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Help With Heating New Enclosures

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xanaxez

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I just purchased 3 plastic enclosures and i have never had plastic ones so my question is this. can i use UTH as a belly heat source for my carpet pythons hooked to this thermostat im looking to but at this link?

http://www.bigappleherp.com/BAH-1000-Thermostat?sc=2&category=15#

please tell me what you think and if it will work. i will be putting the mat under the cage itself and not on the inside so would i need to put the probe thing on the inside of the enclosure to get the right heat that my snakes will be laying on?. i will be using either aspen or cyprus much as substrate.
 
What enclosures did you get - brand and size? And what, specifically, do you mean by UTH? (generally, that term is applied to the self adhesive pads sold for use on glass tanks).
We can't really judge the possible effectiveness of heat source without knowing what you are dealing with.
 
the sizes are 1 @ 48x20x13 and 2 @ 24x20x13. the kind im not sure of as i bought them from a guy in ohio making them. he sells alot of them at the expos around ohio and kentucky. i will take a picture of them and load it to show you them. also would the uth heaters work on plastic? not sure but i read they can be used with plastic or glass.

DSC01064.jpg


DSC01065.jpg
 
The UTHs can be used on plastic...but how effectively would depend on the size of the heater - ideally 1/3 - 1/2 the floor space to provide adequate heat & basking area - as well as the composition of the cage (think material & thickness).
 
alright thank you and the material is id say only abotu an eighth of an inch thick maybe 3 eighths
 
also i am open to any suggestions if someone knows a better way to get the heat i need for my carpet pythons. ive seen the heat tape and stuff but im not sure if i could set it up right with it lol. plus i would have to tape it to the bottom of my cages so if they are stacked onto each other would the heat from the 2 smalls effect the larger one since they will be stacked on it?
 
The cages look like that might be ABS, in which case the 1/8 inch would be accurate. I have a couple of ABS cages, but I have yet to apply any sort of heat to them...and probably never will (but that is a story for another place), so I can't really comment on how well they absorb or retain heat. A thicker material would likely be PVC.
In either case, you could use heat tape or RHPs (btw - the UTH recommendation of 1/3-1/2 the floorspace was for glass...you can probably get away with somewhat smaller in a plastic cage, but you may have to do some messing around to get the right setup.) Yes, with heat tape, you will get some heat transfer to the bottom cage; but that will serve to slightly increase the ambient temps in the large cage. You can reduce this effect by elevating the smaller cages somewhat, to get the tape off the top. You could also put some Reflectix under the tape, which will effectively direct the heat up to the cage.
By the same token, (at least with the ones I use) you will get some heat transfer from RHPs...except this time it would be from the large cage up to the floor of the smaller cage sitting over the heater. That could become problematic, but the solution would be the same - elevate the smaller cages slightly.

Also, you may do better using a separate Tstat for the larger cage, even though the one you showed can accommodate 3 plugs. The size difference in the cages is substantial; so using the same product, on the same cycle, will not have the same effect.
 
ok, ill put some sort of risers on the bottoms of the small ones so that the heat from either one cant cause problems with each other. so now on to the issue of the tstat situation i can buy 2 of them if that would help with giving me correct temps in all 3 cages. i can put the 1000 watt on the 2 smalls since it has 3 plugs ins and maybe a 500 watt of the same tstat for just the lager cage since it only has one plug in. that sound like it would work out better for the different sizes? also i was wondering would it be best to put like a paper liner of some sort in the bottom of the cages and perhaps put like cyprus or aspen in them over it leaving the area under the warm hide with a thinner layer of substrate or none?. also i would liek to thank you very much for all of the help and advice you're giving me.
 
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