Questions Assembling a King Snake Enclosure.

[Scubadiver59]

Most people "highly" recommend putting your thermostat probe outside the tank, between the pad and glass--I don't myself, but it's recommended. One of the reasons for keeping it outside is that the snake can't move the probe around, especially the burrowers like Kings, Corns, Garters, etc. You could silicone it down but then you have a day or two with fumes to put up with while it cures. One reason I don't like it between the tank and pad is that it creates a pocket where the pad can't heat directly to the glass. I'm sure that there's some radiant heat passing through the glass via that pocket, but as we all know, air is a poor conductor of heat.

Lay a piece of aluminum foil under the UTH to help dissipate the heat if you're really concerned.

Put your ZooMed Thermometer probe at the other end of the tank so you can get an idea of how cool the far end of the tank is. BTW, those things fail rather frequently, and finding the batteries is a pain. Consider buying a thermometer that just sits at the bottom of the cage and stands up...maybe one with a hygrometer (humidity)...they're fairly cheap.

Get a laser thermometer to "shoot" the temp at the glass and at the top of the substrate for better temperature readings and adjust your thermostat accordingly to get the temps you desire.

For a basking light, for my 20gal tanks, I just use a 25w appliance bulb. You can probably get away with a 40w (29w actual) energy efficient bulb that doesn't put out too much heat. Stay away from the ZooMed blue bulbs...the failure rate is ridiculous.

Stay away from Aspen--too dusty and doesn't hold water well for humidity purposes. Go with Forest Floor (Cypress) or a mixture of Forest Floor and Eco Earth (coco) to hold the moisture better. I use a 3:7 ratio of coco to cypress.

I use two hides--one at the hot end and one at the cold end. I also use plastic plants from Petco, Michael's Crafts, etc. and lay them in the bottom, stick them to glass with suction cups/hooks, and use either grape wood or cholla cactus wood.

Use glass, ceramic, or metal water dishes. Once they poop in those ZooMed plastic dishes you'll never get the smell out!!