| T O P I C R E V I E W |
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Posted - 23/12/2010 : 11:56:15
Hi, im in a bit of a panic.
I have purchased a baby cornsnake for my son which I am picking up today.
I had previously purchased a 2ft viv - exotic vivarium and this is set up with a 100 w heat mat which covers just over half of the base and this is controlled with a komodo thermostat. I have set up the thermostat to 84 deg. On top of the heat mat I have covered this with approx 1" of substrate and the sensor has been placed just on top of the of the substrate. I also have 2 x thermometer at either side of the viv to monitor temperatures.(I have approcx 5 deg differential)
My concern is that I am only seeing approx 60 deg on the thermometers and concerned that this is going to be too cold for the snake.
Am I doing something wrong and if so can some one please help.
Gordon |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| n/a |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 16:35:32
Hi,
Thanks everyone for your advice. Cornelius(baby corn) has now arrived home and seems to be settling in okay. I will take onboard all the advie that has been given. I just wanted to get everything right, but maybe panicking a bit incase I didnt.
Thanks again for everything you have all been a great help.
Gordon
:-) |
| herriotfan |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 14:56:59
Hi
Welcome to the forum.  |
| Benji54 |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 13:18:42
its cool that your so keen to get it right! i like that, some people just dump em in and leave em! I think you should be ok with what you have tho, i have a lil faunarium with a heatmat only and it does take a while for the heat to come through so give it a couple of hours and see what its like. WCS set the stat a lil high (as was mentioned earlier i think??)
as for the viv being too big, thats not strictly true, as long as the snake has a few hiding places (warm one, cool one, humid/damp one maybe) itll be happy enough! otherwise they'd be stuffed if they were born in the wild lol!  good luck and enjoy! |
| lee2308 |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 13:18:22
hi and welcome to the forum,thermometers need to be on the floor above the mat not on the wall as your measuring air temps and not the ground temps where the snake will be,i would suggest binning the dial ones as they are very inaccurate and get digital one's with a probe on a wire,one like this which is available at most pet shops http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/exo-terra-digital-thermometer_1_161722.html |
| slix |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 13:12:44
you will be fine this is all a learning curve and the best way to set up ur viv is ask advice from petshop and set it up to the best of ur abillity corn snakes are very hardy little animals and few degrees either won't make much of a differance and aslong as it has a warm side and cooler side with a few places to hide he will be fine |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 13:08:13
If its only a baby a 2ft viv will be too big, you'll need to get yourself a little faunariumm for it! |
| n/a |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 12:57:10
Hi thanks for the link, I have had a read and although helpful I am still concerned as to whether my set up is good or not. I set the viv up as per advice from various forums on the net, although everybody has different ideas and it just becomes confusing and now I am starting to doubt myself as to wheather my set up is okay or not.
I still dont know what to trust though, should I rely on the setting of the komodo thermostat. I dont have time now to get my hands on different thermometers to compare, before I pick up my corn snake. |
| n/a |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 12:41:07
Thanks,
I have since thinned the substrate out too approx 5 mm.
The thermostat seems to be working fine and set @ 84f(29c), its just that the thermometers dont show this temperature and reading @ 60f. Both the thermometers used are dial type and mounted approx 1" above the substrate.
Gordon |
| Invalid User |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 12:34:10
Have a read of this thread. Hope I have helped a bit :o)
http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7617 |
| Invalid User |
Posted - 23/12/2010 : 12:29:08
Hi, I have read quite a few posts on here about thermostats and it seems that you should not really worry about what temp the thermostat is set at but go by the temp reading on the thermometer. So for example, my stat is set at 32c but the digital thermometer reads 29c. I know that some people have to set their stats as high as 35c to allow the thermometer to read a temp of 30c. Are you using digital thermometers to read the temps?
There is a thread on here that may explain things better than I did lol I will see if I can find it and post a link.
Edit: Also you might want to thin the substrate out over the area where the heat mat is as I think it is advised to only use a very thin layer as it can also blcok the heat.
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