heating click clack with the roof of another enclosure

[Striker]

Now I'm sure this has been done before but I couldn't find any posts about it and wanted to see if anyone can see any problems with this click clack heating method.

When exploring the numerous ways to heat my new Olive hatchlings click clack, I noticed that the melamine roof of my diamonds enclosure was quite warm directly above where the heat light is fitted (a 60 watt reflector globe). I figured this heat coming through the melamine enclosure was usable heat so I put some ceramic tiles on top of it, placed the click clack on the tiles and am maintaining an almost perfect 35 - 38 degrees with no thermostat. This is also giving me the required temperature gradient within the click clack with the opposite end of it sitting at room temperature (warm days in Port Macquarie at the moment so about 28 - 30 degrees - a bit warm for the cool end of the click clack but theres not much I can do about the weather here).

While this all seems ok at this point, I thought I might even take it a step further because I am paranoid about overheating and run a thermostat probe into the click clack to maintain 36 degrees at the warm end, controlling the light in the diamonds enclosure. Bear in mind that I live in the same climate as diamonds so the heat for them in their enclosure is just for basking anyway and it is fine for the light to switch on and off intermittently and vary their temps slightly.

What are your thoughts with this heating shortcut. Any issues that I haven't thought of?

 

[Striker]

Now I'm sure this has been done before but I couldn't find any posts about it and wanted to see if anyone can see any problems with this click clack heating method.

When exploring the numerous ways to heat my new Olive hatchlings click clack, I noticed that the melamine roof of my diamonds enclosure was quite warm directly above where the heat light is fitted (a 60 watt reflector globe). I figured this heat coming through the melamine enclosure was usable heat so I put some ceramic tiles on top of it, placed the click clack on the tiles and am maintaining an almost perfect 35 - 38 degrees with no thermostat. This is also giving me the required temperature gradient within the click clack with the opposite end of it sitting at room temperature (warm days in Port Macquarie at the moment so about 28 - 30 degrees - a bit warm for the cool end of the click clack but theres not much I can do about the weather here).

While this all seems ok at this point, I thought I might even take it a step further because I am paranoid about overheating and run a thermostat probe into the click clack to maintain 36 degrees at the warm end, controlling the light in the diamonds enclosure. Bear in mind that I live in the same climate as diamonds so the heat for them in their enclosure is just for basking anyway and it is fine for the light to switch on and off intermittently and vary their temps slightly.

What are your thoughts with this heating shortcut. Any issues that I haven't thought of?

Hi again all

I'm sure you're sick of these questions but I really want to make sure I've got this sorted out and I didn't get a response to the post above. Here is an update. I have a heat tile (with a cord) under one third of the click clack set at 26 degrees on a thermostat with no timer so it's job is to just make sure the temp never drops below that. Down the other end of the click clack it rests over the light on my other snake enclosure as described above (with no thermostat). It sits at about 32 - 34 degrees all day and between about 3 - 5 pm it goes up a little bit more (about 35, 36 degrees) until the light turns off at 6pm. With this temperature the heat tile doesn't turn on all day.

Then as the temp in the click clack drops once it hits 26 degrees the heat tile kicks in again. So overnight the maximum temp in it is 26 - 27 degrees.

Is this a stupid way to do it? Should I just remove it from the roof of the other enclosure and just run the tile underneath it at 32 degrees all day? I figured the day night difference would be good but I want to make sure. I haven't owned a snake that had different climate requirements to where I live before (just diamonds, coastal etc).

Thoughts anyone?

 

[J-A-X]

Hi striker,
i'd opt for your second option. have it independant to the other tank, you're only doubling your chance of cooking the hatchy having two heat sources.

have the cord under the tile, I'm not 100% what the temp for olives is, but 32 sounds a little chilly. depending on the wattage of the heat cord and the size of the click clack, you can run a couple of strands at one end of the tub play around with the spacing to get the temp right, and do away with the thermostat. (like i say. that depends on how stable you can get your temps) you'll still need a decent cool end so he can move if he wants to.

i've had 5 darwins (and i live in chilly adelaide hills) in small tubs on cord with no thermo hot end was a constant 33c-35c (24/7) and the cool end ~ 20c i never had a feeding issue. they always fed well

 

[gavman]

Hey Striker,

If I understand your post, the light in the diamonds enclosure is on a timer and turns off at 6pm, then the hatchie does not have a hot end at an ideal temperature for around 12 hours from 6pm until sometime in the morning. I prefer to have my hatchies heat up to the optimum temperature at the hot end 24 hrs a day. So I would remove the click clack from the top of the enclosure run the heat cord and thermostat to maintain the hot end and leave the cool end at room temperature.

 

[Jungletrans]

I have successfully kept clickclacks inside larger cages with other snakes . They cant get to each other so that isnt a problem . Just move it to a nice temperature area , usually in the middle of the cage . Even with no heat at night the cage will retain enough till morning [ FNQ temps do drop to around 18 at night ] so I have never had a problem . I have kept 6 clickclacks in one cage like this :]

 

[Striker]

Hey Striker,

If I understand your post, the light in the diamonds enclosure is on a timer and turns off at 6pm, then the hatchie does not have a hot end at an ideal temperature for around 12 hours from 6pm until sometime in the morning. I prefer to have my hatchies heat up to the optimum temperature at the hot end 24 hrs a day. So I would remove the click clack from the top of the enclosure run the heat cord and thermostat to maintain the hot end and leave the cool end at room temperature.

That's right. The heat cord/tile is being used to maintain a minimum temp in the click clack of about 26 and through the day the light off the other enclosure provides a basking temp through the day. I'm just not sure if the basking temp is hot enough for an Olive and also not sure if a basking temp should be there 24 hours a day or just during daylight hours.

Pity I didn't summarise it into 3 lines in the first place so you could make sense of it. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Khagan]

Sounds like you're needlessly over complicating things. Just use the heat cord to supply the hot end for the click clack.

 

[Striker]

Sounds like you're needlessly over complicating things. Just use the heat cord to supply the hot end for the click clack.

Absolutely. The ultimate demonstration of overthinking.