Heat, lights, temp? this is frustrating.

I've been reading for 3 days and still, I'm confused.
I have a bunch of questions any answers would greatly be appreceiated.

Pease define primary and supplamental heat.

1. Is the idea to have the substrate/bottom of tank or the air within the tank at 80 degrees f?

2. If its the air then wouldnt heating pads be useless?

3. What wattage should be used in a tank that measures 30"l 13"w 18"h?
I would be using a thermostat.

4. Considering the stand which i'll have my tank on is wood and the heating pad is under the tank attached to the glass, should i put a few vent holes in the wood under the heating pad? I dont want any fires.

5. If the heating pad keeps the tank at the optimal temp do I need supplimental heater/light as well? such as a basking lamp to replicate the sun.

6. If I had to add a basking light would i position it over the heating pad?
I read this could cause fires, but if I put it away from the heating pad the tank wouldn't have the temp variant.

7. Is there a device thats a thermostat that has a day and night cycle? once again to replicate day and night.

8. I assume that the thermostat has a probe that it uses to indicate temp, if i'm using a heating pad could I just touch the probe to the bottom of the tank?

My plan as of now;

A low watt fluorescent strip
(for aesthetic resons) have it on a timer to be on for 10 or so hours a day.
A heating pad (i dont know what wattage yet) running on some type of thermostat.
And most likely use paper towels for substrate (although i would like to give it the option of burrowing)
a few hides, water dish and mayb a branch of some sort.
if needed for more heat i'd use a red basking light.
or if i can't find a device to mimic night and day temps. I'd run the heat pad on a thermostat for 12 hours and a red light on a thermostat for the other 12 hours, mind ya one set at a lower temp. i know that could get costy but if its gonna benifit the snake I'll do it.

thanks for any info.

Well I'm new to cornsnakes myself but I have other reptiles as well so I'll give it a shot.

The primary heat is best provided by an under the tank heat pad, since they (most likely) will be spending most of their time on the floor of the tank. The belly heat will help with digestion and so forth.

Supplementary heat would be the light bulb or what have you, that would heat the air temps. You want any heat sources to be all on one side of the cage and the other side to have nothing. That way you can have a proper gradient. As for having both on the one side causing fires, as long as you have them hooked up to a thermostat I would think it would be ok. It has been for me.

As to weather you need supplemental heat. I would think that you wouldn't HAVE to have it. Though that might depend on the temp of your house.

As for wattage the tank for my leopard geckos is a 30x12x12 and I have a 12 watt heat mat for that one and that is more than fine for keeping the temps. You could probably go a little lower. My corn snakes are in 10 gallon tanks I believe their heat mats are 7 watts.

As for the fire hazard due to the stand: vent holes would probably be a good idea. I would also lift the tank off bottom of the stand (just a few centimeters) with some cardboard at the corners just so there is some air space (unless you get the heat mats that come with the feet). Especially with a tank with a recessed bottom, I have heard that if the heat gets trapped it could crack the bottom of the tank. This is how I have my tanks and I haven't had any problems.

The thermostat will have a probe and you will want that to be on the bottom of the tank.


As for your plan that sound really good to me. That is basically what I do for my corn snakes.

Hope that helps!

Everyone uses slightly different set ups but the basics are the same , which is to create a hot and cool end. Some use lights to achieve this , some use heat mats while some use both. But if you use lamps , you MUST use a guard!!. A lot of people also position the lamp outside the tank as a small snake can find its way under the guard if theres an opportunity to do so.

I would think that ,as long as your mat is controlled with a thermostat , theres no way it would get hot enough to crack the glass , or cause the stand to get too hot , but never having a glass tank myself , i couldnt be certain.

Anyway , heres what works for me (excuse the dodgy pic , da vinci I aint lol)

Oh , and Habistat make a thermostat which will automatically drop the temp at night

Ice9 said:

Oh , and Habistat make a thermostat which will automatically drop the temp at night

Click to expand...

Yeah? Which make?

Hookfacedone,
The heat mat will not cause fires if kept on wood but can damage wood surfaces (cracks varnish etc). I keep my heat mats on a piece of insulating foam (like polystyrene) which prevents wood/carpet damage and also prevents the heat being lost. If using under glass (it wont crack it) but it is a wise idea to get some sort of barrier between the mat and the tank-even if it just means raising the tank off the floor so it isn't in direct contact with the tank. Others can give you more advice on this as I don't keep in glass tanks anymore and can't remember what I was advised to use.

As for using bulbs in conjunction with mats, it shouldn't be necessary if your mat keeps the tank at the suitable temps. If you want to simulate night and day then just switch on a lamp outside the tank (or the room light if thats applicable). If you do use a lamp with the heat mat for heat, then you would have to use it over the heat mat. I have never heard of fires resulting from this (obviously you will be controlling the heat mat and bulb so it wouldn't be an issue anyway).

The probe of the thermostat can go anywhere you want it to so long as it is set to keep substrate temps at 30*c at the hot end. I have my thermostat on the heat mat itself (its a long heat mat for 3 vivs) so I just set the temps higher and used a thermometer to ensure temps were correct (mine is set at 35 on the mat and this results in 30*c in tank).

