RUB upgrade.

[edgar1981]

Just in case anyone's interested, I thought I'd share the new RUB I'm setting up for my IJ girl. I was a bit worried about my house being too cold for her, at the minute she's in an 18ltr RUB with a heat mat in, but my landlord tends to be a bit tight with the heating so I was a bit concerned about ambient temps over the winter. I'm gonna stick her in a nice big display viv in the not too distant future, but for now I wanted to make her a bit more comfortable. Had the idea of using a small clamp lamp with a ceramic in, so thought I'd give this a try:


I chopped a round hole in the lid of a 42ltr RUB, using a very high-tech gadget I made at work from a bit of aluminium and a Stanley blade. It took a while but turned out okay. The hole is just big enough to fit the guard that comes with the clamp lamp. I secured that in place with some small cable ties. Seems pretty strong.


So the lamp holder can just sit on top, like so:



I wanted to give her something to climb on, and figured a good cheap way of doing it would be using broom handles. I ordered a couple of 48'' ones from Amazon for about a fiver (as it happened they were out of stock, but they sent me 60'' ones instead - bargain). Chopped them up and stuck them together as below. I used a Stanley knife to carve recesses in some of the pieces, just to make it a bit sturdier. Fixed those together with some waterproof PVA and bound them with string. Not sure if the string actually adds much strength to it, I had the idea of soaking it first, my theory being that as it dried out it would tighten up a bit. No idea if that made a difference, but it looks okay anyway. The whole frame just lifts out in one piece, it's not fixed inside the box. figured that would make life easier when it comes to cleaning.


And just because I hate messy cables, I pinched some tiny cable ties from work for the stat and thermometer probes.



I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get a decent enough temp gradient or not, but so far I'm getting 32c on the basking spot and about 25c in the cool corner, which is pretty good I think. I've ordered a bigger water dish and I've got some big cardboard tubes (again nicked from work) to cut up as hides, so once they're in I'll post some more pics up.

[Whosthedaddy]

It'll work a treat, I did this with all my RUB set ups.

[carl85]

looks nice are you using a heat mat aswell?

[Ryanbrown89]

No thermostat is for the bulb

[Lilmountain]

Hi there, brilliant post. I have same problem of cold house and ambient temperature with a baby royal in an 18ltr rub (my first snake for me and the kids) with a heat mat plugged into a stat underneath. I'm going to upgrade to a a 42ltr in the future, what wattage bulbs did you use for the 42ltr and what would you recommend for the 18ltr? Also is it the White Python lamp set? Thanks.

[Whosthedaddy2]

I see my previous account posted in this...

Any bulb will do as long as with a thermostat. A household 60-100w should be ample if not look at the PAR 30/35 bulbs.

[Lilmountain]

Cheers, and the actual lamp holder and grill, just anything off of eBay that looks right?

[Whosthedaddy2]

I cut a hole out òf the lid and secured some aluminium mesh to rest the lamp on. Got a sheet from B and Q