[Housing] New to herpstat and housing question

[Emsbuff124]

So my red tail that I got a killer deal on is doing amazing
I was lucky to have my fiancé get me a herpstat 4 for Christmas
I'm new to using herpstat and asking for help
Day time temp for my redtail and ball python I keep at 80 degrees spot test with the temp gun reveals the ground temp to be bout 82-84
The herpstat prob is positioned on the side walls of the tanks
At 11pm I set it to go to night temp which I set to 75 degrees
At 8am the day temp comes on with a ramp up time of 2hours ending at 10am when day temp is maxed
Wondering if these are the correct way for the herpstat
Booth snakes move freely above and favor booth the cold and hot side of the tank equally
Also for the redtail she is in a boaphile 421D right now about how long tell she could possibly need a new tank?
She's approx 5-6 feet now

[acephantom903]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

You may want to look into getting a minimum of 6'x2' cage soon. If you have the room an 8'x2' cage would be better. She is already approaching the max size you should be keeping in her current cage.

What are you using for heating? Heat tape? If you are using heat tape you should be measuring the tape, not the air. You don't want it to suddenly heat up to 110°F trying to warm up the air a couple extra degrees. Anything over 95°F surfaces is bad for your snakes as far as I know. If you are using a RHP, it sounds like you are measuring it properly, but that is a drastic heat difference. I have my night temp at 85°F with the heat probe halfway up the tank under the RHP free floating because he doesn't mess with it. That allows the cool side to get to 78°F at night. For the day temp I have it at 85.5 which during the warm part of the day the cool side is at 82-84°F depending on the room temp. With that current setup my hot spot is 89°F and his climbing branch directly under the RHP gets to 92°F.

Every person's living and caging environment differs so you have to figure out the settings which work best for you. You want the hot spot to be between 88 and 92°F depending on what your snake prefers and you don't want to air temp to get below 74°F because that is when the risk of respiratory infection starts.

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

Thanks for the info I'm using RHP
The 421d tank is the shorter(height wise) verison
I noticed if I raised the tempture I was getting well into the 90s on temp probe more than I was comfortable with the cool side stays around 74-78
I have an internal temperature probe from hot and cool side and it stays round 84 with the hot side 78 cool side
Should I raise it?
I'm cautious cause of how close the RHP is to the bottom of the cage and my redtail could easily get to it if she wanted

[acephantom903]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

I know which tank the 421D is because I have the Animal Plastics version the T8. Our cages are very similar. Which temp probe are you talking about? The one for the thermostat? If that is the case the thermostat will turn off the power to the RHP until the temps get back to the proper range.

This is the placement of my probe. And the perch I have is only there until he gets too big to where I'm not comfortable with him being that close to the RHP. Typically our snakes cannot keep in contact with the RHP long enough to burn themselves because RHPs shouldn't get super hot. When my RHP is on 100% I can keep my hand on the surface without it being more than slightly uncomfortable. EDIT: The air temp at the top of the cage does get to 93 on the warm side but he cannot lay in that air temp. The air temp he can lay in barely gets to 90.

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

Yes my cage set up is about the same except my RHP is considerably larger its 20 inches across with the tank being 48 inches
And my heat panel points strait down
The temp prob for the herp sat is right to the left of the radiant heat panel on the wall

[acephantom903]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

Pictures? Where did you get the heat panel?

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

[IMG][/IMG]

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

[IMG][/IMG]

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

[IMG][/IMG]

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

These pictures show the 421d and how the RHP is and were I placed my thermostat
This is where my redtail is housed

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

[IMG][/IMG]
This is my ball python set up and shows the thermostat placement

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

And here's a close up of my balls RHP [IMG][/IMG]

[acephantom903]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

Heat probe on the Boa cage is too low. Needs to be higher. The RHP looks too powerful for the cage. You can work with it, but you have to be creative. The Ball looks perfect.

[Emsbuff124]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

How would I work with it? Creative meaning?
I'm assuming I should move the probe for the redtail half way up the wall?

[acephantom903]

Re: New to herpstat and housing question

Correct. You don't want your snake to be able to lean against it because they will make the thermostat think the cage is cooler and accidentally cook the snake. And what I mean by creative is you have to figure out a happy medium for the temps. The main difference is that you don't need the cage to get significantly colder at night which is an easy fix in the thermostat programming. Set the night temp to a couple degrees colder at night from the day. Some don't even do that. Remember that where boas come from is tropical. The nights don't get much cooler at night from the day. Getting into the low 70's in tropical environment is unusual.