Rachel

You can find the whole range here

http://www.ukreptiles.com/mandh/habistat.html

thanks for all the info,
but noone answered if its the substrate or the air in the tank or both that need to be the certain temp.
can the heatpad actually raise the temp inside the tank without making the substrate too hot?
i was looking at the habistat site, i live in the US do they seel them here as well?

basically you need to make sure that the substrate at the hot end is 80-82 degrees fahrenheit as snakes will get their heat from their underside so you should measure the temperature on the surface of the substrate. At night , the teperature should be about 75 degrees , again measured on the surface of the substrate.

to quote rachel

The probe of the thermostat can go anywhere you want it to so long as it is set to keep substrate temps at 30*c at the hot end

Click to expand...

Hi
Under tank heaters work well when put on one side of the tank . I see in a few posts that substrate needs to be deep so there will be no burns . I use a reostat to keep the temp of the heater at 83-85 F.
A reostat is the same thing as a light dimmer and thats exactly what I use.And I use PT; and the snake go right under on the glass with no problem.Dimmers run around 3-5$
How i set it up is with a 4x4 electic box a single recepticle and a coverplate for a recepticle and a switch.The switch being the dimmer/reostat. Wire the receptical to the lightdimmer and plug the heatmat into the recepticle. The temp has to be taken on the floor not in the air , dial in the temp .I dont use a light for heat . I do have a light on a timer so the snakes have a sense of night and day. If you dont know electric maybe you have a friend or family member who can help , or maybe the salesman at homedepot or the hardware store can help you.One other way is to cut the wire on the heatpad and just wire the dimmer in series with the heatpad and not use the recepticle.

Considering all that has been said i'm now thinking,
being such a device exsists (a teremostat that can have day and night cycle) use one of them in junction with a red heat lamp located on top of the tank lid
still using a small fluorescent on a timer (because my room is generally dark)
this seems to be a better idea than the heat pad because i'm skeptical bout using them.
any ideas if this would work? if so any ideas as to waht wattage i should use?
tanl 30"l 12"w 18" h

I do heat and a/c so I know a little abought temps and keeping rooms warm and cool. The one thing I see wrong with only having light for heat is , unless you have a real long tank how will you keep one side at 80-85f air temp and the other side in the low to mid 70's f ?
My snake cant fly so the air temp is not going to mean much if the floor is cool they spend all the time on the floor.
I live in the north east US its cold here in winter. Have your house set to 70deg and then lay on the floor it is colder down there. Yoy absorb more heat and cold from things you touch ie. water ,steel glass , than you do from air .A good heatmat and a reostat or thermostat is the way to go. IMHO
Either way good luck.
Bill
PS
Heatmats can get to over 115+ deg unregulated!!

Bill you make a good point,
but heres something to consider in nature the sun beats down on the ground and in turn it warms the ground, granted it will also warm the air surrounding it.
hence the heatlamp, i'm not trying to argue a point just trying to look at it from all possable aspects..
i live in P.A. so our winters are the same for the most part but i like it cold so my room temp is usally round 60F if not lower.
another thing i'd like to ask is, is your tank glass? if so does the heat pad you use stick directly to the tank?
do you have any type of ventalation under the tank? (meaning the shelf the tank rests on? I would consider drilling holes in the stand if need be but i'd like to stay away from resting the tank on bottle caps or cardboard or anything else to make room for ventalation.
also the tank measures 30"l 12"w 18"h what wattage would you advise? I plan on using paper towel as substrate.
btw how do drop the tank temp at night? if so how do you do it?
i wanna point out that although i dont wanna cut corners i dont wanna get overly extravagant.

Hi
Yes one tank is glass and the pad sticks to the bottom of the tank . And with my plastic Sterilite tanks the heatpad is stuck to a 12x12 ceramic floor tile the tanks sit on . The heat pads come with little stickon rubber spacers that lift the tank up a 1/4 inch or so for ventilation . And in nature I do believe cornsnakes are asleep in the day and are most active early eve and early morning , thats why they dont realy need light at all for UV rays , like some reptiles do. If you cant do the reostat they make heatpads with built in thermostats But for me it is easy and cheaper to make a reostat setup . I do believe the size would be 6 or 8 whatts for that size tank . The box says what size tank the pad is good for.Without getting out the tape it looks like 6in x 10 in or so one brand I have and the other ones looks abought the same and yes 6-8 whatts gets hot!!
I dont turn off the pads at all . I find the snakes like to sit on the warm side a day or 2 after they eat , then they spen most of the time on the cooler side . I keep a hide on both sides of the tank . I use empty tissue boxes upside down and PT rolls they seem to like them better than the 6$ wood thing I had in there.
Good luck
BiLL

Yup, its the subsrate temp you should be concerned with, as Bill said. Corns are crepuscular (come out at dawn n dusk) so in the wild, they would never be out when the sun is beating down. As I have already said, you don't need a bulb for heat when using a UTH device, merely for light or if your room temps fluctaute alot. One point, if you keep you room cold, and you have a warm glass viv, you will get alot of condensation. Something to consider

Substrate temperature is more important. Have your thermometers as close to the substrate as possible and see if you can maintain around 85 deg. with a heat mat. If you cannot, then you may want to either raise the temp. in the room where the viv' is or add an overhead heat lamp. A 60w. red heat bulb about 8" to 12" above the top of the viv' on the warm side works well and looks really cool at night. If you do add an additional heat source, dont just set it and forget it. You also have to watch the cool side and make sure your added heat does not raise the ambient temperature above room temperture that you would consider comfortable. Around 70 deg. is about perfect. Ambient temperature is more important on the cool side. Substrate temperature is more important on the warm side.