Spider Cabinet

[Skyline65]

At the moment all my spiders are on an argos metal shelving unit, and now winter is approaching Im thinking about heating. At the moment in the kitchen where they are kept its normally around 70c or so, but in the winter I tend not to have the heating on til its really nippy. I dont really want to buy loads of heatmats, and was wondering whether a better solution would be to buy and convert some sort of cabinet, so I could use a single heatstrip & thermostat to keep it warm. The spiders that need cooler temps copuld go at the bottom, and the hotter ones at the top.... any ideas suggestions would be appreciated.

[Peacemaker1987]

Hey dude, i had a similar dilemma, i bought a cheap wooden bookshelf from argos and taped a heatcable to the back of it.
Check out my video on it:

YouTube - Heating setup

[glitchIA]

I was kind of having the same problem. I have one heat mat and im currently transferring the heat using a sheet of styrofoam, i place the heat mat under it and evenly spread out the heat inside a cabinet. so all you have to do is buy a cabinet, not wooden because it'll be expensive and probably mold, you should probably buy a fold out one or you can just use the same shelf, pop a heat mat at the bottom and cover it with a quilt.

[garlicpickle]

I've got the same problem at the moment. My spiders are all on a wooden shelving unit from Wickes. I'm thinking what i'll probably do is add a hardboard backing to it, and tape a couple of heatmats to the hardboard. I have some that don't really need extra heat, so the heatmats will only have to be big enough to cover the space behind 2 or 3 of the shelves.

I'm also stingy with my central heating, and my house can get cold at night.

Maybe you could do something similar?

Another thing I had considered was using heat cable looped up and down and taped to the hardboard.

[Skyline65]

I was thinking maybe something like this, with maybe heat strip and thermostat, but maybe a cheaper version if there is such a thing.
Buy Strand Full Display Cabinet. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

[Peacemaker1987]

Originally Posted by garlicpickle

Another thing I had considered was using heat cable looped up and down and taped to the hardboard.

The one negative i would say about the heatcables...or at least the one i bought is that only have the bl**dy cable heats up which is a bit annoying.
Also my friend gave me this tape (which isn't actually on that video) that is metal and it spreads the heat out, its really good stuff. So you just tape loads of that sh*t all over the place, and as long as its got contact with the cable it heats up nicely and distributes the heat well.

[Peacemaker1987]

Buy Walnut Small Extra Deep Bookcase. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

thats what i have got all mine on.

[Skyline65]

Thanks for all the replies so far. My spids already take 3 shelves with the bottom shelf with all the supplies, etc etc. The shelfing unit is in the kitchen and is 2 feet away from the fridge, so cold air tends to pushed towards them everytime the door is opened, and with my kids that seems to be every minute. That’s one reason for wanting doors, also with doors the heat can be kept in and hopefully use maybe one or two long heatmat/strips for the whole cabinet, and then one thermostat. I could have the cooler spids on the bottom, and the hotter desert ones at the top. Im not sure how the humidity will be inside though.

[Scaley]

All mine are kept in a 4x2x2 viv which has some heat transfer from the viv below, but i will be using my 4ft heat strip when it gets colder. The main reason im using a viv is one that its part of my stack and two i have a viv lock on the glass so it keeps the kids out lol

[shiprat]

I have a wooden shelf unit with wood back. I have a heat cable attached to the back hooked up to a thermostat.

i also used aluminium tape which spreads heat.

I found this to be the best solution to heat multiple tubs/enclosures.

my temps are spot on.

just takes some playing about and close monitoring of temps.

heat cable, takes a bit of messing about with, but its advantage is you can loop it wherever you want, so offers the flexibility of heating many differing sizes and shapes of enclosure. You can loop it back a couple or three times on larger enclosures, but only have one run of cable for little ones etc.

Obviously for spiders that require different temps the proximity of the back of the enclosure to the cable have to be adjusted.


i'll try and post pics at some point, maybe after the leeds show.

its personal preference, and what works in your setup and environment. But whenever heat sources are used, make sure you have a decent digital thermometer to make sure you are getting the right temps, also like garlicpickle said, watch your night time drop in your house, its ok having a heat source but if the room temp drops too much you end up with condensation on the inside of your spids tanks (where the warm air from your tank hits the cooler air of your room) and eventually too much moisture for some species.

I also have a perspex box with all my slings in and the whole box is then heated by the cable. Dependant on species you can move tubs around to get their ideal temp.