Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I have come up with a design for a melamine rack for my Ball Pythons. I wanted to see if I could get any suggestions to make it better. Here's the plan:

The rack will be built out of Melamine, sterilite tubs for the containers. The Tubs will be able to slide snugly into each slot. I want to use 11" Flexwatt for belly heat on each tub, but should I drill holes in the Melamine on one end for ventilation, or should I drill holes in the tub itself? I will also hook the whole thing up to a thermostat. The tubs have little "feet" on them so they sit just above the Flexwatt, and I thought if I drill holes in the Melamine on one end, with the tub above it, it should provide good ventilation. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks a lot.

Ses01

Drill your ventilation holes into the tubs.. If you drill through the melamine for air flow you will end up with wood that absorbs moisture quickly and swells up making the rack unusable..
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

Thanks a lot for the tip. I'll definately do that. So would the Melamine swell anyway from the humidity, or not? Just curious. Thanks a bunch!

Ses01

Be careful of the tubs with the feet on the bottom, they will start to sag at the bottom over time creating a gap at the top. Also, the feet can collect feces and urates, making for more difficult clean up. I would suggest the other sterilite tubs without the feet.

1 other thing, instesd of using memamine for the back, you could use peg board. That's what I've done (in addition to drilling the tubs) and it works great! It comes in white. (at Home Depot) An added benefit, it will greatly reduce the weight of your rack and it's alot cheaper than the same size piece of melamine.

Good luck
scott

Oh damn, I already bought the tubs today.... Shoot. I got the ones with the feet so they would sit just above the Flexwatt. How long do they last before they start to sag?

Ses01

PS- Thanks a lot for the info about the peg board. I hadn't considered that and it sounds good to me! Thanks!

Think long and hard before using melamine for a rack system. Yeah, I know that lots of people do it. For myself, I'm always worried about formaldehyde out-gassing when using melamine. I would be fairly worried that having heat tape in direct contact with the melamine would contribute to out-gassing. Will your snakes drop dead? No. Will they live a shorter lifespan or not breed as prolifically? According to a professional breeder I know, they just might! For this reason, and a number of others, I build racks out of plywood...

Regardless of which material you use for the rack, I wouldn't use boxes that have feet. This creates an air gap between the box and your heat tape. Air, as it turns out, is a very effective insulator! If the bottom of the boxes are in direct contact with the heat tape, the system will be much more efficient (= use less electricity).

Thanks a lot for the ehads up about the Melamine. I just might use plywood then. I appreciate it. I wante to ask though, if I do not use the tubs I bought (just easily returned), if I use ones without the feet, can the tubs possibly melt at all? Or heat up a lot? Please let me know. Thanks a lot.

Ses01

>>Thanks a lot for the ehads up about the Melamine. I just might use plywood then. I appreciate it. I wante to ask though, if I do not use the tubs I bought (just easily returned), if I use ones without the feet, can the tubs possibly melt at all? Or heat up a lot? Please let me know. Thanks a lot.
>>
>>Ses01
My take on the whole deal. Its my understanding that heattape needs a way to disperse heat. Which is why i used my tubs with the feet. This also prevents the tape from abrasion issues. Its been a few months with my rack/tubs and i have not seen any sagging issues. The air space around the top of tub will give you all the air exchange you need, don't drill them. For the back you might consider sheet/rolled insulation of somesort. This will safely save some electricity. Do a search on this topic as there is some good threads as well as a search on heattape. Clint

>>My take on the whole deal. Its my understanding that heattape needs a way to disperse heat. Which is why i used my tubs with the feet. This also prevents the tape from abrasion issues.

Feet don't prevent abrasion issues, in my experience. The feet are just as likely to snag or abrade the heat tape as boxes without feet.

If you're concerned about abrasion, do what I did: go to your local home improvement store (e.g. Home Depot, Lowes) and buy some cheap, thin sheet metal. I managed to find some that was exactly the same size as the shelves in my rack! Put the heat tape down on the shelf, then put the metal over the heat tape. Put a few screws through the metal into the wood so that it doesn't move around. Make sure the metal doesn't pinch the heat tape! You might have to cut the metal slightly shorter than the shelf. This can be done with a hack saw or a pair of tin snips.

Once the metal is in place, it prevents the heat tape from being abraded, but still conducts the heat pretty well. Overall, I found this was easier to deal with (and a better solution) than trying to use aluminum foil tape to keep the heat tape in place.

