Rack Question...

mmmkay, here's the situation.....

I recently built a rack for my hatchlings/juvies. The shelves are 36" wide by 18" deep. The Flexwatt is run along the back, atop the shelves. The little ones are kept in 12 quart Sterlite tubs, 3 tubs per shelf. In that regard, everything is copacetic.

My sub-adults/adults are still in 20 gallon "long" aquaria, but I'll be moving them to 41 quart Sterlite tubs, once I build the new rack. Until I thought of this possibility....

Since the dimensions of a 41 quart Sterlite would fit onto a single 36X18 shelf, would there be a problem using the current rack? The tape would run along the long dimension of the tub, and I'm concerned that would be providing too much heat to them. Since the current collection can easily be fit into one rack system, this would save me the additional expense of building a second rack. (Then again, the extra space in the current rack is just incentive to get more!! ).

Does anyone else fit their large tubs in "lengthwise", mixed in with smaller tubs on the same circuit? Here are some quick and dirty gifs to explain how it would work - obviously, the perspective is from the top.

thanks in advance,
jazz

One of my AP racks fits two 15qt. Sterilite 1754 tubs per shelf, or a single 32qt. 1756 per shelf. The 32qt. Sterilites are in the position illustrated in your diagram, with the heat cable running lengthwise near the back of the tub. I questioned the configuration myself when I first got the rack, but I've seen no problems with the snakes in the tubs that are positioned that way. They seem to utilize the warm and cool sides normally. Hope this helps.

Go for it! I do the exact same thing with 2 - 15qt. sterilites and/or 1 - 32 qt. sterilite and have seen no problems up to this point. I use back heat as opposed to belly heat which is different than your setup, but shouldn't affect anything differently.

Here's the pic:


D80

Just as Dean and D80, my self-made rack holds 4 16qt tubs side to side or exactly fits 2 larger tubs end to end. I use back heat rather than belly heat, but I imagine it wouldn't make a huge difference.
So far, I've only moved one snake into a larger tub and will be moving some more to larger tubs soon. I haven't noticed any problems yet.

Dean, Brent, Zach -

Thanks for the responses! Looks like I'll be heading to Wally World for the 41Q Sterlites on Monday.

regards,
jazz