Quote Originally Posted by BPGator View Post
You say you currently have proper low temps at night without a heating mechanism, so I'm not sure why you'd neat to provide additional heat if the enclosure were bioactive. Regardless:

1) I personally have a dedicated snake room that's heated with a radiator. Not sure how cold your room gets, but garters tolerate very cold temps during the winter... they're commonly brumated as low as 45°F. If you're worried about the bugs, I'm not sure how cold a temp they can tolerate. If your trying to provide heat for the snakes, your idea of heating pad on the side would work to heat the side and air locally. If it's for the bugs, stick it on the bottom and they can find a good spot.

2) Not sure why you can't have the light on one side and the CHE on the other. During the day you have the light on and CHE off; during the night the light is off and CHE on.

3) Can't answer this. The tanks I have with top opening lids don't have any cords going in. I have one tank that has a thermostat probe going in, but it's a front opening style so the top never gets opened. I would highly recommend these over the top opening tanks - it's SO much easier to go in and clean or handle your snake.

Thanks for the reply.

1/ The night time temperature is fine now because it's not winter. Even though I heat my house, it gets very cold during the winter. I understand that they brumate in low temperatures, but I don't plan to brumate my snakes. Their basking and UVB bulbs will still turn on during the day, and I worry that the dramatic temperature plunge at night will be bad for them. I noticed that one of my snakes stopped eating last year until I added a heat mat. (They were in separate tanks on newspaper, so the mat easily heated the tank while I assume a layer of drainage and dirt will make a bioactive tank hard to heat from the bottom.)

2/ The basking/UVA light is on one side right now and the long UVB bulb takes up a lot of the remainding space. A CHE would squeeze in awfully close to the UVB bulb's plastic housing and the plastic trim on the lid. I understand that I could get rid of the basking light and use CHE only with a better thermometer that changes temperatures at night. I am considering this, in addition to finding a smaller UVB bulb, although mine is about as short as what's available.

3/ I'm definitely interested in investing in one of those one day. I think it might minimize the snakes spooking from my hand dropping in from above them. I'm still working on really taming them. They're hit or miss.

Thanks.