>>>>My take on the whole deal. Its my understanding that heattape needs a way to disperse heat. Which is why i used my tubs with the feet. This also prevents the tape from abrasion issues.
>>
>>Feet don't prevent abrasion issues, in my experience. The feet are just as likely to snag or abrade the heat tape as boxes without feet.
>>
>>If you're concerned about abrasion, do what I did: go to your local home improvement store (e.g. Home Depot, Lowes) and buy some cheap, thin sheet metal. I managed to find some that was exactly the same size as the shelves in my rack! Put the heat tape down on the shelf, then put the metal over the heat tape. Put a few screws through the metal into the wood so that it doesn't move around. Make sure the metal doesn't pinch the heat tape! You might have to cut the metal slightly shorter than the shelf. This can be done with a hack saw or a pair of tin snips.
>>
>>Once the metal is in place, it prevents the heat tape from being abraded, but still conducts the heat pretty well. Overall, I found this was easier to deal with (and a better solution) than trying to use aluminum foil tape to keep the heat tape in place.
The feet on my tubs never come in contact with the heattape. I have tubs measureing 3'l, 2'd. The 3' face of the tub is what one sees, use 11" heat tape, a third of the tud is heated nicely. I don't like the idea of having the heat tape radiate through yet another material ex. sheetmetal. The heat tape just has to warm up that much more. I've also got a strip of 11" running down the back of the rack on the same side as the tape under the tubs. This was all done so that there is more tape then is actually needed. Hence my heat tape never has to run hot to get the temps where they need to be, which is the programmed temp on my ranco t-stat. The foil tape works fine for me, i just taped the side edges down. Alot of this is going to come down to how well one has researched the project and what makes sense to the one building it. I designed my rack around the safety concerns of heat tape, that to me is the biggest concern. The temps on my tape do not excede 95 degrees, i'm pleased with how it turned out and operates for me. There is very little i would change with my next rack, few can say that with a first time project. Clint

>>The feet on my tubs never come in contact with the heattape. I have tubs measureing 3'l, 2'd. The 3' face of the tub is what one sees, use 11" heat tape, a third of the tud is heated nicely. I don't like the idea of having the heat tape radiate through yet another material ex. sheetmetal. The heat tape just has to warm up that much more. I've also got a strip of 11" running down the back of the rack on the same side as the tape under the tubs. This was all done so that there is more tape then is actually needed. Hence my heat tape never has to run hot to get the temps where they need to be, which is the programmed temp on my ranco t-stat. The foil tape works fine for me, i just taped the side edges down. Alot of this is going to come down to how well one has researched the project and what makes sense to the one building it. I designed my rack around the safety concerns of heat tape, that to me is the biggest concern. The temps on my tape do not excede 95 degrees, i'm pleased with how it turned out and operates for me. There is very little i would change with my next rack, few can say that with a first time project. Clint

Errr... You don't like the idea of heating metal, which conducts heat well, but you're fine with heating air, which conducts heat poorly??? You're using two strips of 11-inch wide heat tape to heat your boxes (one underneath, one on the back)? Damn! And it sounds like you've only built one rack?

Let me ask: when your heat tape is running at 95-degrees, what is the temperature on the top of the substrate inside your boxes? Also, what is the air temperature in your snake room? And when you add the two strips together, how many feet of heat tape are you using for each box? Just trying to get a feel for how much energy you're burning...

For reference, my racks have multiple boxes on the same shelf and I use a single piece of 11-inch wide heat tape to provide belly heat. With this design, it's unavoidable that the boxes will come into contact with the heat tape. I started out using foil tape to keep everything in place, but after about a year or year-and-a-half of pulling boxes in and out I found that both the foil and the heat tape were getting torn up. I keep babies in some of the boxes, so I designed the shelf-to-box clearance to be pretty tight. I put the metal down to prevent damage. You could also use PVCX or some other type of plastic, I suppose.

>>Thanks a lot for the ehads up about the Melamine. I just might use plywood then. I appreciate it. I wante to ask though, if I do not use the tubs I bought (just easily returned), if I use ones without the feet, can the tubs possibly melt at all? Or heat up a lot? Please let me know. Thanks a lot.

If you plug the heat tape directly into the wall, then 'Yes' you could melt the plastic or overheat the animals inside. Of course, if you use tubs with feet and run the heat tape full-blast, you may melt the feet!

Ideally, you want to connect the heat tape to a thermostat or rheostat. Depending on how your rack is configured, you may need more that one thermostat/rheostat. I've never been able to wire up heat tape such that every piece provides the same level of heat. Don't know if this is just my poor wiring technique or if it's an inherent property of the tape. In any event, two different pieces of heat tape may differ by 5-degrees or more in max temperature.

If I'm going to use multiple pieces of heat tape, I typically plug them into the wall, let them heat up for a couple of minutes, then see what the max temperature is. I'll then wire pieces with a similar max to the same thermostat so that the tubs end up with a similar temperature.