• 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 if 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.

    =====================
    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.
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Egg Disaster.. Mini Fridge users Read!

C

candace313

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I got home from work today and went to check on my leopard eggs. Apparently the power flickered today and my mini fridge incubator went out. The temperature reset to 130F needless to say I now have hard broiled gecko eggs. Four babies should have been hatching any day, but they hatched out and died due to the heat.
I had been experimenting with a large deep freezer as an incubator and I had moved over half my eggs to it, so all is not lost.

So anyone with the mini fridge incubator please keep an eye on them especially if your having bad weather or a possible power outage.
 
I hope i dont get another infraction because everytime I wite something i seem to get one for some reason or another..I had a power outage..the incubator went off and never went back on....lost all my eggs..I talked to the people who sold it to me....I didn't get that warm and fuzzy feeling. The stryofoam one, the better one, has turned out to be much more reliable.
 
What kind of thermostat were you using? Any surge protection in place?
 
Wow, why did it skyrocket to 130? I think my herpstat and ranco keeps the settings when the power kicks back on.
 
I'd like a little more info on this too. When you say mini fridge incubator, what I think of is a mini fridge that has been converted for incubator use, a DIY incubator.
If that's the case, then I'd think it'd have to be a thermostat issue, since the fact it was a mini fridge would be irrelevant.

I had a Ranco fail on me this winter due to a power outage. Actually two failed as a result of that but in different ways. The one in the rat building defaulted to 180 degrees. When I tried to reset it it locked up with an error code.

Based on your wording it sounds like you're saying you wouldn't have had this issue if you hadn't been using a mini fridge.
John brings up a good point as well, a surge protector is a very good idea on any incubator, especially home made ones, and based on my experiences the last year even more especially if you're using Ranco thermostats. I no longer have the confidence in them I once did and am working my way toward converting over to Johnson's for everything.

Focal X said:
Wow, why did it skyrocket to 130? I think my herpstat and ranco keeps the settings when the power kicks back on.
Click to expand...

My Rancos always did too until the time I mentioned above. Fortunately it was in the rat building in the winter and the heater couldn't get the room past the upper 90s. The other failure I had was the opposite, the thermostat still works but anytime the power goes off it defaults to 60 I think it is. That was aggravating this winter because it was on a timer for winter cycling.
My point being keep an eye on them, had that one been on a snake rack or incubator, the results would have been far worse.
 
^Wow, that's good to know. I've been planning on backing up with a second thermostat and that gives me all the more reason.
 
Wow, that is good to know. Nick, when you say back your thermostat up with a second thermostat, do you mean connected on the same circuit? If so, how do you wire that, since the two thermostats would be fighting with one another and could cause problems? Or do you mean just have a second thermostat on hand to make the switch immediately if necessary?
 
snowgyre said:
Wow, that is good to know. Nick, when you say back your thermostat up with a second thermostat, do you mean connected on the same circuit? If so, how do you wire that, since the two thermostats would be fighting with one another and could cause problems? Or do you mean just have a second thermostat on hand to make the switch immediately if necessary?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I haven't much of a clue. Everyone keeps telling me about it but I haven't had time to figure it out. I imagine it's further down circuit with a broader temp range then the primary.

If you have the primary set to 88-90 and the secondary is set 86-92, then when it goes above 90 and hits 92, it will trip the secondary and cut power until it drops. Same with the low.

This is what I am guessing because I haven't tried yet. I've been backing up with a rheostat but it's really undependable.
 
By secondary, I mean the primary is plugged into the secondary and the secondary only controls the temp if the primary fails or goes outside of it's temp range. Two probes on the heat source though.
 
This was the Reptipro 5000 mini fridge. There was a surge protector used, but it didn't stop the temperature spike after the power cut back on. I'm finding out that most of the "Ready to go Items" will fail or have issues in a short amount of time.

We have the DIY deep freezer incubator that we will be using from now on. We had just gotten the Herpstat4 and it is working nicely so far.
Great idea for a secondary, especially if you have high dollar eggs. I will be looking into this for our deep freezer for sure.

