USNGunner
Arachnosquire
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- Jul 30, 2020
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- 148
Good thread. Good info.
l4nsky's Methodology
- Thread starter l4nsky
- Start date
I'd love to see this one!
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2019
- Messages
- 1,146
I've yet to acquire any of the species regarded as terrestrial in captivity like Theraphosa spp, Pamphobeteus spp, Phormictopus spp, so I haven't done much in regards to dialing in my standard Sterilite 1932 enclosure design for them (https://arachnoboards.com/threads/enclosure-recommendations.359180/post-3316929).
For fossorial species, I've been greatly expanding my collection in that direction over the past year and I'm finding that the Sterilite 1932's can work when used with a substrate barrier (like a piece of cork bark) to create a deep end so to say like this:
This setup is far from ideal though, as I'm always concerned about some of the larger fossorials (KBB, Hysterocrates spp) moving so much soil that the destabilize the substrate barrier. I've started to look more towards the now ubiquitous 'haplotank' designs for my fossorial adults (https://arachnoboards.com/threads/expectations-vs-reality.361444/post-3337222)
On a side note, thanks for resurrecting this thread lol. It's reminded me I have much to clean up and update
.Hi l4nsky!
I'm curious, and apologies for the fact that right now my mental resources are somewhat limited - meaning I can't properly verify/consider the thought, much to my frustration!
But I'm thinking about the way the stack effect works for you, reliant on heat from below, albeit mild. And how this might be replicated if someone doesn't have a handy reptile cabinet leaking only small amounts of heat (whilst I'd certainly attempt this method I suspect it would cross into 'too much' territory with my partner
). Heat mats come with the disclaimer that they should only be used on an enclosure side above the sub, for understandable reasons. I can make assumptions about your method - such as that the overall temperature should never reach a point that the tarantula would be desperately seeking cooler air, and more importantly somewhat, that the fine tuning involved in your methods regarding knowing intimately when enclosure need moisture adding, removes the concern of dessicated risk that often accompanies using heat in this way. Those are assumptions though, and confirmation would be helpful!
The alternative i was considering was using low level heat cables at substrate level, but I was wondering how that would impact the influx of air through the side vents. A couple of possibilities occurred to me -
- that the vacuum occurring at this level would simply be replaced by the ventilation holes closest, thus not achieving as much moisture being pulled from lower levels of sub. Maybe though this depends on whether the rising air is primarily above the sub, with vents at the same level, or in the top level of the sub...which maybe causes something more like the next thought
- the drive for equilibrium meaning replacement air will come from wherever it can, while more air may come from above sub vents, there should still be some coming from further below and carrying moisture up. It also occurs to me that wherever the heat was centred would still have a small gradient above and below, even if the cable was only a degrees worth of difference.
- then these things also brought to mind, if its only a small temperature increase regardless of where that increase occurs...would it not need to be sufficient to ensure that the time delay for the movement of air currents, when considering mingling external air and any temperature transfer, doesn't cool it to the same as the surrounding air too quickly?
If any of these wonderings are a bit unclear I apologise. And if they see incredibly stupid...well, apologies even more so! Even special interest topics are requiring a lot of effort right now, much to my annoyance.
For information, too, I'm in the UK. Several cheap hygrometers tend to put my tarantula corner in the realm of 60-70% RH most of the time.
And, as a last, pretty minor question, how long do you leave it after soldering ventilation holes, for off gassing and such? Out of curiosity.
I've appreciated your write ups, have given me useful things to consider across the board - I like to understand the why of certain things, and whilst I've not done any mycology grows its something I've done a fair bit of reading on, as I've considered it. So having those terms to bring into T keeping was handy. And one of your explanations on that topic elsewhere may have explained a particular fungal growth pattern I've noticed in the odd enclosure that contradicted (or seems to) the simple approach to mold that is usually seen. This being enclosures that typically are dry, or have moisture limited to lowest levels of the sub and only added there.
Thank you, anyway, for the time you've put into sharing these posts!
I'm curious, and apologies for the fact that right now my mental resources are somewhat limited - meaning I can't properly verify/consider the thought, much to my frustration!
But I'm thinking about the way the stack effect works for you, reliant on heat from below, albeit mild. And how this might be replicated if someone doesn't have a handy reptile cabinet leaking only small amounts of heat (whilst I'd certainly attempt this method I suspect it would cross into 'too much' territory with my partner
). Heat mats come with the disclaimer that they should only be used on an enclosure side above the sub, for understandable reasons. I can make assumptions about your method - such as that the overall temperature should never reach a point that the tarantula would be desperately seeking cooler air, and more importantly somewhat, that the fine tuning involved in your methods regarding knowing intimately when enclosure need moisture adding, removes the concern of dessicated risk that often accompanies using heat in this way. Those are assumptions though, and confirmation would be helpful! The alternative i was considering was using low level heat cables at substrate level, but I was wondering how that would impact the influx of air through the side vents. A couple of possibilities occurred to me -
- that the vacuum occurring at this level would simply be replaced by the ventilation holes closest, thus not achieving as much moisture being pulled from lower levels of sub. Maybe though this depends on whether the rising air is primarily above the sub, with vents at the same level, or in the top level of the sub...which maybe causes something more like the next thought
- the drive for equilibrium meaning replacement air will come from wherever it can, while more air may come from above sub vents, there should still be some coming from further below and carrying moisture up. It also occurs to me that wherever the heat was centred would still have a small gradient above and below, even if the cable was only a degrees worth of difference.
- then these things also brought to mind, if its only a small temperature increase regardless of where that increase occurs...would it not need to be sufficient to ensure that the time delay for the movement of air currents, when considering mingling external air and any temperature transfer, doesn't cool it to the same as the surrounding air too quickly?
If any of these wonderings are a bit unclear I apologise. And if they see incredibly stupid...well, apologies even more so! Even special interest topics are requiring a lot of effort right now, much to my annoyance.
For information, too, I'm in the UK. Several cheap hygrometers tend to put my tarantula corner in the realm of 60-70% RH most of the time.
And, as a last, pretty minor question, how long do you leave it after soldering ventilation holes, for off gassing and such? Out of curiosity.
I've appreciated your write ups, have given me useful things to consider across the board - I like to understand the why of certain things, and whilst I've not done any mycology grows its something I've done a fair bit of reading on, as I've considered it. So having those terms to bring into T keeping was handy. And one of your explanations on that topic elsewhere may have explained a particular fungal growth pattern I've noticed in the odd enclosure that contradicted (or seems to) the simple approach to mold that is usually seen. This being enclosures that typically are dry, or have moisture limited to lowest levels of the sub and only added there.
Thank you, anyway, for the time you've put into sharing these posts!