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Do you use lids on the tubs in your rack?

Do you use lids on the tubs in your racks?

  • You use lids just on the tubs housing hatchlings

    Votes: 7 30.4%

  • You use lids for all your snakes

    Votes: 10 43.5%

  • You don't use lids at all

    Votes: 6 26.1%
  • Total voters
    23
Amanda E

Amanda E

Snake Addict!
I've gotten a couple opinions about this, but would like more. Plus I've never posted a poll and figured I'd try it out.

I'm building a rack and I was initially going to use tubs without the lids, with the tubs just flush with the shelves. Now, however, I'm thinking about using the lids as an extra precaution to prevent escapes, especially for hatchlings.

Opinions?
 
we built a rack - measured it soooo carefully so we wouldn't have to us lids. Some hatchlings still escaped through seemingly impossibly small gaps, so we now use lids, and not the rack! ah, well, the best laid plans....

the adults are all in cages with glass sliding doors so the problem doesn't arise

Skye
 
I built my own racks too, but I planned to use lids with the hatchling containers. In fact, the containers I use for hatchlings are of the right height to stack two of them in the same space that houses an adoult bin with no lid. So, it works well for me.

Hope this helps a bit -- :cool:
 
I built my rack to house the tubs fitting VERY flush with the bottom of the next shelf...hopefully the shelves won't sag or I'll be in trouble LOL.

The only thing I found was after building the rack and fitting the tubs (I actually laid the tubs on the bottom rack then laid the next shelf on top to assure a tight fit as I screwed them together and repeated this through the whole process) that the Sterilite 12 qt tubs without the lids actually had a VERY slight gap near the handle portion of the tub...roughly 1/8-3/16 when viewed in the rack. I fixed this by attaching 1/4 adhesive insulation foam right over those gaps and haven't had any issues with escapies...knock on wood...and I do have some very smallish animals.

Hope that helps and good luck which ever way you go. I'd love to see pics of your completed rack when your done.

Lee
 
I use both methods.

I can tell you from personal experience that the little gaps on the Sterilites are large enough for a fat, happy and health 18" corn to squeeze through. Now I use lids for all sub-adults and hatchlings. BTW, I've found that it is easier to move around the tubs with lids on feeding and cleaning day. ;)

In case you haven't found it, this thread has tons of info on racks, tubs and heating:

Rack systems
 
I use lids for all of my snakes, it saves from any escapes, you can take the boxes out of the shelf and put it on the work top without the thing getting away.
Also keeping the box lid clean is easier than having to clean under the shelf every time, there must be tons of bacteria buildup under the shelfs other wise.
 

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I have two racks that don't have lids. I am going to be rebuilding one of them soon, and adding the lids back in. The other one houses adult snakes, and they aren't able to get through the small cracks.

I am going to be trying another type of rack system soon. It is a design which I purchased from Raintree Herpetoculture. Here is a picture of it:
front.jpg



Paul...that is a very nice rack. Did you build it yourself?
 
fatso said:
I use lids for all of my snakes, it saves from any escapes, you can take the boxes out of the shelf and put it on the work top without the thing getting away.
Also keeping the box lid clean is easier than having to clean under the shelf every time, there must be tons of bacteria buildup under the shelfs other wise.
Click to expand...
Nice rack system Paul. Got any snow today?
 
Terri
Yes I built it myself + there is another exactly the same beside it.
Each rack holds 100 boxes.

PhilD
Snow blooming stuff, we got a few inches not nice stuff to work in.
 

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You're a hoot, CAV! It's not even my rack...I am just planning on building one like it as soon as I have the time! Hopefully it will be before I graduate in May...

Paul...you did an awesome job! Those racks look great!
 
Fatso (Paul)

WOW~

That is one heck of a nice setup...I have "Rack Envy" (my wife just gave me a weird look) heheheheh Your racks are some of the nicest and professionally finished looking setups I think I've seen on here.

That bank of controls I assume are individual thermostats for each shelf row left and right of the particular thermostat? That panel is hinged so you can work on your wiring and thermostats if need be....very cool stuff. From the pictures its hard to tell but I assume you have heat tape actually laying ON the shelves and not run in strips behind the rack?

I finally got my system performing ok, I am still waiting for my new upgraded thermostat but we are making due with the old one for the time being. I have dreams and plans of setting up a Herp room like that one day. I just need to get the kids into this more so we can justify it as a Family Hobby ;)

Thanks for posting them, very good stuff~

Lee
 
Lee thanks for the complements.
You were spot on about the set up and how it work.
They are 4 foot 6 inch Ultra Thurm heat strips on the shelves and I run two of these with one thermostat. The stips are stuck onto the back half of the shelf only, allowing for thermoregulating.
 
speaking of RACKS.

anyone know somewhere i can either buy a good one that is not too large. Either that or buy the plans to build one.


Side Q: What would be the best material to build one out of? steel, would conduct the heat from the tape throughout i would think. Wood? would that be a fire hazzard at all. I know the tape shouldnt be allowed to get that hot but just the fact of all the electronics around flamable material sorta scares me. i was thinkin maybe something along the lines of PVC or similar in chemical makeup. I know from labs i've conducted(former chem major) that PVC is actually what they call "self extinguishing" so i was just curious. whoa, that's a pretty big side question.
 
You will find many answers in this thread:

Rack Systems

FWIW: In the event of a fire, PVC fumes can actually be extremely hazardous if inhaled.
 
yeah the fumes are hazardous.


BUT

PVC has to get extremely hot to burn. we've had chemtorches on it for over 5 minutes and as soon as fuel was removed, burning stopped. If PVC does burn, it's by product acutally extinguishes fires. In event of a fire, i'd rather lose a few rather than having a wooden rack burn down and kill all. These were just a few precautions i was wondering about. Thanks for the info and the site. I appreciate it.
 
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