What is everyone's opinion on the best thermostat to use?
 
candace313 said:
This was the Reptipro 5000 mini fridge. There was a surge protector used, but it didn't stop the temperature spike after the power cut back on. I'm finding out that most of the "Ready to go Items" will fail or have issues in a short amount of time.

We have the DIY deep freezer incubator that we will be using from now on. We had just gotten the Herpstat4 and it is working nicely so far.
Great idea for a secondary, especially if you have high dollar eggs. I will be looking into this for our deep freezer for sure.

What is everyone's opinion on the best thermostat to use?
Click to expand...

Oh that's just horrible then. Isn't that thing specifically for incubating? Does it default in that way (to 130) everytime it resets or was this a malfunction?

I think the herpstat is the best out of what I have used (Herpstat, Ranco, cheap dial thermos, rheostats). I haven't had any casulaties yet, but the Herpstat allows me to do so much more (alarms when the temp is too high/low, night time drop, etc). I have seen these style thermostats fry racks. I helped a younger local herper repair his rack a while back and while other issues may have been at play, two or three of these things were INOP.
 
It is specifically for incubation :( I had previously moved it and it saved my temperature setting so I believe this was a malfunction.

I really like our herpstat, but lots of people I have spoken with keep saying they like the rheostats. I wonder if I should use a different one as my secondary.
 
I like the rheostats as a secondary to a thermostat. It's a cheap back up but wouldn't be that great of a back up for an incubator because a rheostat would fluctuate as much as the ambient air in the room. Almost as if it retards the output by a percentage and not a set limit.
 
Anything manufacture can have the possibilty to malfunction.Simplicty works best. I know down here in s.Fla., some uf us use shoeboxes or sweaterboxes w/ vermiculite and keep the temps at 82-85 degrees without an incubator. So please be very careful with manufactured products>
 
Candace, I remember reading somewhere about people using submersible aquarium heaters for an incubator. Essentially, you get a plastic tub or some sort of insulated container like a cooler, fill it a third of the way with water, place the submersible aquarium heater in there, and then rest your incubation containers on bricks above the water level. I would imagine that the coils on these heaters would physically melt before they could reach deadly temperatures, and the water would hold and retain heat a lot more effectively and moderately than air. Perhaps that could be an alternative?

In addition, I believe there are temperature probes with alarms. Has anybody used these with success?
 
I am sooooo sorry. Good luck with any leftover eggs you have. i personally like the Hova-Bator but im sure there are better ones out there. Good luck!!!
 
snowgyre said:
In addition, I believe there are temperature probes with alarms. Has anybody used these with success?
Click to expand...

Yes. I can't really claim success though since they've never went off yet <we need a knock on wood smilie :D>
 
candace313 said:
I really like our herpstat, but lots of people I have spoken with keep saying they like the rheostats. I wonder if I should use a different one as my secondary.
Click to expand...

Focal X said:
I like the rheostats as a secondary to a thermostat. It's a cheap back up but wouldn't be that great of a back up for an incubator because a rheostat would fluctuate as much as the ambient air in the room. Almost as if it retards the output by a percentage and not a set limit.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what a rheostat does. They are a plug and play dimmer switch.
Thermostats, whether they are proportional or on/off regulate the power based on the temperature. They either shut the power off or reduce the power based on the current temperature reading, thereby maintaining a stable temperature within their own range of divergence.

Rheostats supply a reduced, but constant rate of power to the heater regardless of temperature. In a room with stable temperatures they work, but they still need regular monitoring and require a thermometer of some sort to be used in conjunction with them to verify the temperature.
They are not a good idea with incubators at all.

Back to the original post though, I have no experience at all with any commercially made incubator aside from a hovabator I used 15 years ago, so I can't even guess as to what might have been the cause of the malfunction.
However, with a reliable heater and a decent quality thermostat, DIY incubators made from old freezers and such are almost bullet proof when it comes to problems, and they can be built for a fraction of the cost.
 
In case anybody is interested, I finally found that reference for using an aquarium heater in a 10 gallon tank as an incubator. The following pictures are from The General Care and Maintenance of Green Water Dragons, Sailfin Lizards and Basilisks by Philippe de Vosjoli, published in 1992.
 

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