| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 27/10/2014 : 22:12:17
I'm in the process of rehousing one of my royals and the heating is causing me a bit of an issue. My other two 36" vivs have a 100W ceramic in each. Our flat is not the warmest in the world, and at this time of year they only just manage to get up to a suitable temperature. The new viv is in a different room, and with a 100W ceramic it failed to get beyond 29C. I had foreseen this and purchased a 150 just in case, which copes fine. However, I am troubled by the temperature the guard is getting up to. It first had the smaller of the square offerings from Pro-Rep, and the sides and bottom were so hot it was pretty much more than I could manage to keep the palm of my hand on the thing anywhere. I swapped it for one of their larger offerings to increase the distance between the bottom of the guard and the ceramic, and this seemed to work OK. However, right near the top of the viv this guard is still getting extremely hot. I know it's very unlikely that the snake will wrap itself around the guard absolutely at the top, however I do have one that does like to give his a cuddle from time to time and it concerns me that if it all but hurts my hand to keep it there, it will be no good for the snake either!
Moving the viv is not a practical proposition as there is nowhere else it can really go. Has anyone got any bright ideas? I was wondering if it might be possible to either wrap something heat resistant over the top few inches of the guard where it is really hot, or maybe box the top few inches in with a bit of ply to absorb some of the excess heat. Surely I cannot be the only person with a snake and a guarded 150W heater? What does anyone else with this situation do? |
| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 30/10/2014 : 18:36:51
All is good, Ray is now installed in his new home. TBH, it's probably a tiny but large for him, but he's got loads of cover and a few familiar objects from his old tub. He's grown quite well in recent months, so I figured putting him in the spare 24" viv wouldn't be good for very long anyway, and I had someone else who needed rehoming into something about that size. |
| chrisc |
Posted - 30/10/2014 : 05:50:03
no problem happy to help.
yes its surprising how just that small distance you move the probe can make all the difference.
with the sheds ive never had much luck with moss/damp hides to be honest so all i do is spray the hot end of the viv with water twice a day(morning an night) soon as i see their eyes go blue an continue this till they have shed, 9 times out of 10 i get a good shed |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 29/10/2014 : 08:59:20
Right, well, that's worked a treat! :D The 100W can maintain 32-33 without struggling, the stat is actually set under the target temp due to the heat difference - I honestly thought a few inches when the probe is practically under the ceramic anyway would make bugger all difference! I've revisited the setup on one of the others and found that the 32C it has registered by the sensor on the back wall equates to (so far) 36.3C right under the ceramic, which on the Habistat pulse stat that I use equates to it being on about 85% of the time.
So, I now have a smaller energy use going forward if I ignore the fact that I've just added another heater to the list (and might have accidentally reserved another snake recently too...), and I'll have cooler guards. Maybe I'll now get sheds that aren't confetti. The buggers usually manage to go blue without giving much warning and I hardly ever manage to catch them in time to stuff some moss in there to raise the humidity.
Thanks for the help. Perhaps I didn't pay enough attention the first time I asked! |
| chrisc |
Posted - 29/10/2014 : 05:06:18
i did a similar thing when i first started keeping snakes but with a heat mat
had the mat on the floor and the stat/thermometer probe fitted to the wall as thought thats how it had to be but unfortunately caused a rat snake to end up with an RI due to it being way to hot, an expensive mistake with the vet bills for meds but a valuable lesson learned.
you can still have both probes in the same place if there both under the bulb but personally i fit the stat probe to the wall so that it cant be moved by the snake.
yes should save a little bit of electric where the bulb isnt working quite as hard.
with the hot hide i place them just to the back/side of the bulb so that the snake can bask directly under the bulb at the set temp but then can still retreat to the hide nearby which will still be a similar temperature an still nice an toasty for them
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| speedy231278 |
Posted - 28/10/2014 : 21:25:15
Now, you see, this is why you should always ask questions. I've read shedloads of articles on setting up vivs, an this very forum sorted me out no end when I got my first royal, but nonetheless I've always been under the impression people locate the stat probe and temp sensor in the same place. It was only a few days ago I was wondering if that was necessary since as we are basically ignoring what the stat thinks and going by the stand alone temp sensor, then as long as the stat probe registers the relevant change we are using the thermometer to do the fine tuning.
The reason that I have previously located both in the same place, and not directly under the heat source is that it is always said to be good form to provide your snake with at very least a hide at both the 'hot' and 'cold' end of the viv, and in theory the toastiest place for the 'hot' hide would be under the heat source, which would, in my mind, prevent all the output of the heater from reaching the sensor. I guess this is why it is a good idea to have both probes located in slightly different places?
Right now, I've moved the temp sensor to directly under the ceramic, and put the smaller one in to see what happens. With a bit of luck, I'll find that it makes it up to temp a lot easier, and I'll find out that a similar arrangement in the other vivs means I can save a bit of electrickery in the process! |
| chrisc |
Posted - 28/10/2014 : 19:31:12
You need the digital thermometer probe on the floor under the bulb.
With it on the back wall its not going to give the correct basking temp, with it reading 32c on the back wall its very likely to be 40c+ under the bulb.
Move the thermometer probe and adjust the stat so it reads 32c an you should find the guard is no longer red hot once the temps have settled |
| speedy231278 |
Posted - 28/10/2014 : 13:24:09
As near as makes little difference the same as above. I have the stat probe and the digitherm probe mounted on the back wall together, probably slightly closer to the floor of the viv than the example above. They are also closer to the end. The exact same guard is now fitted to one of my other vivs that has a 100W ceramic in it and it is pretty toasty, but not scary hot. The extra wattage is the issue as I'm pretty sure the guard wasn't roasting hot with the 100 running flat out when it failed to breach the 30C level. Of course, the whole principal of heat rising and that malarky means that if I were to raise the sensors an inch or two, the 100W would probably just about reach the recommended 31-33C range, however I'm not sure if that would be simply cutting corners as it is unlikely that the temperature at the floor would be any better than it is now, in fact possibly lower. Or am I just thinking far too much about things? Are literally just a couple of degrees absolutely critical? If 33C really is the holy grail, then my other two don't seem bothered that generally they are at about 31.5-32C.... |
| chrisc |
Posted - 28/10/2014 : 05:24:01
i use the pro rep guards with all my ceramics an not had any problems with them getting too hot apart from when the viv is getting up to temperature when first set up.
could you post a pic of how you have it all fitted?
what are you measuring the temperature with?
where abouts do you have the thermostat probe fitted?
i have helped sort out a friends viv where the guards was getting too hot and they had the thermostat probe fitted high up in the viv
this is how i set mine up with the stat probe fitted inline with the bulb and a few inch's off the viv floor and then the digital thermometer probe fitted under the bulb.
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