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Questions for Chris Harper and others.

reptileguy0407 Sep 28, 2004 01:28 PM

Chris a couple of months ago you gave me an idea on how to heat melamine cages. Cut out a hole in the floor, cover it with pvc, tape the flex watt to the underside of the pvc. Great idea been working well. Just one problem, should I have use something like contact cement or liquid nails to secure the pvc? I siliconed all around the pvc, starting to come undone. Would not be a problem pulling up the pvc and removing the silicone and using a glue to secure the pvc, just was't sure if you could do that with the flex watt attached to the bottom. One more question. I will be using the same design for my boa cage, 6x2x16. Well my question is, in the winter my room temp. is usually 65-70 degrees. I am going to mount a ceramic fixture with a bulb guard to raise the ambient temp. in the cage. Do I put it on same end as the flex watt, or one on each end to raise ambient to 75-80, flex will be set at 90 degrees? Sorry I went a bit long. THANKS

Replies (1)

chris_harper2 Sep 28, 2004 01:55 PM

>>Chris a couple of months ago you gave me an idea on how to heat melamine cages. Cut out a hole in the floor, cover it with pvc, tape the flex watt to the underside of the pvc. Great idea been working well.

It does work very well. I'm glad to hear it's working for you.

>>Just one problem, should I have use something like contact cement or liquid nails to secure the pvc?

Yes. When I have done this I've typically covered the entire floor. This gives me a lot of contact area with little chance of it pulling up.

Your overlap area should be at least a few inches in all directions from the cutout area. Use liquid nails or a spray on adhesive to get it to stick.

Then silicone the edges so water cannot get into the foamed interior.

>>Would not be a problem pulling up the pvc and removing the silicone and using a glue to secure the pvc, just was't sure if you could do that with the flex watt attached to the bottom.

The glue should only go on the area where the PVCX and melamine overlap. Flexwatt won't be affected this way.

>>One more question. I will be using the same design for my boa cage, 6x2x16. Well my question is, in the winter my room temp. is usually 65-70 degrees. I am going to mount a ceramic fixture with a bulb guard to raise the ambient temp. in the cage. Do I put it on same end as the flex watt, or one on each end to raise ambient to 75-80, flex will be set at 90 degrees?

Boy, that's a good question. Part of me says that in a 65* room you might want the flexwatt at the cool end providing a bit of supplemental heat. On the other hand, if you have both at one end it will do a lot to heat the air and you'll end up with a pretty good gradiant anyways.

Maybe MarkG can help more. He has a pretty cool herp room and knows heating very well.

I always use a bit of ambient heat so I'm not as well versed on these issues.
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Current snakes:

1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

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