.myspace.com/coldthumb

>>I have been toying with the idea of financing a new injection mold to make an all smooth and sturdier replacement for the Sterilite 32 qt tub and my question is, how tall would you ball breeders like the tub to be?
>>
>>The current sterilite tub is approx 6 inches tall which only allows you to stack 10 tubs high in a 6 foot tall rack.
>>
>>I am leaning toward making an all smooth and slightly stronger tub with the same footprint as a 32 qt tub, but only 4 inches tall which would allow a 6 foot tall rack to hold 14 tubs.
>>
>>Since the 32 qt tub is really not big enough to breed most balls in, I am thinking that 4 inches tall is plenty tall enough.
>>
>>Opinions?

Don't forget about the colubrid breeders. These would work great for most of them. The hatchling rack with a double wide hatchling tub which has been brought up before would be even better. I have a bunch of the v-30 racks and tubs but if the hatchling rack was made with wider tubs I could easily have a ton of more room. You might want to post this in some of the other forums as well.

The 32 quart tubs at 4" high I think would work well for some stubborn feeders. I can't wait to see these and hopefully the double wide hatchling tubs.

http://www.amazon.com/Sterilite-32%2dqt%2e-ClearView-Storage-Box/dp/B000AVS7OK/ref=pd_bbs_7?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1222979022&sr=8-7
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www.hybridhaven.net

6 inches would be great for Ball Pythons and would fit the MANY racks already built.

the 32q have been replaced buy the 28q which are the same lenth and width but just shorther in hight I believe they are 4inches high
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Albinos Unlimited home of the Jester ball.
www.myspace.com/albinosunlimited
PIJAC member

i have a few racks of the 28qt 4 inch tall tubs and i love em they are great for my hognose but the balls tend to rub there noses a bit more on the draw bottom than the slightly taller tubs. i use 16 oz deli cups for h20 bowls and the snakes cant tip them over because they touch the top if tilted. unfortunately the 28qt tub by iris is already discontinued, just found out.

If you want to steer towards existing racks/customers, make them the same height so people can simply replace the 32qt with your tubs that will work with their racks.

If you want to create something "new" I would go with the 4" as I would think that could be popular for a lot of people.. as long as there are racks made for them. Not everyone wants to make their own racks.
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Morph Evolutions
www.morphevolutions.com
www.myspace.com/morphevolutions

Personally, I would strongly urge you to stick with the same height as the v-70 tubs. Not only would the hide boxes I now use be a difficult fit in a lower tub, but I really feel that the balls really need at least that much head room for constriction, etc....Of course, the 32 qt size is only used in our facility for males and smaller "grow-out" females....

Now speaking as a sand boa breeder, the 4'' height sounds GREAT!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

I vote for the 6 inch tubs as well. I have a rack system mid build that uses them, then I find that they disco them.....
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3.2.0 Corn Snakes (Jareth, Morkai, Gunner, Selene, Angela)
1.1.0 Ball Pythons
1.0.0 Yorkshire Terrier (Ragnar)
0.1.0 Kenya Sand Boa het Snow (Moo)
0.1.0 Red Tail Boa(Annabelle)

I would only keep juvi balls in 32 quarts but am also into colubrids and am actually in the process of making a 32 qt rack. Have these been discontinued? I don't see them on the sterilite web site but I still have luck finding them at Target and home and were I go to school.

The current height of your tubs is fine... please don't mess with it. 6" isn't necessary, but 4" is almost too short.

One feature I would LOVE to see would be opaque tubs. The animals would feel more secure. Plus, when I need to work in my reptile room opaque tubs would minimize the amount of stress some of my more "jumpy" animals feel.

Running the tubs in opaque plastic is easy.

Having an extra item in inventory is less easy.

That is completely understandable. I don't have a problem with "homemade" fixes either, I just thought since you were considering making a new tub that this could be one thing to consider before production.

Maybe after you hammer out the details concerning the dimensions you could also run a poll to see if people would prefer opaque or clear tubs.

Just a thought.

If enough people asked for opaque tubs, I can easily run them now in the molds that I have.

I just don't want to run a bunch of them and have them sit in the warehouse.

I HATE opaque tubs...want to see what's going on in there all the time.
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Dale....dgoins222@yahoo.com
www.LibertyReptiles.com

You should take into consideration how many racks you have sold that hold the 32 Sterlite tubs....and how many racks that have been sold by other companys that hold the 32Qt. All these racks will eventually need new tubs, the Sterlites do crack and break if they get dropped and replacements are sometimes needed. Wouldn't it be easier to design a replacement tub that already fits an existing rack that you offer?
I have a total of 6 racks that hold 60 of the 32Qt's that are close to needing to be replaced, some of these tubs are 10 years old....it would be nice if someone actually made a replacement for them!!

CARL AIKEN-SNAKES

I use sterilite 32qt as an intermediate "grow up" tub between my bus tubs and CB-70's. I love the 32qts as they are! Perfect size for my colubrids and bps. It would be fantastic to get the same size with thicker and smoother plastic, as long as they didn't include the handle grab. I have seen many 32qt racks slide in both long and short ways as well.

Thanks so much for kicking your ideas around on a public forum.

Rich Macias

If you could make direct replacements for the 32qt tubs that have flat bottoms, I would replace all of my existing Sterilite bubble bottom tubs. We currently are using about 100 of the 32qt and now have no replacements for them.

A design that would incorporate an optional divider long ways down the center of the tub would also be great. Our racks have belly heat at the back of the shelf and smaller tubs turned sideways is not an option as the front box would have no heat. We currently are cramped for space as most people are and don't have room for an intermediate rack, so our hatchlings are moved from a 6qt tub to a 32qt tub which causes feeding issues. An opaque divider would help alleviate this problem.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com