Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone, I just recently invested in a 421 boaphile stack, and love them! But I'm having some heat issues with it. I have the stats set at 90 and the backup stat at 91. My lowest tank is around 80 and my top tank hits 88, both probes are taped down in the middle tank over the source. What can I do to find some balance??

This is a common problem. The problem is the room temp on the floor is usually 8- 10 degrees cooler then the upper room temp.
What I do is run the lower cages on there own thermostat. You can also add additonal heat or use a larger heat matt on the lower cage with the one t-stat but make sure you check it so it dosen't get too hot before putting anyone in there.
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www.jpcboas.com

I figured heat would rise through the stack but I didn't think the bottom two would be that far off. I have the 1.5 heat option on this stack. Should I tape these flexwatt sheets down with aluminum tape? In the same cage it's 82 in one spot and 1 inch over it's 88. There's no consistency.

I know this sounds crazy but I have a thermostat for every single cage. I stack my boaphiles 4 or 5 high and I have about thirty. They are awesome cages and I can't say enough about them but the bottom line is, if your a perfectionist and serious about temperatures, doing it like I have it set up is the absolute ONLY way. When your stacking cages(even high end racks have this problem) there is no way you will ever have complete control. I don't care which cage you use. Is it overkill? Some would say yes. But having the control for each cage was well worth the money I invested in the rancos, Johnson's and helixes I use. Best of luck. Mike Panichi

I have 6 421's on this stack. I'm thinking that maybe I should build another 1 foot base cabinet so the bottom tank would be 2 feet off the ground

If you were to take Mikes advice, check out the Herpstat 4 or Herpstat Pro, they are both good thermostats and you can control four different cages separately with the one thermostat. I stacked my boaphiles 6 high and ran two thermostats,one controlled the top three and one controlled the bottom three. There were still fluctuations but they were not as extreme.
Marcus

Lol, I just ordered 2 single ranco's 10 minutes ago. It's ok bc Im only going to have one breeding pair this season so I'll put those two cages on one stat.

That will not matter. It's just an imperfect thing. Heating plastic uniformly is hard enough but then to control the heat as you get higher by four or five feet is almost impossible. Trust me, if you really want to gain control and optimize each cage, you'll go to a one on one scenario. Good luck.

wow that does sound crazy Mike..lol
I use one 12' heat tape wide open and not every cage..I don't use heat in the summer...I know.. each their own.

I can see that Tibor. My snakes are never on the heat in the summer. Even after eating they don't use it. My ambient temps fluctuate from 79 to 84 during the summer and I guess that's enough. I can honestly say though that I love having the control over each cage. I made myself nuts trying to get all the heat to be uniform with no luck. I finally gave in and ran one mostly rancos for each cage. I hope all is well man. Take care.

It's really just the bottom tank, it's sits around 85. The rest of the tanks sit 88 to 90. I'll keep playing with it.

One herpstat 4 works really well for a six high stack. one channel each for cages 1 and 6 (top and bottom) since those are at extreme vertical ends and also have more exposed area. The other two channels would each control two cages (2/3 and 4/5)

1
2/3
4/5
6
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I believe you Mike..your farther north.. and in the winter your dialed inn!
here.. I hate to use the a/c..but boas get uncomfortable when outside temp hits 105 -110 so i must..and winter I keep the room warm.
its fun to hear what others doing,thanks

Mike and I think alike, I have one Herpstat Pro/4 (original model/new model) for each four high stack of my breeding cages. My three high stacks of tub racks each use three channels of another Herpstat Pro. I also use Helix DBS1000's for single channel applications. In all I have 12 Herpstat Pro/4 and 10 Helix DBS1000's in use. That's 58 individually controlled temperature zones! I do economize a little and several cases control 8 cages with four channels - each channel controlling two adjacent identical cages

1 2 - channel 1
3 4 - channel 2
5 6 - channel 3
7 8 - channel 4

I also always keep at least one each Herpstat 4 and Helix DBS1000's on the shelf as spares or for new setups if needed. Do the math and that's a lot of coin in thermostats but as Mike put it, well worth the piece of mind to know my cages more precisely controlled. In addition, if any ever do fail (knock on wood) the failure would be limited to only a small portion of the collection.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats