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Just can't get it right... GRRR!!!

B

broken_20_2

New member
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, and wonder if I should even own snakes... This was from a previous post, but it was on page two and I wasn't getting any responses, so I made a new post (sorry for the clutter).

Thanks for all of your responses! We know have the hot side perfect (consistantly at 85). Our cool side is usually around 81. I can't figure out why the cool side won't drop to the 70's!? I can tell that the snakes are having a hard time finding a cool spot cause they both climb as high as possible towards the top of the cage and stay there for hours. I know how to solve a "not enough heat" issue... but how do I cool down a tank without cooling the hot side? This is really getting aggeravating, and I'm worried about our snakes. Do they sell little a/c units for corns? LOL

ALSO, my g/f is worried is because her snow corn has some yellow "patches" on her tail. I told her that I think her color is starting to come out, but that I'd check for her. I can't get a pic, and even if I could I don't think you'd be able to see what I was talking about. When I look close, it seems that only certain scales are yellow, but it is very deceiving. I didn't know if anyone has seen this before, so I thought I'd check.

Thanks.
 
What kind of enclosure do you have the snake in? What are you using to heat it? What is the usual temperature in your house?
 
As mentioned above, what is the temp in the room where they are kept? You might have to lower the room temp a bit in order to get the cool side down. Don't worry in a couple months in the middle of the Illinois winter you'll be wondering how to keep the cool side temp up in the mid 70's. :rolleyes:

For the snow, did the yellow spots show up since the last shed or have they been there since previous sheds in the past? It could be color starting to show up, but might be a little strange that it is patchy like that. My snow gets more and more yellow with each shed now, especially around her neck, but I haven't noticed spots or patchiness.
 
Our house is hot, so that is probably the problem. I was thinking about moving them into the basement until the house cools off, but I'm concerned about the moisture level down there. I'll have to get a humidity reading from down there. We have them in a 20 gallon glass viv with a 75 watt black bulb. We haven't turned the bulb on for 2 days now because the entire viv has been staying between 82 - 85 on each side.

As for the snow, the color has appeared since there last feeding (friday). We have not seen them shed yet (we've only had them for about 12 days.)
 
20 gal normal or long? If its a normal that makes sense the smaller the tank the harder to get temperature gradients.
 
85 is still a semi high temp for a corn, i mean not unreasonably high but higher than I think they prefer...they might be more comfortable at around 80.

Another thing I'd consider is that a heat buld is going to warm the whole tank no matter where it is placed because the heat is already airborne and naturally is going to disperse throughout the tank. That is what I had always found when I used to use one.

I think you will have alot easier time if you just use a heat mat under one end of the tank. Then you can more accurately heat just one end of your tank, and the heat will be comfortably right on your snakes belly. While you're at it pick up a rheo stat, so that you can keep this heat source at a moderate temp, and for roughly 25 bucks you've solved the whole issue.

Good Luck :)
 
If you are using a standard 20 gal maybe you could try only putting half of the UTH under one side. It would lessen the hot side area but may create less overall heat in the tank. Just a thought.
 
broken_20_2 said:
Our house is hot, so that is probably the problem.
Click to expand...

If your house is a consistant 75-85 degrees (even at night) then you could probably just stop heating the viv until the temps in your room drop. I just plugged my UTH back in about a week ago - I hadn't had it on since early June I think. Right now, if we get a warm day and it gets a little hot in here, I'll unplug it and then just turn it back on at night.
 
With the spots on the snow. I think, personally, I would wait until the next shed and see what it looks like. Unless, it starts to look like an open sore or something then definitely do something. My guess would be that it is nothing to worry about. Hope this helps out somewhat. :)
 
A few things:

A gradient is preferrable, but many, many people keep corns at a constant temperature, such as myself. My closet is around 77-81 degrees most of the year, and they do just fine.

What are you using to measure the temps? A digital thermometer?

Black lights are bad. Switch to red and get a lower wattage, like 30 or 40. Set it up on a timer if you need to---those things put off a lot of heat and can really overheat a space if you're not careful.

