Lycari
Desperate to Edit
My dad had this idea and I've definitely never heard of anything like this bring used for herps. I wanted to run it by everyone and see what everyone thought. 
So, his concept is to fill some small container, say a 5 gallon aquarium, with a mixture of water and antifreeze, put an aquarium heater in it, outfit it with hoses and a pump, and seal it up so it can't evaporate. He wants to run these hoses through cut out slots in a dense foam board underneath the viv. The idea is that the water will be at a steady temperature and will heat the floor of the viv to a specific temperature. The water cools as it goes through the tubes, so you can have one side at 85 or so and the other at 70, ensuring a proper temperature gradient.
He's been thinking on this since my reptile room is in the basement and stays pretty cool during the summer, rarely reaching 70 degrees, and in the winter it gets down to 54. Corns have done fine in the past, just spending more time on the hot side, but my beardie straight-up hibernates, and they're not supposed to do that. There's no way in hell I'm ever putting a space heater in that room again (I don't wanna talk about it >.>).
Any thoughts or suggestions? The antifreeze thing really bugs me, but he says it's the only way to keep it clean so it can be completely sealed and not evaporate out or need cleaning, which would disrupt temperatures.
So, his concept is to fill some small container, say a 5 gallon aquarium, with a mixture of water and antifreeze, put an aquarium heater in it, outfit it with hoses and a pump, and seal it up so it can't evaporate. He wants to run these hoses through cut out slots in a dense foam board underneath the viv. The idea is that the water will be at a steady temperature and will heat the floor of the viv to a specific temperature. The water cools as it goes through the tubes, so you can have one side at 85 or so and the other at 70, ensuring a proper temperature gradient.
He's been thinking on this since my reptile room is in the basement and stays pretty cool during the summer, rarely reaching 70 degrees, and in the winter it gets down to 54. Corns have done fine in the past, just spending more time on the hot side, but my beardie straight-up hibernates, and they're not supposed to do that.
There's no way in hell I'm ever putting a space heater in that room again (I don't wanna talk about it >.>). Any thoughts or suggestions? The antifreeze thing really bugs me, but he says it's the only way to keep it clean so it can be completely sealed and not evaporate out or need cleaning, which would disrupt temperatures.
