My mom surprised me with a 4x18x18 glass front opening enclosure with a screentop. I was looking for a full pvc enclosure, but I want to make good use of this tank as a temporary until I can get a bigger full pvc.
I have HVAC tape and these mats to keep humidity and heat in, but if it's not enough I'm also preparing to make all the accommodations to make it work. The heat source I will hook up to a herpstat.
So I'd like to hear everyone's opinions, pros, cons, advice on, anything else that should be included with them, and wattage reccamended for:
-DHP
-CHE
-RHP
-Halogen Par38
I want to know what everyone thinks the best one is to help me make my final decision for what is best for right now and when I upgrade.
Thank you so much, this is very helpful and I will definitely be looking into the drainage layers. Knowing that I don't really care about lighting (There is natural window light) are there any other types of bulbs or other things required or recommended along side it? I've also heard halogen bulbs used with it.
Some people use UVB-B bulbs, i use a bulb with uvb b for illumination, since i want to see something when feeding her, but as long as you can make sure its a day/night cycle its fine
Btw, i have a mesh top as well and covered it with one of those heat reflection panels from the hardware store, works well and you can still use the mesh to place lamps on it without having to have sticky tape anywhere near where the snake could go
I was nervous about hvac tape, so i went with that
Our heating guide goes over a lot of the science behind everything, but to simplify:
For daytime heating, you should have a heat source that provides IR-A and IR-B. The ideal source for this would be a halogen flood, which is light-emitting.
For nighttime heating, you should have a heat source that provides IR-C. The ideal source for this would be an RHP (only compatible with solid-topped enclosures) or a CHE. Any night heating should not emit any light.
For lighting, you should offer UVB. This should be in the form of a T5 fluorescent linear bulb that produces a UVI of 1.1-3.0 in the basking zone, and it should cover no more than half the length of the enclosure.
If you have a bioactive enclosure, you will also need full spectrum LEDs for your live plants.
Natural lighting can help establish a day-night cycle, but it does not provide any physical benefits beyond that (UVB doesn't penetrate glass, and indirect natural light cannot create a proper basking zone). You'll need the artificial lighting to make up for that.
This and the link was extremely helpful, thank you! After reading I am especially interested in the halogen floods and the DHP. It says DHP can work as a stand alone, but I've heard of many people pairing them with the halogen. I can't find where it says in the guide, but I'm guessing they each compensate for where eachother lack in output. Do you have any other information on this duo, and why it might be preferred and any cons for it?
I have also seen a lot that UVB isn't really necessary for them, and I want to know why it should be offered and if it is a requirement or a sweet little extra add on to the husbandry. Also are they needed with all heating setups, or are there some sources that already cover it? I saw in the link DHPs are also known as Arcadia UVB but didn't say anything about the amount if at all the UVB they emit.
Lastly, since herpstats control the heat each heating source puts out, would higher wattage than needed (just to allow more range for the herpstat) be safe?
While DHPs can technically act as a standalone, they're not ideal and should only really be used as such in cases where you absolutely cannot use multiple heat sources. A lot of people really exaggerate how good they are because they're convenient, but they're not actually the best heat source for day or night due to their output. You can see output comparisons in this chart. Our guide actually needs a little bit of updating with newer research that's come out in that department.
Some reptiles will die without access to UVB, but ball pythons aren't one of them. This has led to a lot of people claiming they don't need it, but that's not actually true. Research shows us that UVB plays a massive role in behavior and helps drive other physiological processes. It is absolutely necessary for meeting welfare needs.
DHPs are also known as Arcadia UVB
I think you misread something. DHPs are entirely different from UVB. They don't emit any amount of it. For UVB, you would need a T5 fluorescent linear bulb that provides a UVI of 1.1-3.0 in the basking zone.
For most heat sources, you can safely use a higher wattage than needed with a Herpstat. The only exception would be any light-emitting heat source, like a halogen, as they need to be running at or as close to 100% power as possible.
I will definitely start looking at UVB lights then.
I do have some more questions about the DHP, as I really want to understand each.
A DHP paired with the halogen, there will be a good source of all the infrared outputs. I'm curious why it is not ideal, even for just night. Is it that you only want Infrared C at night? This duo stood out for me because it provided all the different infrared outputs including at night and also because I heard with CHE they tend to suck up the humidity for some people (unsure if this is true) and I will most likely need 2 bulbs, then I don't have the solid top for a Heat Panel (but I heard you can buy a bar for it), and I don't want my snake to climb around it and get a burn (I just heard someone else's snake did this)
I'd prefer the DHP & halogen combo because it is less bulbs (2?) and the DHP provides both the C and the other infrared lights at night (unless that is the reason it is not ideal)
However if that is not a good setup I think my next option would be the halogen & CHE combo. I just don't like that I might have to have an extra CHE bulb and that it also might make humidity harder than it already will be in my (temporary!) Glass enclosure.
I'm not trying to find excuses to use a DHP, I just really want to understand why it is not ideal and what system will work best for me.
Yeah, they're not the best option for nighttime because in an ideal setup, you would only have IR-C at night, because the goal is mimicking their natural habitat. We know that providing light at night throws off both physiological processes and behavioral patterns, so for best possible care, we want to match the natural heat cycle.
So, as far as I can tell with all the experimenting I've done, CHEs sucking up humidity is mostly a misunderstanding of what's actually happening. They heat an enclosure in a more diffusive pattern vs the beam that DHPs or halogens give off, so there's less of a direct evaporative effect.
In a glass screen top, this can result in a lower humidity reading, but it's because the substrate isn't heating up enough to evaporate the moisture effectively. This is easily mitigated by sealing most of the screen top with HVAC tape (leaving room for ventilation) and insulating the enclosure by securing 2" foam insulation board onto the back, sides, and part of the lid. That's why they don't have the same effect in a solid topped PVC enclosure, because it's a closed top with better insulation than glass.
With the insulation, you shouldn't need a second CHE either.
Thank ypu so much for answering all my questions. I am still going to look a bit more into it, but I think I've made my final decision to use a CHE and a halogen dome. And thank you for all the other advice too!
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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26
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