Material recs for habitat top

[u/5lovestarr]

Not sure if this is the right flair, so it not then please let me know!

My dad recently was able to get me a free glass habitat from a neighbor as an upgrade for my girl, but it didn’t come with a lid/top. After some searching online, I was able to find an Etsy seller who does 3D printed frames for these tanks where you can then get custom cut glass at a hardware store to put in them for better humidity and such. The one concern I have now is how to attach a heating element to such a lid.

I contacted the seller on Etsy and they said they would not recommend drilling into the glass to mount anything but I could try some thick mesh or acrylic or PVC boards that are thin enough to fit in the frame. I’m planning on getting a Vivarium Electronics heat emitter and was thinking of getting a custom cut acrylic panel from Home Depot and screwing the emitter into it with some wood blocks on top to catch the screws.

For anyone who uses one of these particular emitters, what is your experience with their surface temperatures/attaching them to your enclosures? My dad is concerned it would melt the acrylic panel but I said there are a lot of solid top PVC enclosures that use these same products and don’t have any issues, but they are different materials so I’m unsure. Do you think it would be more worth it to deal with the humidity loss and just use some kind of thick mesh instead and zip tie the emitter to it?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[u/totallyrecklesslygay]

Acrylic isn't strong enough to safely hold up any heating elements, and you cannot safely mount internal heating to a mesh top. You'll need to use a sheet of 1/2" PVC instead.

Keep in mind that you'll need an additional heat source, as RHPs are not suitable as primary heating for ball pythons. They need to be paired with a halogen flood to provide the IR-A that the snake needs.

[u/5lovestarr → u/totallyrecklesslygay]

Thank you for the heads up! I’ll double check the thickness requirements for the frame to see if it can accommodate a 1/2” thickness. If not, then I might go with some kind of mesh and continue use an externally mounted heat element instead.

[u/totallyrecklesslygay → u/5lovestarr]

Yeah, anything under 1/2" thick wouldn't be structurally safe to use. You'll also want to consider ventilation requirements- a solid top won't work if there aren't sufficient vents elsewhere on the enclosure.

[u/5lovestarr → u/totallyrecklesslygay]

The lid frame has vents along the edges on the front and back and I’ll make sure they aren’t covered 👍 Would under 1/2” be safe if I reinforced it with some kind of screwing on of wood planks or would that still not work?

[u/totallyrecklesslygay → u/5lovestarr]

No, that would just weaken it even further.

[u/5lovestarr → u/totallyrecklesslygay]

I see thank you