• IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! This concerns the future of this site.

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    Posted 07/14/2025
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    Putting this at the top so it will more likely be read rather than skipped over.

    If you read below, you will see that I disabled the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025 in the hopes that I could get you all to donate AT LEAST $25 per day to make up the shortfall such an action would entail to financially support this site. I just got finished checking the stats through PayPal of the previous 6 months, and I plainly see that this did not happen. Yes, some people donated more that the bottom level Contributor Membership, but equally plain is that most people don't give a crap as long as they get a place to advertise their animals and merchandise for free. Well excuse me. I asked for help and apparently that fell on a lot of deaf and uncaring ears. Do you feel it unfair of me to want to make some money from this site, just as YOU are apparently wishing to do? I sure do hope that concept doesn't shock and offend you. But it is what it is. As such I will be reinstating that Google Adsense Ads as soon as I get around to it .

    Burdensome are they? Well, I don't like them either, but I gave you the opportunity to show me they weren't needed to keep this site financially solvent. You blew it. Don't like the ads and want to go elsewhere? Sorry about that. Bye bye. Good luck to you. You left me no choice if this site is going to remain alive. It is either that or I just pull the plug on this site and you all will HAVE to go elsewhere. Yes, I know some people will be overjoyed by such a move, and personally I really don't care about that. I have done my part as best I can. I really don't need to be doing this AT ALL.

    And please, don't come to me asking me to donate this site to you. Screw that. I didn't go through all the headaches running this site for decades to just GIVE it to someone. I would just as soon see it become just a footnote in the history books.

    Do I sound angry? Sorry if I come across this way. In reality, I am just VERY disappointed in the whole herp industry in how they treated this site. Snubbed it, really. Oh well. I guess it was my fault for expecting (hoping?) for more out of people.

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    Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big of a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

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    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

advice needed- tank heating issues

J

jane_bukowski

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hello again. first of all, i'd like to thank everyone who's given me so much good information regarding my other posts. this one is also posted under the general python discussion forum, so my apologies to anyone who is reading this for a second time. after lots of consideration, we bought a macklot python (mostly for me :santa: ) and she is a beautiful little sweetheart- extremely good temperment and very lovable, im very happy with her. she is about 2 feet long right now, and we do intend on of course up-grading her tank size when needed. currently she is being kept in a 55 gallon glass tank, and we have a thermometer that reads both the 'cool' and 'warm' ends of the tank. it has a screen top at the moment, but we keep most of it covered to minimize heat and humidity loss. anyhow, the problem we are having is this: the temperature in our house (trailer) is constantly fluctuating, and we obviously need to keep her tank at a stable temperature. so, we are wondering which would be a better system to go with- a proportional thermostat or an 'on/off' type. we'd like to either use heat lights or ceramic heat emitters (to keep the ambient temperature at 80 degrees. we would like to use a heating pad on one end to raise the 'basking' temperature to 90 degrees- and we do not intend to hook the heating pad up to the thermostat.) if anyone has a particular trusted brand to recommend for any of these systems we'd like to know that as well. we've heard that the 'on/off' types will shorten the life of the heat emitter, but we have also heard that proportional types are also 'flawed', in that heat emitters are not meant to be 'dimmed'. currently we're working with heat bulbs and her tank conditions have been good so far, but we want to have a better, more reliable system. we realize that keeping the room itself at a stable temperature would greatly improve our ability to regulate the tank temperature, but that is unfortunatly almost impossible- the inside of the trailer changes temperature fairly dramatically throughout the day and even individual rooms are never the same temperature- and we've not been able to do much of anything about it. (our residence came with my job- i'm the caretaker at a conservation club which provided the trailer and pays our rent and utilities.) we would really appreciate any advice that anyone has as to what would be the best set up given our situation. we want to be sure that she has the best care possible. thanks again to everyone!
 
This is how I would approach the problem.
First off I would put the heat pad on a thermostat. It's the smart thing to do. The heat pad is what the snake will be mnore or less in direct contact with, and many of the commercial under tank heaters will heat significantly higher than 90 degrees.
To solve the ambient temperature I would play with the wattage of the bulbs or heat emitters until I got what I needed, and not use the thermostat with them at all. In a 55 gallon it may even require two, one on either end, if the ambient temperature of the room is fairly low.
I have a few setups that are heated by lights. Some of them are using 40 watt bulbs, some are 65W, and a couple use 100W, it just depends on what is needed to get the temperature where I want it.
Is there any particular reason why you did not plan on using a thermostat with the UTH?

As for which thermostat I'd use, I'd probably go with a ZooMed 500R for that application. They are inexpensive, $25 or so online, and are reliable units. I have at least half a dozen of them in use now.
I've never noticed or heard anything about on/off type thermostats decreasing the life of heaters. My opinion is it won't. It's kind of like how a lot of people believe flicking a light off and on will cause it to burn out a lot faster.
 
