Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I am going to be building a new hatchling rack and I would like to hear some recomendations on the brand of tub to use. I'll be using 3/4" melamine and 3" 6 watt flexwatt belly heat and plan to router the shelf 1/8" to recess the heat tape into the shelf.

Sterilite bins have a groove in the bottom but are otherwise flat and Iris and Container store bins are nice and smooth but have little feet sticking off the bottom, but the dimensions may be a bit more desirable.

What would you use? Do you think the feet on the bottom would be a pain and get hung up on the heat tape somehow or would they be beneficial as to not have to router the shelves because they would create some clearance for the heat tape? Is there a better tub I haven't thought of yet?
Thanks, Dustin

>>Hi, I am going to be building a new hatchling rack and I would like to hear some recomendations on the brand of tub to use. I'll be using 3/4" melamine and 3" 6 watt flexwatt belly heat
>>Iris and Container store bins are nice and smooth but have little feet sticking off the bottom, but the dimensions may be a bit more desirable.

You might try taking a coarse file and file the feet off the bottom of the boxes if you perfer the Iris boxes.
-Bob

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

I like his idea of modifying the tub. However, rather than using a file, I've used a cheap iron to modify the 34 quart Sterilite tubs for my rack. Either tub would work fine. For me, the deciding factor was which tubs looked the best so I could see my snakes through the side.

Paul D

I prefer the IRIS Tubs they are hevier and dont age as bad, i have racks made with both but i prefer the iris tubs.

as for the recessed heat its nice i have i thin defusion plate on my racks with belly heat and the only dowm side ive found to this is that if you dont use flat head screws that are flush with the metal they can catch the tubs.

I like the difusion plate idea... Thanks everyone.