Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am planning on building a large hatchling rack to to hold many tubs. I was thinking of running the flexwatt horizontally so I could switch off the levels I wasn't using.

The rack will be about 4'wide by 6' tall. The bottom 3 levels will hold 12 sweaterbox size and the upper 12 levels will hold 72 shoebox size.

to heat the rack vertically would take 6 runs of 6' or 36' of flexwatt. To heat horizontally would take 15 runs of 4' or 60' of flexwatt. Besides the cost of flexwatt and the cost of switches brackets etc, is there any downside to running horizontally?
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

There is really no downfall to it. Flexwatt works both hort/vert Of course it is more efficent when it is under the tubs but will heat the cages when applied to thaq back of the rack as well... Hope this helps,
-Matt
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www.MGReptiles.com
CBB Herps and Professional Heating Supplies

By horizontally I'm assuming that you are saying you will run it on the shelf. That's a very common application. I like the idea of separate controls for the lower shelves as opposed to one long run and one controller. You may want to consider dividing a 6 foot tall rack into three separately controlled sections. Boxes on the bottom tend to be a little cooler since they are close to the floor. Boxes on upper shelves tend to be a little warmer since heat rises. More control would also allow you to keep different species on different shelves if their heat requirements are not the same. A few years ago I tried to keep rosy boas in a small rack that also had milks and kings. It was one long run of flexwatt with one controller. Didn't work very well. It was either too hot for the milks and kings or not hot enough for the rosy boas.
One last suggestion about running flexwatt horizontally on the shelves. Take the time to router a groove so when the boxes are slid in and out they do not rub on the surface of the flexwatt. Avoid direct contact with the plastic surface of the flexwatt.
John Q