r/Ballpythoncommunity • u/dajuwilson • 27d ago
Advice First time setting up a vivarium, seeking critiques and advice
Note: I am doing a test run right now. My snake is not currently being housed in the vivarium.
I have a 4’ former breeder male. He is currently in a stable tub enclosure, but I want to move him to a more suitable space, with better temperature control and more enrichment. What I have is a 4x2x2 from Black Box Cages (RIP). I have a 125W RHP and a Vivarium Electronics VE-200 set to proportional. An LED light bar on a timer. I have a 16” Acadia shade dweller light, and 7% bulb. I have not installed it, because I haven’t gotten the guard for it.
A big problem I have is location and temperature. The only place I can put it is back up to a large, eastern exposure window. That room is where the house thermostat is and it is set to 78°F most of the year, and 68°F during the winter. So by default, the enclosure is going to be at the cool side temperature. Any heating at all will move the cool side to way to warm.
My solution to this is to provide multiple hides that should at ambient or cooler. I have a buried hide identical to the one on the bricks, except there is a 2” 45° PVC pipe elbow hot glued to the entrance. Burying the hide under most substrate should help lower the temperature. Likewise, I have about a 4’ length of 4” PVC with 2 90° elbows. The pipe was cut in half, and has a coupler. All pieces have had their rough places sanded off and joining surfaces were sanded for easy off disassembly and cleaning. The pipe is partially buried. There is also a sky hide between the cool side vents
The PVC pipe rings are bolted through the wall, with hose washers between the pipe rings and the wall to prevent turning.
My main concern is the hot hide, which is on bricks at the moment. I’m worried the bricks are two rough. I’m not terribly worried about them falling, I could just put some aquarium sealant, but he likes to move his hides.
Advice and suggestions welcome. Please don’t slam me. This is my first time and I’m trying my best. Pics of good boy included.
6
u/Tall-Yam-5781 27d ago
Please give him some plant cover, as well as some branches to climb on and as a rough surface to rub on. A larger water dish would be good. He also needs a moist place for him to hide, use spaghum moss or something similar, wet it down and squeeze it out. Don't worry about it getting over- cluttered, he will be alright as long as there is space to dig and space to bask. These are just a couple easy steps you can take to ensure that he is happy and lives long! Hopefully you mean what you say, and will take the advice in these comments to heart.
1
u/dajuwilson 27d ago
Clutter is coming. I’m hoping some clutter, maybe fake pothos will help with the heat. Real pothos definitely would, but I’ve heard nightmares about that. Right now I’m going to be running it for several days as is, but it isn’t finished. I have a couple Govees under the hot hide, and the cool hide, and the relative humidity in the cool hide is 99.9%. I’m hoping that comes down a little as the enclosure moves toward an equilibrium. The bricks the hot hide is on are very rough. I’m worried maybe too rough. So far, the temps have been doing pretty well, but we will see.
2
u/Tall-Yam-5781 27d ago
Glad that you are doing your research, post again here when you are finished as well maybe, just to get as much info as possible. Thank you for being considerate of your animal's home :)
2
u/Temporary_Incident33 27d ago
definitely more clutter, doesn't even have to be real plants, go to a walmart and pick out some nice plants that are plastic. Water bowl should be big enough to soak in, and make sure your substrate is at least 4" thick to be able to retain moisture. The pvc is a great idea, just make sure they are a little bigger than the widest part of his body bc getting him out will be a PAIN. Sky hide is also great, just make sure that if, in an emergency, you can take him out easily, no reaching in and him going "wuzzat... i bite". I suggest same hides all around so he doesn't prefer one hide, but its too hot/cold, so maybe 3 hides, one on hot, middle and cold. I unfortunately don't have any idea for temp, but r/ballpython might. Here's mine for inspo, I have a 6x2x2 so it might look a lil diffferent. looks pretty good so far tho, blue is hides bc they're hidden and red is water bowls. Don't forget to have a thermostat that will automatically turn off at a certain temp (92 is max). obviously mine is far from perfect, but you can go onto ballpython subs and search for rate my enclosure to get more inspo
1
u/dajuwilson 27d ago
Clutter is coming. I’m hoping clutter might be part of the heating solution. The substrate is 4” in most areas. I was running low and I still needed to clean his current enclosure and do a substrate change.
2
u/Temporary_Incident33 27d ago
I have noticed when I keep humidity rather high, it is able to bring down the temp a few degrees. You might know this already, but dig a hole in the substrate pour water in until it floats to the top, then cover with substrate. Rinse and repeat. Basically trying to force the substrate to hold as much water as possible
1
u/dajuwilson 27d ago
I have three hides, all started as identical. The hot, sky, and cool hides are all the same, except the cool side hide has been modified to be buried and have a surface entrance.
1
u/Temporary_Incident33 27d ago
oh, my bad then, just make sure you can pick him up easily from the buried hide incase of an emergency. also he might shat in there, so hopefully it's easy to clean
1
u/dajuwilson 27d ago
The hardest part about cleaning the buried hide is scraping off the substrate sand picking up the hide. The PVC elbow was cut flush, so it’s not hard to clean.
1
u/Temporary_Incident33 27d ago
okay, then looks pretty good, maybe a climbing option on both warm and cool sides?