Clay Davenport said:
This is how I would approach the problem.
First off I would put the heat pad on a thermostat. It's the smart thing to do. The heat pad is what the snake will be mnore or less in direct contact with, and many of the commercial under tank heaters will heat significantly higher than 90 degrees.
To solve the ambient temperature I would play with the wattage of the bulbs or heat emitters until I got what I needed, and not use the thermostat with them at all. In a 55 gallon it may even require two, one on either end, if the ambient temperature of the room is fairly low.
I have a few setups that are heated by lights. Some of them are using 40 watt bulbs, some are 65W, and a couple use 100W, it just depends on what is needed to get the temperature where I want it.
Is there any particular reason why you did not plan on using a thermostat with the UTH?

As for which thermostat I'd use, I'd probably go with a ZooMed 500R for that application. They are inexpensive, $25 or so online, and are reliable units. I have at least half a dozen of them in use now.
I've never noticed or heard anything about on/off type thermostats decreasing the life of heaters. My opinion is it won't. It's kind of like how a lot of people believe flicking a light off and on will cause it to burn out a lot faster.
Click to expand...


I am starting to think that if you have the room a spotlight (black light) for heat seems to be more to the liking of snakes than an UTH .
How do you feel about this matter?
I actually think my snake (Ca king) seems to enjoy "basking" under the warmer area. He is housed in a 30 long as he is still small and I am able to get a temp gradient with the black light spot light of 95 on one side of tank (air temp) to 75 cool side.
Which is amazing 20 degrees diff in a 36 inch tank size. Ofcourse in a small enclosure I wouldnt use the spot light.
 
I am starting to think that if you have the room a spotlight (black light) for heat seems to be more to the liking of snakes than an UTH .
How do you feel about this matter?
Click to expand...
For terrestrial snakes, I personally don't think they view it much different. There's one school of thought that says heat in nature comes from the sun, an overhead source, so basking lights are more natural. However snakes also bask on rocks or asphalt that has been warmed by the sun and retain heat for a while after dark.
There's a few reasons why I prefer undertank heating though. For shy snakes it's easy to provide two hide boxes, one over the heat and one on the cool end and then the snake can thermoregulate without having to give up security.
Heat tape is a more effecient heater. I can heat the cage floor warmer with 20 watts of heat tape than I can with 40 or even 60 watts of basking light in some cases. With a single snake this is a small issue, but when you have many cages, the wattage adds up.
UTHs are safer in most cases. Basking lights, when used properly, are safe but they are still more of a fire hazard than a length of flexwatt.
Basking lights can interfere with the stacking of cages. Another non issue for one or two snakes, but in a collection space quickly becomes a consideration.

These are just my opinions on the matter. Of course with arboreal snakes a basking light is a given, but with most terrestrial snakes I almost always use under tank heating.
 
Clay Davenport said:
For terrestrial snakes, I personally don't think they view it much different. There's one school of thought that says heat in nature comes from the sun, an overhead source, so basking lights are more natural. However snakes also bask on rocks or asphalt that has been warmed by the sun and retain heat for a while after dark.
There's a few reasons why I prefer undertank heating though. For shy snakes it's easy to provide two hide boxes, one over the heat and one on the cool end and then the snake can thermoregulate without having to give up security.
Heat tape is a more effecient heater. I can heat the cage floor warmer with 20 watts of heat tape than I can with 40 or even 60 watts of basking light in some cases. With a single snake this is a small issue, but when you have many cages, the wattage adds up.
UTHs are safer in most cases. Basking lights, when used properly, are safe but they are still more of a fire hazard than a length of flexwatt.
Basking lights can interfere with the stacking of cages. Another non issue for one or two snakes, but in a collection space quickly becomes a consideration.

These are just my opinions on the matter. Of course with arboreal snakes a basking light is a given, but with most terrestrial snakes I almost always use under tank heating.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info I was curious what you thought . A friend of mine has a very nice albino nelson he bought from you its 2 years old so knew you were a breeder.
They get to "big" for me as I like small snakes 2 feet or so but must say great looking.
 
Clay Davenport said:
I've never noticed or heard anything about on/off type thermostats decreasing the life of heaters. My opinion is it won't. It's kind of like how a lot of people believe flicking a light off and on will cause it to burn out a lot faster.
Click to expand...

There is actually one site that they say not to use an on/off thermostat with flexwatt.. It is a plain and simple sales pitch! Buy our helix units!! I emailed Caloriques and they say it is perfectly fine to use a on/off(analog) thermostat with thier elements!! Oh and Clay let me know if you want those Zoo Meds cheaper:beer:
 
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