# Question on heating vivarium stacks



## Seraphashes (Sep 28, 2010)

Hello everyone,

Just after some advice on the best way to heat a stack of vivariums. I recently acquired an old wooden shelving unit for free from the department store that I work in that was going to be thrown away, and have since converted it into a stack of vivariums:










My question is what would people recommend as the best way to heat each one? My plan is to use the bottom two vivs for my rats, and then purchase some more snakes for the top three levels. The whole unit is four foot wide and six foot tall, and the ceiling of one vivarium is the floor for the next one up. My initial plan was to keep it in the garage as it is too big to fit in any room in the house without looking obtrusive, but I'm now considering just how easy it will be to keep suitable reptile temperatures in such conditions. The stack isn't finished yet, I still have to get hold of some runners and fix the perspex fronts in, but considering I got this unit for free and have only spent about £35 on wood and £15 on other bits and pieces, I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far!

So, my question is what would be the most efficient way of heating the top three vivariums to a suitable temperature for most snakes? Due to each viv only being a little more than a foot tall I don't think heat lamps would be that easy, despite them being my first thought. I know heat mats wont really keep the units warm enough on their own, and I've been reading a bit about heat cables, but can't really find much information about how they work or how effective they are. Any help or ideas would be appreciated!


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## antcherry88 (Mar 28, 2011)

In reptile shops if you look up into the top of the vivs they often use these flat ceramic heating elements. They're coiled but only a cm or so thick. I have no idea what they're called or where you'd find them but they seem like they'd be ideal for you and I assume it's the reason they use them in shop display vivs as they don't take up as much room as a ceramic bulb. 

Maybe go in and ask. I also assume they're cheap as most reptile shops wouldn't use branded bulbs etc. If you find out post it here :lol2:


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## Seraphashes (Sep 28, 2010)

That's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I've now scrapped the idea of even trying to keep this in the garage, it's far too cold for anything even with a lot of heating supplies, so I now have no space in my bedroom but a lot of new viv space to fill! I'm going shopping for supplies tomorrow, will probably kit each one out with bulbs and a thermostat as I've been checking all of my heat mats and they seem to be giving off very little heat at all. Bulbs seem much more efficient!


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## befxxx (Feb 12, 2010)

i know this is an old thread, but id love to know how having live rats and snakes in the same viv stack worked out? lol x


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