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Wooden Vivarium

A

argonaut1664

New member
I currently have a 1 year old corn in a vivarium with a UTH and a heater lamp. I am looking to buy a bigger vivarium and have been looking at a flat pack wooden aquarium. My question is with these kits can you use an UTH and a heat lamp. Looking at the pic of them not sure if you can?
 
I think the problem is using a uth with the wooden bottom. It doesn't provide heat thru the insulating wood. You'd probably have to go with the heat lamp. I never use both unless it's extremely cold in my house...less than 60 degrees for instance.
 
You can put a heat mat in the viv - just make sure you put a thin layer of 8mm polystyrene under it and something on the top such as a very thin ceramic tile to stop it buring the snake and don't put too much substrate over it.

Finally if its in the viv you must use a themostat to ensure it doesn't overheat
 
I've heard people say the mat will heat through the wood if you put it under the viv. I haven't tried it myself though.
 
what about having a sheet of glass cut to you viv size to make a false floor

(see pic)
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j29/scad2k/vividea.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

this is only a ruff idea.Just wanted to know if any one had doen anything like this???
 
MegF. said:
I think the problem is using a uth with the wooden bottom. It doesn't provide heat thru the insulating wood. You'd probably have to go with the heat lamp. I never use both unless it's extremely cold in my house...less than 60 degrees for instance.
Click to expand...
I agree with Meg... I think I lamp will take care of your heating problems. Both a lamp and UTH might be overkill. But if you do use both, make sure your viv doesnt become too overheated.
 
hehe way ahead of you.will put aire holes in the back and in the and in the saports so get a good air flow
 
pegboard is a type of wood that has many small holes in it. I believe it is made out of a softer wood.
 
I use a UTH underneath (outside) wooden vivs and they work well as long as a) the weight of the viv isn't resting on them and b) there's an air gap over the UTH to prevent overheating.

I set this up using cork floor tiles. I tape them together to make two mats, the size of the base of the viv. I cut a hole in one mat the size/position of the UTH. I put the complete mat on the floor, the second mat on top of that, fit the UTH into the gap in the top mat, and place the viv on top of that. The weight of the viv rests on the cork mats and the UTH has a slim air gap over the whole surface.

The mats are on stats and they heat the floor level - through melamine and wood - perfectly. If you have a taller viv you might want to put in a lamp or ceramic to heat the higher levels, but if this is on a stat as well, you should be fine.

I've had a bank of three vivs working with this heating system (UTHs only) for around six years now and not had a problem with it yet.
 
Bitsy, how does that work if you have a stack of vivs? I'll be trying to make vivs for ever growing collection next year, and really wanted heatmats instead of lights
 
Hiya. Each of the three vivs in the stack, rests on the two cork mats + UTH arrangement.

The stack from floor to top is:
- Cork mats + UTH on the floor, first viv on top.
- Cork mats + UTH on top of first viv, middle viv on top of that.
- Cork mats + UTH on top of middle viv, top viv on top of that.
 
Thanks Bitsy, was feeling a bit dim! Obvious now you've pointed it out :sidestep:ahem!
I saw some brilliant viv plans on various web pages, but they all included light fixtures
 
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