Help! Snake housing in fish tank

[AydanW]

Hi just wondering, i bought a spotted yearling yesterday and was wondering because of the cooler nights, how i should go about heating him at the moment. Because of his small size, about 45cm, i have him in an old plastic fish tank about a foot and half long and half a foot wide. During the day i have him under a basic bedside lamp that keeps the temp around 28-33 degrees. Of a night time however, i can't have the lamp on. I have a heat mat was orignally going to use with my 4foot fish tank but i ended up buying a smaller snake than first though.
How would people recomend i ensure he stays heated? at the moment i have his tank inside a foil cooler bag on top of the heat pad but the air temperature of the tank is only at 29 degrees atm. I imagine this will drop significantly over night

 

[SarahScales]

Why not put him in a click clack with a heat pad underneath until he is larger? Hatchies tend to drop their heat rather quick because they don't have much mass but older pythons can curl up to keep the heat in when it gets cold, it's actually rather efficient and it's okay overnight (presuming the temperatures don't drop far below 20). It is much easier to keep a click clack heated then a fishtank.

 

[timantula]

infrared globe...

 

[saximus]

Try measuring the surface temp rather than the air temp. Heat mats don't really heat the air that well so you might find it's quite warm in the surface directly above the mat

 

[Bart70]

I second the click clack - A 7 litre Sistema costs about $10 at Woolies, a heatmat under 1/3 of it, a thermostat controlling the heat mat. Put some small holes in the lid of the click clack for ventilation (some also put them in the side of the tub).

Measure the temp with a probe on the floor at the warm end (the snake is gonna be on the floor so this is the temp that is important, not air temp) and adjust the thermostat until you are getting 30-31 degrees at the warm end. Do not use a heat mat without a thermostat......Will not be a good outcome in this application.

Check out the click clack thread for some good advice.

 

[Melzey]

This is what I haven't Stimmy in. It's fairly easy to keep warm and it's the 7lt

 

[AydanW]

Thanks guys for all the help, will definitely be making a trip to the shops today, much appreciated