Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finished my rack yesterday, and moved everyone in ( 2 brazilian rainbow boa, 1 col. boa, 1 hog isle boa, 2 chondros) Bottom 2 shelves rainbows, 2 middle shelves col., hog, 2 condros in seperate tubs on one shelf, leaving a top shelf empty. The rainbows temps are perfect, the chondros are running a little warm and the cols. are running a little cool. I may have to switch them around a little to get just the right temps. As some may have read below all this is running off of two ranco themostats. I have 2' of flexiwatt on the shelves and a strip running down the back of the rack as well. I have a window open in the room bringing down the temps at nite (wisconsin) to see how the rack preforms in cooler temps. I used a roll of foil bubble wrap insulation for the back of the rack as well, the foil coated foam insulation is not flame retardent. That worried me a little. The r-values are a little better with the bubble wrap insulation, I can just barly feel heat on the back side of the rack. I would suggest anyone building a large rack use casters as well, they are worth their weight in gold. Also while spacing out the shelves I was not happy with the way a shim of 1/8" pegboard worked for me, It's an easy fix, just iritating. Chris suggested making spacers out of boards, I think this is the way to go, much more accurate. After having all these snakes in seperate tubs with lids, scattered around the room, I love the way my rack organizes every thing. I even put a shelf above all tha controls and cords, which are located on the side of the rack, spray bottles, tongs, temp gun, all the little tools. Thanx to all for posting about my post as well as all the others posts, my rack would not have turned out as well without all the info you people have shared. Clint

thanks for the update.if possible i'd like to see a pic of the flexwatt application,i'm glad it's working out well.have fun!