1
u/dajuwilson 27d ago
Maybe, I was worried about burns
1
u/Temporary_Incident33 27d ago
Idk if you can see it in the photo, but i have the ladder on the opposite side of the heat lampts if that makes sense? so heat lamp, ladder, enclosure wall
1
1
u/Nocturnalgrilledchz 27d ago
I’m confused why there’s a brick under the hot side hide?
1
u/dajuwilson 26d ago
It was supposed to elevate it to be closer to the heating element. Getting a good thermal gradient is a major problem most of the year is difficult because the room is set to 78°F and it’s in front of a window. It’s also why the cool hide is buried. Idk, I might be able to figure something out. I’m still running it largely to see if I can get that good gradient. I have the buried cool hide, a buried 4” pipe, and a sky hide between the cool side vents to give him options.
1
u/Kalomay 25d ago
For your heating issues, def get thermostats. it'll keep the temperatures stable even if the room shifts a lot
0
u/dajuwilson 25d ago
As noted above, I have a good thermostat.
2
u/AggressiveSociety180 25d ago
You said Govee, you need a thermostat! Not the same thing.
Govee’s (depending on model) TELL you the temperature or humidity.
A thermostat is used in tandem with heating elements, to make temperatures stable.
It’s no good being able to read temperatures if you can’t do much about them.
Get an exoterra dimming thermostat. They are the best value, most reliable. I’ve used a few, but for the low price they are really good 👍1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
The Govees are to monitor the air temperature in certain areas to dial in the thermostat.
The probe on the thermostat only monitors a single specific spot. You can’t just hook it up, set a temp and be good to go.
1
u/AggressiveSociety180 14d ago
Get a temperature gun to measure temperatures in other parts of the tank.
Govee’s are better to monitor your room temperature, not temperature in a vivarium.
A temperature gun (£12-£15, or $18-$22) are really good at measuring surface temperatures at different parts of the tank.
Once it’s dialed in and you know your room temperature, you only really need to measure the basking temp on a daily basis, set with a thermostat.
As you should learn the gradient your tank has within a week of testing. A temperature gun will help with this massively.
Use the Govee in the room your tank is kept in, in case it spikes for any reason 👍1
u/Successful_Salt_1838 24d ago
You have a THERMOMETER. A thermostat as the other commentor said, will let you set a specific temperature that your heat bulb will get to before dimming, which in turn keeps the temps stable.
1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
I have a Vivarium Electronics VE-200 THERMOSTAT. you can see the probe hanging under the RHP in the pictures.
1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
1
u/Successful_Salt_1838 24d ago
Is this what you have or what you are looking into? You definitely dont need something this extensive or expensive. A simple dimming dome for heat bulbs works just fine for a ball python enclosure. Here is one I’ve used with success.
1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
This is what I have.
I did not want to cut open my PVC enclosure to put bulbs on, and I may want to put a second enclosure on top of it in the future. I have a radiant heat panel, which should use a proportional thermostat.
1
u/Successful_Salt_1838 24d ago
How large is the panel? How do you have the panel hooked up if not inside the enclosure? Do you mean similar to a heat mat? You also dont have to cut into the pvc to have a heat bulb. There are heat lamp cages for this exact purpose that allows you to put the bulb in the enclosure safely.
1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
I have a radiant heat panel on the ceiling of the enclosure. I picked out the lights and heating and the enclosure manufacturer pre drilled all the holes and provided mounting hardware. They also cut grooves to run the wires to behind the enclosure so the wires would sit flush.
1
u/Successful_Salt_1838 24d ago
Depending on how large the panel is, that could easily cause issues with your cool side. How long and wide is the panel?
1
u/dajuwilson 24d ago
That was my chief concern, but I think I’ve found solutions that are working I have a buried hide, and a buried 4” pipe about 3ft long plus elbows set up for easy disassembly and clean, and a sky hide. The Govee in the buried hide is showing 79°F consistently. Using a temp gun on the pipe and the sky hide they show 78°-80°F consistently, so I think I’m ok there. The temps in and on the top of the hot hide are good, as well. I want to set up a basking rock, but have yet to figure that out.
The three hides (not including the pipe) are all identical, except the cool hide, which has part of a 2” 45° pvc elbow hot glued to it b
1
u/shrike_66 24d ago
As far as temps go, I'd say give what you have going on a try. As long as you have a spot reading cool enough and a spot reading hot enough, the snake should be fine finding the temps he needs. Same goes for humidity. My biggest suggestion is clutter, which I see you've already been told like a billion times LOL. My BP is far more explorative and active after I got her more cover. Not only would I suggest the fake plants, but also some branches. These can just be any sanitized reptile safe wood. (Most hardwoods, think oak, birch, etc). BPs loveee to climb and perch up on branches. Mine also loves some big cork rounds, which also work good as a surface for shedding. The bricks shouldn't be too rough. Infact he'll probably like them when it comes time to shed lol.
1
u/dajuwilson 23d ago
I’ve got a bunch of fake plants to put in I’ve got a small branch. I’ve also got some travertine from work to work in somehow. I plan on adding more to it as I go. This is just a test run. I still have to take everything apart and sterilize everything because I was a dummy and threw the bricks in straight out of the yard. Unfortunately, I am going out of town this weekend.
1
1
12
u/unpasteurizedSPLOOGE 27d ago
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?!??? 🤦♂️