homemade vivs: The Heat

I have a question!
*raises hand*

My question is, can you put a UTH on the underside of a melimene viv? Does the heat go through that all that? Is there a thickness of melimene I should use?

I want to get some nice stackable vivs made. It will save me space and look a bit sharper than rubbermaid bins, woo.
(I've never picked up so much as a hammer since grade 7 shop class, I'm paying some guy to build it for me). I'd like to go with a UTH, if I put it in the tank that makes things a little complicated. If anyone out there has a homemade viv, let me know how you heat it.

Yes, I have several melamine vivs with UTH's underneath them and the heat gets through the floor of the viv just fine.

A couple of limitations to bear in mind:

- The weight of the viv cannot rest on the UTH as this can damage it.

- There needs to be airflow over the surface of the UTH to prevent overheating.

I achieve both of these by making a mat of cork floor tiles the size of the viv, then cutting out a hole the size of the UTH at one end. The UTH then fits into the hole in the mat, and the viv sits on the mat. This means that the weight of the viv is carried by the cork mat and the UTH has an air gap of a couple of millimeters over its surface. You can also slide the UTH out from under the viv to check it periodically, and it's easy to remove and replace if it breaks down (a very rare occurrence).

You should always use a thermostat with this type of setup to prevent overheating. The probe for the stat needs to be inside the viv, on the floor immediately above the position of the UTH.

My current setup has been running successfully for several years and comfortably maintains the required temps.

Hope that helps.

That sounds great bitsy! Why didn't I have you around when I was fitting up my 4 x 4ft stack. I could have used 4 seperate tanks and set them up like that, instead of buying a new joined together stack.
I've had to put the UTHs inside and make covers over the top of them, raised up so there's a pocket of air above the mat. So far this is working well though, so I'm not complaining really...lol

Great explaination too!

sounds good, thanks!
The set up I have for my glass vivs is the UTH is tapped to the bottom of the viv, there is airflow over the bottom of the UTH instead of the top (two of my tanks have feet, the other sits on a frame with no bottom). I was planning on doing the same to the stackables I want, and just add little feet to them.

I was mostly worried the melamine would just not conduct the heat or something. Sounds like it's no problem though, yeay!

I would worry about the mat having to run extra hot to get through the melamine as it's a poor conductor of heat. It would just make me uneasy about doing it; in spite of bitsy's success with it.

I would (and have) used flexwatt on the inside. Wire it up and seal all the connections with silicone. Then put the fexwatt in the cage and cover that with a piece of glass/acrylic/plexiglass/etc and seal that up with silicone as well so that the flexwatt and its connections are water proof. It works great this way.

Shoot, I was really hoping this would work. Since corns are so light, maybe I can get away with a thinner base for the viv? Don't they need belly heat? I don't live in a very warm area, I don't think I trust a UTH to bring up ambient heat by just placing it on the side. I'm pretty sure it's got to be a warm area for the snake to lay on or they won't get enough heat.

Hi.
I have a home-made wooden viv (1m X 50cm high X 45cm deep). The way I've set it up is had a piece of glass cut, a few centremetres larger than the UTH. The UTH is attached to the glass, and the glass is inside the viv. If you have the glass cut, ask them to round the edges with a sander so there no sharp edges.
I made a hole for the UTH cable and the probe at the back of the viv so that its hidden from view. Don't worry, I made sure it a tight fit (ie escape proof). Hope it clear enough, I'm really not that good with explananing technical things.

v_various said:

Shoot, I was really hoping this would work. Since corns are so light, maybe I can get away with a thinner base for the viv? Don't they need belly heat? I don't live in a very warm area, I don't think I trust a UTH to bring up ambient heat by just placing it on the side. I'm pretty sure it's got to be a warm area for the snake to lay on or they won't get enough heat.

Click to expand...

What about a radiant heat panel? Or one of these: heat pads. The say they're moisture resistant, so I bet they could probably be used safely inside the tank so long as they were on a t-stat. Though it might be good to maybe email them just in case.

My best advice is to test your heater and floor material. I guess it depends on how thick the material is.
I have a viv made out of 3/4" plywood(it was a saltwater fish tank).
I tried my UTH under the plywood, no go. The max temp was 79F.
I made some of the viv parts out of lexan so I tested the heater under a scrap piece. I got 88F through the lexan. I cut out some of bottom from the warm side and put in a lexan plate to attach the heaters to. With a thermostat it is fine, my snakey likes about 82-83F on the hot side.