If your house doesn't dip below 75, I'd drop the heat all together. You can warm them around feeding time and leave the light on a timer for a day or two to help them out.
 
Wow, I waited to long to reply, now I have to many questions to answer! :)

The tank is a 20 gallon long. I have a UTH that I am not currently using because it heats the tank to 98+ degrees. The highest the tank gets (and I have not turned the light on for 2 days now) is 84.5, but the coldest it ever gets is around 80. I would have thought they would take a dip in their water bowl, but they don't seem to like that. Tomorrow it is supposed to drop to 62 as a high, so hopefully our house will get down in the 70's and I can properly heat the tank using the UTH. I have noticed that some people glue tile to the bottom of the tank and attach the UTH to that. What is the purpose of that? To distill the heat more?

I will take your advice and wait until a shed to worry more about the Snow. Thanks.
 
broken_20_2 said:
I have noticed that some people glue tile to the bottom of the tank and attach the UTH to that. What is the purpose of that? To distill the heat more?
Click to expand...

Not exactly. The way we do it is just take a tile (loose) and stick the UTH to that instead of the tank. That way, there's nothing attached to the tank at all. From my point of view, I do it for a couple of reasons:

1) I don't have a rheostat, so if I attached the UTH to the tank itself, I'd have no control over the temps. With the tile, I just use something (usually ends up being lids from pop bottles or something of similar thickness) to prop the tank up. To change the temps, all you do is change the height of the tank above the tile. But to be honest, you rarely need to do that unless there's a particularly hard cold snap or something...it's pretty stable.

2) On the ZooMed UTHs anyway, it says it's a good idea to give the UTH room to "breathe" (i.e. Not have it smashed tight between the tank and the tabletop or wherever it's sitting). So it solves that problem too.

3) If you do a search on removing UTHs, you'll kind of get the impression that it's a huge pain in the butt. I've never tried it, but I haven't had a reason to. With the tile setup, if the UTH were to break for some reason, I could just pitch the whole thing, buy a new 80 cent tile and start over with a new one instead of worrying about breaking the bottom of the tank trying to peel it off.

4) If I switch tanks (which I recently did, twice, so this has already paid for itself), I don't have to worry about peeling the UTH off. This not only saves you frustration and doesn't leave a big sticky spot on the bottom of the old tank, but it's also a safety hazard to bend the UTH that much (not good for the wiring, etc). So this way, all I have to do is slide the UTH underneath the new tank and I'm good to go.

Hope this helps!
 
It sounds to me like your house was in the 80s.

How do you expect the tank to drop below the 80s then? Turn off all heaters and it can only get as cold as room temperature.

If the heat mat puts off too much heat, use a rheostat (lamp dimmer). If there isn't enough of a gradient along the bottom of the tank, leave some of the heat mat hanging out from under the tank, so just a corner is under the tank, or whatever you need.

Every day, as the house temperature changes, try to modify your setup to provide a good environment. ie: turn up/down the rheostat, etc. Or invest in a thermostat for the heat mat so it automatically shuts off when the temp gets too high.
 
Yes, I am using two digital therms (hot and cold, not like that matters now). I will admit that is it good to hear that people leave the tank the same temp, I was worried they were over heating. I will get rid of the black light and either buy a red or buy a stand and attach the UTH with a dimmer or thermostat.

I want to thank everyone for all of the "hand holding". I really appreciate the help!
 
Joejr14 said:
A few things:

A gradient is preferrable, but many, many people keep corns at a constant temperature, such as myself. My closet is around 77-81 degrees most of the year, and they do just fine.
Click to expand...
yeah same here...but is there a bad side to not having hot/cold side and just keeping the viv at 77-81?
 
You must have a similar model to my UTH. Mine also was getting up to 98+ degrees. Go to Wal-Mart and pick up a lamp dimmer for $8.95 and you should be good to go. My temps are in the middle to upper 70's on the cool side, and low 80's on the warm side. By the way, I live in West Texas aka hotter than all get out for a better part of the year!! :flames:

Good luck.

Justin
 
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