Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I just built a melamime rack to hold 30 shoe box sized tubs, and I've made a quarter inch deep groove along the back of each shelf for flexwatt. I've never used flexwatt before and want to find out which way is safest for my future babies, and my household.
My first intention was to run a continuous strip along a shelf, then up the wall and on to the next shelf . . . all the way up. But my concern is that the top shelves might get hotter than the bottom ones due to the heat rising. Will this happen?, or will it just dispurse out to the front. It will, of coarse be plugged into a thermostat.
My other thought was to run each shelf independantly, thru a dimmer, then to a power strip that would be plugged into a thermostat. Thoughts? ---Thanks, David

hey there ,

first im sorry i didnt get back to your email you sent me the other day i have been swampedwit h emails since last thursday ..

Ok to answer these the best way

yes running the heat tape in like you stated will make the higher units hotter ... how much hotter all depends on things like size of flexwatt , ambient room temps size of tubs substartes in them ....

Now you wont get alot of heat to disipate out the front not like most ppl think . what i would suggest is to possiblt start off with one solid run of flexwatt and then monitor temps over several days to get a feel for what they are doing . if you see the upoper tubs are getting to hot then make adjustments i would say to leave enough stack if need be you can split the upper hotter levels fro the lower ones and then install a dimmer on the two sections to beable to "dial down " the heat to the upper levels. Adding dimmers to each shelf would be very costly to do and alot of work and wiring mess to have showing . if you slpit the levels top 1/3 & bottom 2/3 then you can better dial in the needed heat in the upper levels to what they need to be while properly heating the lower ones with the idea heat rises .

hope this made a lick of sense to you lol ill watch the thread if you need more help or advice best of luck
Alan
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The snake room is always 75-77 degrees. The tubs are only going to be the small "sterlite" tubs to temporarily house neonate boas until they are sold. And the substrate could either be aspen, or newspaper ( I use both).
While reading your reply, I was reminded that I made recessed slots to fit 3" flexwatt along the back of each shelf, and when I slide the tubs to the back, they (the tubs) are above, but not touching the flexwatt. But I remembered that I also made the shelves a few extra inches wider than I needed to , so if the top rows are getting too hot, then I could slide them forward a bit to "distance" the more direct heat.
I will be doing plenty of monitoring prior to use. Thanks again.

Is it best to put the thermostat probe in the back of an individual tub, or outside of the tubs ?
While I'm at it, how do I secure the flexwatt -- I'm a total flexwatt newbie. I saw something called foiltape / do you just tape the edges or cover it all? I want to get it right the first time. Thanks!

yeah the foil tape you cane tape right over the flexwatt ( make sure your connections all covered with electrical tape of liquid rubber one , then tape it down . As to probe placement ... you want it in the tub and to make sure what ever tub its in there all alike , this will give you the best idea on how all tubs will be heated the same i place my probes about 1" in off the rear wall of the tub and 1 " off the floor but i use back heat , using belly heat will need different placement of the probes cause of the heating style. best of luck
alan
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....My Boa Can Kick Your Boas _ss!www.cheapcages.com
Visit the new website while the Jungle gets made over.