Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So i live in Tarzana (San Fernando Valley) and it is incredibly hot here lately. I keep most of my retics in vision-style melamine cages in my living room, and they are all using red bulbs. During the hottest part of the day, it can get almost 100 degrees in some of the tanks, but at night it obviously cools down. Should i set up some kind of timers so the lights only turn on at night? Any suggestions? All the snakes have large enough water tubs to soak in so i know they arent going to get too hot, but i just wanted to ask some pros. Thanks

Alec

Timer would work, so should a Helix thermostat. Especially if the cages are the same sizes and just run the one. I also run dimmer switches and just turn them down really low on hot days, but i'm using flexwatt tape and radiant heat panels and not heat bulbs. Timer sounds like the cheapest and easiest.

Ok, bu i also heard turning heat onn and off can be bad... If i do get a timer, ill prolly do from 7pm-7am
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Alec Schneider

1.0 11ft White Phase Albino
1.0 6ft Lavendar Supertiger Albino
0.2 13,10ft Tiger Het Albinos
1.0 6ft Tiger Het Albino
1.0 8ft Albino Burm

Several other rescues, and Tons of scorpions

i have my retics and boas all on timers. i have do mine 12/12 heat/light period. in the winter i go 10 on/14 off. the way i look at it is, in the wild, once it the sun goes down, it cools off a few degrees (as there isnt much of temperature range in indonesia, thailand, etc). i keep my ambient room temp at 80-82 during the day and drop it to 77-78 at night. during the day, when their basking light is on, the cool end is about 80-82, the basking is about 92-94 or so, and the ambient cage temp is about 85-86. in the winter i drop everything by about 3-5 degrees during the day and about 8-10 degrees at night. i packed alot of info on what i do in this message
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

Thanks guys, i appreciate the input
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Alec Schneider

1.0 11ft White Phase Albino
1.0 6ft Lavendar Supertiger Albino
0.2 13,10ft Tiger Het Albinos
1.0 6ft Tiger Het Albino
1.0 8ft Albino Burm

Several other rescues, and Tons of scorpions

Depending on how many cages you have, you might consider proportional thermostats. I used to use red bulbs, and the proportional thermos dim the bulbs as the in-cage heat increases. I used to use the thermos' night drop setting, too, and it was neat to see the bulbs just barely glowing sometimes in the summer.

For over 15 years I've been using radiant heat panels on those same proportional thermostats, and if it's very warm in the room the thermos will just regulate the power to the panel accordingly, even turning it off completely if needed. The thermo's probe in the cage senses the temperature.

Bill