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DIY Emergency Heater

Matheus Garrido

New member
Good night!

I sold my heather rock (for obvious reasons) and went to buy a UTH as fast as I could, but it was a little bit more expensive than I thought so I bought a heater lamp.

Than, I needed to do something to keep my snake warm at night. The weather here is fine, but I don't want to stop feeding him or see him static all the time, soooo...
I called my father (who works at night) and he gave me an idea: "Why don't you use your aquarium heater in his cage?"

So I did it. The heater can not work out of water, so I used a bottle full of it. Here's how it looks like:

20150625_022501.jpg


The viv is really messy because I had to replace everything to place this huge bottle in there, so I'd prefer to not show it in a better angle :laugh:.

I think it can be really useful for someone someday so I wanted to help. I hope it can be.

Have a great day!
 
That is an interesting emergency idea. I know that aquarium heaters have their own thermostats and since it is heating such a small quantity of water I image getting it warm enough is not too difficult. How are you measuring the heat at the exterior of the bottle? How big is your snake? How is your snake responding to this heater? Is the bottle open on the top, or did you seal it somehow? Are you concerned about it tipping over? What is the wattage of the heater? How many ml is the bottle? Thanks in advance for answering my questions. Reasonable experimentation is one of the ways knowledge advances.

P.S. Your English is very good. I'm pretty sure that "heater" got changed to "heather" in a spellchecker. "Than" should be "then". I speak some Spanish but no Portuguese, so I admire your effort.
 
First of all, thanks for the corrections and compliment. I really like English and really want to go abroad when I get older, so I study it everyday but there are a lot of things to learn, sure it will help me a lot! No, I'm not using a spellchecker so I take on my mistakes lol, I'll pay more attention.

So, answering the questions:
-Yes, the heater hit the temperature easily and it's working fine. The wattage is 50w (yes, a LOT more than I need, but I'm checking it everytime and I've tested it for 3 hours before put it on the terrarium). I'm measuring the heat outside the bottle just with the touch, with the back of my hands, as we do to check if the milk is too hot for babies, you know? I can't find an aquarium thermometer that I'm sure I still have ANYWHERE, but it looks ok for the snake;
-Drake (the snake) is a little bit bigger than a hatchling, he's about 2 months old... I don't get exactly the terms for their sizes/age, do you have any link explaining it, please? I'd appreciate it.
-The bottle size is 1 lt. and it's well stabilized in the bottom of the terrarium, I only need to be careful and don't push the energy cable rudely;
-I did cut the top near of the cap, just a little bit cuz the heater was too large and once the heater was inside, I used a... a transparent plastic that we use in kitchen and comes in a roll to seal it. I'm sorry, idk the name in English, but google "filme de PVC" and you can see it lol;
 
Thanks by the questions, btw. It helps me to inform everybody better about the heater and change somethings that I didn't noticed for the safety of my snake. I agree with you.
 
Thanks for answering. I have a better idea of what you are doing. A thermometer would definitely be a help. Make sure you do not use any tape in the viv. If there is any, your snake will find a way to get stuck to it. Please update with your results.

I hope you get a UTH soon.

I love your snake's name!

P.S. Very few native speakers use perfect grammar or spelling, especially on the Internet. However, you will certainly learn conversational English.
 
Now I got worried with the plastic on the top of the bottle. Maybe he doesn't get stuck but idk... he can find a way of suffocate himself there. I'll provide something else, thanks for the tip!

I wanted to give a name that reminds a dragon lol thank you!

I noticed with time that the best way to learn English, is being a good copier, so I try to absorb every pronounce of every word a north american say or write hahah.. So, I think that I'll be using more usual terms in my texts, soon. Thank you again, man, a compliment from native speakers (and be understood at all) is exactly what I'm looking for :D
 
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