Hello, all -
New here and new to keeping a snake as a pet. Not counting the wild ones caught and kept only long enough to think better of it. Ours is a captive bred baby corn bought from a pet store a couple weeks ago. To meet the little guy's need for heat, our starter setup included a pair of Fluker's clamp lamps with one red and one daylight bulb. They work but certainly don't complement our living room decor. I would like to go with a UTH for the final set up. The question is: what size?
Temps in our house range from low-mid 60s in Winter to high 70s in Summer. Could briefly spike higher or lower, but seems like that shouldn't be much concern. The extremes where we live (North Florida) would never exceed the outdoor temperature range wild corn snakes easily tolerate.
Tank is a Zilla 20 long. Glass. Nominal size 20 gallons. The choice I'm looking at now is a Repti-therm Small UTH, advertised for 10-20 gallon tanks or the Medium one for 30-40 gallon tanks. By that measure I should go with the the Small. But I'm thinking floor area may be a more important factor than overall volume. The bottom of this tank is 30" long by 12" wide. The small UTH would cover a 6" X 8" area. The medium would be 8" X 12 ".
Any words from experience on whether the Small really is large enough? Conversely, given our fairly moderate ambient temperatures, would it be hard not to overheat with the Medium?
BTW, the warnings here have already convinced me to also get a thermostat. Any comments pro or con on Zoo Med's remote sensor model?
Thanks.
New here and new to keeping a snake as a pet. Not counting the wild ones caught and kept only long enough to think better of it. Ours is a captive bred baby corn bought from a pet store a couple weeks ago. To meet the little guy's need for heat, our starter setup included a pair of Fluker's clamp lamps with one red and one daylight bulb. They work but certainly don't complement our living room decor. I would like to go with a UTH for the final set up. The question is: what size?
Temps in our house range from low-mid 60s in Winter to high 70s in Summer. Could briefly spike higher or lower, but seems like that shouldn't be much concern. The extremes where we live (North Florida) would never exceed the outdoor temperature range wild corn snakes easily tolerate.
Tank is a Zilla 20 long. Glass. Nominal size 20 gallons. The choice I'm looking at now is a Repti-therm Small UTH, advertised for 10-20 gallon tanks or the Medium one for 30-40 gallon tanks. By that measure I should go with the the Small. But I'm thinking floor area may be a more important factor than overall volume. The bottom of this tank is 30" long by 12" wide. The small UTH would cover a 6" X 8" area. The medium would be 8" X 12 ".
Any words from experience on whether the Small really is large enough? Conversely, given our fairly moderate ambient temperatures, would it be hard not to overheat with the Medium?
BTW, the warnings here have already convinced me to also get a thermostat. Any comments pro or con on Zoo Med's remote sensor model?
Thanks.
