Possible ball python enclosure brainstorm:need help & questions answered

[skiptomyzoo]

I posted this on another site, but figured it may get more traffic here, so here it goes: WARNING I AM A NOOB WITH SNAKES AND THIER SETUPS
A plastic tub w/a border and insulation wrapped around three sides, and holes saudered in the sides and lid, as well as 2 bungee cords to hold down the top.
Which then will have the following
on the left side, two heat pads (or can I get away with one larger one?) to cover 1/3-1/2 the bottom controlled by a zoo med 500 R thermostat (but does this allow two heat pads to be plugged into it at once?), of which if a tub, melting shouldn't be a problem, as the thermostat won't allow it. Also, should I attach this directly to the plastic, or put foil here as well, to disperse heat and stop possible (too hot) hot spots?

A single hole hide, of which the probe goes underneath under the substrate, in order to regulate.

Also a large bowl in the center, and reptibark fir-bark mixed with the coconut fibers to bump up humidity as the substrate.
A final question is, I need a digital thermometer and humidity reader too, do they offer this as a combo, and where do I place this, and where does the probe go for it go? As I do not understand how you get both the cold and warm side readings.
Thanks very much,
Unannon
Also, I see people put foil around their tops for glass w/shiny side down, should I do this with the plastic top. And do I need moss under the hides to help w/shedding or not, or will the correct humidity alone do this?

 

[Gourami Swami]

Sounds like youve got this all planned out, that setup seems fine to me

 

[Tongue33]

A final question is, I need a digital thermometer and humidity reader too, do they offer this as a combo, and where do I place this, and where does the probe go for it go? As I do not understand how you get both the cold and warm side readings.
Thanks very much,
Unannon

I got mine for 15.00 at Radioshack I place it right over my heat pad so i can utilize my Thermostat correctly

The biggest reason to have a thremometer is to know and control your Thermostat

Though Mine reads humiodity.. I really don;t pay much attention to it...Anymore.

 

[elevatethis]

Everything sounds good except the Zoo Med 500R thermostat. They don't have a safety feature that, should the thermostat fail, shuts off power to the heat source. If it breaks, it runs full blast until you notice it. Hopefully your animal doesn't get fried in between. This has happened to me personally as well as numerous others that I know that have used that thermostat. Overall it is just a bad product.

A light dimmer (basically a rheostat) available at any hardware store would be a better alternative if you're on a budget, but a real thermostat such as what Johnson Controls, Ranco, Herpstat, or Helix makes would be much better.

You can also use flexwatt heat tape instead of the heat pads. Flexwatt is cheaper and IMO works a lot better. The heat pads tend to develop hot spots over time and just doesn't last as long as flexwatt does.

You can go to www.reptilebasics.com for all of the stuff I mentioned above. They even pre-wire the stuff for you so all you have to do is plug and play.

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Thanks tounge33, have one of those now
Also elevatethis, MUCHHHHH thanks, the site I was referring to was actually the one you recommended to me a while back.
He's getting his tub soon (after I get him a thermostat, since theres no use for the flexwatt w/o it bc it would get way to hot), however he's still on the small side and therefore right now doing good in a ten gallon(93.7 warm, 83.8 cold 53% humidity UTH on a dimmer, dimmer light w/a ceramic in it, and aluminum foil on the other 3/4 the top)

My only other question is I was just at a reptile show, and got 2 feet of the 4 inch flexwatt tape w/ connectors and plug, how do you set that up, in terms of placement, as its not as wide.

Also sorry that I did not reply to this earlier, as I read it a while back, I just have been extremely busy recently (which is why I'm not on much anymore )

 

[davo]

i dont bother with the foil...
You can get thermometer probes and you should put that by the hot spot, and humidity gauge... well it shouldnt change too much in the same enclosure obviously it will be drier over a heat source. If you have a temp gun, you can monitor the temp of everything though...

Sounds like you've done a lot of reading and research etc and thought it through well... refreshing! lol

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Thanks Davo, I did!
Haha I allready got answers to those though, and have a ten currently running, I guess you didn't see my second post?
My only question is about the flexwatt now, I understand heat pads, but I dont understand the flexwatt in terms of the one sold to me is four inches wide and two feet long, how do I set that up for the new tub, as heat pads are wide, but this isnt...please help

 

[davo]

sorry man, missed that you're right! To be honest I use pads at the moment, and haven't used flexwatt but looking at it you can get some pretty wide stuff aswell. How big is the tub you want to heat? You can put it at a diagonal over the one half I guess.

 

[skiptomyzoo]

I'm looking at ones such as sterlite that are roughly around the size of a 20 gallon, idk how big that is quarts wise off-hand though. Although I do have an extra 20 w/reptile top, everyone is saying how much easier tubs are to maintain humidity, ambient air temp, etc so I might give it a try. The guy I bought it from at the reptile show said people run the flextape on the back or bottom all the way across in rack setups, but I'm not sure how true that is, although I guess that could make some sense as it would switch the warm and cold sides from left and right to front and back instead in theory, although I'm not going to try that just yet untill I do more research in order to check the truth in his statement.