# My DIY Viv and background



## nitrochicken (Nov 2, 2008)

Hi,
I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the viv I made for our baby cornsnake a couple of months ago. I got ideas and tips from other members posts so thanks for inspiration!

Viv is made from melamine coated chipboard and measures approx 3'x 15"x 15". The fake rock background is made from shaped polystyrene and multiple layers of sand, painted with a top coat of varnish.

I built in central heating too! This is a coil of 10mm copper pipe buried in sand that water is pumped around at approx 32C. It was an experimental idea of mine but it seems to be working well.

Please excuse the margarine tub, this has dampened substrate in to help with shedding. Also, the white polystyrene on the right is blocking up a cave. When I first put him in he kept hiding in there and wasn't going to his heater. He's used to the viv now and explores all over.

Viv:


















Its resident, Coco(not my choice of name!):









Dale


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## The Roach Hut (Mar 29, 2008)

looks good he should enjoy that


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

Great job - that's a really neat looking viv!


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## oakelm (Jan 14, 2009)

Nice viv, love the background


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## DannyLeigh (Aug 4, 2008)

Have you any pictures of your heater? It sounds awesome! :2thumb: 

Like mini central heating! :lol2:


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## nitrochicken (Nov 2, 2008)

I dont have any pics of the heater sorry and its now concealed in the viv.
Its pretty crude really but I wanted to deliver heat to a specific location, without the risk of overheating and burning the snake like heat rocks etc can.

Inside the tank on the left polystyrene rock part is a coil of about 2 metres of 10mm copper tube. Its very hard to coil tightly without kinking but the trick is to fill it with salt first and solder the ends then bend away!

Outside the tank is a small plastic container(I used a tupperware cerial dispenser), containing a 50W fish tank heater and a powerhead type pump(5W ish). when both are swithched on in the morning the water in the contaimer is heated slowly and constantly pumped around the coil through plastic tubing .

The other good thing about it is that it removes the need for a stat in the tank as the fish tank heatr has one built in.

If you want any more details, let me know. I'm not the best at explaining things!

Thanks

Dale


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## arthur cooke (Jan 22, 2008)

That's a very good idea for heating.What temp does the water get too?
cheers arthur


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## nitrochicken (Nov 2, 2008)

Aquarium heater has an adjustable stat built in that can be set between 20-32C ish. Mine is set to 32 and this is the temp I'm getting on the copper coil. From what I read 32C is fine for corn snakes and it provides belly heat from below which they need. He has a hide sitting right on top and he seems to like it in there!

Dale


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## arthur cooke (Jan 22, 2008)

Thanks for the tip, sounds good to me, might try some thing like that when I move to Italy.
cheers arthur


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## DannyLeigh (Aug 4, 2008)

nitrochicken said:


> I dont have any pics of the heater sorry and its now concealed in the viv.
> Its pretty crude really but I wanted to deliver heat to a specific location, without the risk of overheating and burning the snake like heat rocks etc can.
> 
> Inside the tank on the left polystyrene rock part is a coil of about 2 metres of 10mm copper tube. Its very hard to coil tightly without kinking but the trick is to fill it with salt first and solder the ends then bend away!
> ...


How do you get the water to the coil with a power head?


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## nitrochicken (Nov 2, 2008)

I use plastic tubing attached to the submersible power head in the water tank to take water to the coil and then back to the tank in a loop. I've insulated the tubing in foil and bubble wrap to minimise heat loss and the water tank has an old bath towel around it.

Dale


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## mask-of-sanity (Dec 27, 2006)

32 is to warm for a corn snake...also what do you use for night time heating ?...by the way viv looks very nice


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## nitrochicken (Nov 2, 2008)

Am I right in thinking though that 32 will not harm him and he can move himself to thermoregulate? In reality, the heater is only 32 directly on the sand. He has shredded kitchen roll and fabric on top which he generally sits on top of.
I turn off the heater at night, for approx 10 hours. Temperature in the tank doesn't get below 16C even at this time of year because my house is fairly warm. I also suspect that some residual heat is stored up in the sand surrounding the coil, keeping temp up a bit even after heater is switched off.

Dale


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