Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i'm in the process of setting up 3 new tanks for my royals but cant seem to get the temps right. they are 38" x18" x18" using a 150w ceramic bulbs. the hot ends 92 the cold 72 degrees im using digital thermometers to get my readings (placed in the centre bottom of each end) but cant seem to work out how to get the cold end hotter without cooking the hot end! there are also 2 vent holes at each end, 2 at the top at the hot end and 2 at the bottom in the cold end. any advice any ones got would be much appreciated!

many thanks,

Kevin

The larger the tank the harder it is going to be to keep a good temperature gradient - it's just a fact of life. I would recommend first that you get an UTH - ceramic bulbs do an ok job at warming the air but they don't really warm up the substrate which would be the most beneficial to the snake (or if they are close enough they could heat up the substrate too much)- using a bulb for suplimental heat is fine but a little belly heat will go a long way. Also I would recommend insulating your tank - either buy some of that fake rock background or the foam stuff on the roll but you loose a lot of heat through your tank - If you want to keep the sides open to see in, do the back and bottom. You can also put some kind of heat on your cool end - I run heat rope under my substrate in my big tank and it helps keep a good gradient thru-out. Simply adding another heat source could be all you need. Once you play with it a bit and get it right you should be able to put it on a thermostat and not worry about it again.

Hope some of this helps.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

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Thanks for the reply, I was trying to avoid any extra heating and the hot spot under the bulb is about 95 so theres a good basking spot, but if i cant get the temps up I might try the heat rope you suggested - can you tell me any more about it as i've hardly heard about it - i've only used mats, red bulbs, and now ceramics.

many thanks,

Kenny

It sounds like you have them in a cool room. What is the temp of the room that you have them in? The easiest way to increase the cool side temperature is to increase the temperature of the room in which the tanks are in. Then you set your warm end to the desired temp and you will get a good temperature gradient that the snakes can thermoregulate. Hope this helps.
Wil Combs
Captive Bred Creations

Hi, your right they are in a cool room - unfortunatly the house is very old and doesn't have central heating so I cant really up the temp or not enough continuely, but we are also having a cold snap with a bit of snow on the ground. That doesn't normally happen and genrally we are much milder. it is just at the extreme cold end that it is to low. theres a shelf at the cold end and on it its about 90 degrees.