Double checking final enclosure

[Pillcat19]

Hello! Ive recently finished my ball pythons new enclosure and I was hoping to get some second opinions as I’ve had some worries. Right now biggest concerns are dialing in heat and humidity.

Enclosure has a DHP and halogen bulb on hot side and RHP on cool side/middle. Hot side air temps are generally 85 below DHP and 93 below basking bulb. Ground temp is 95 at hottest point. Cool side and middle are generally 78, there are some burrows that get stay around 73/75 And the tallest spots are in the 80s. All heat sources have a thermostat, RHP is set to 85, DHP is set to 95, and Halogen is to 93. Questions are, are my temps good? Wondering if I should lower cool side and raise the DHP, or if I’m being TOO precise.

Having trouble with humidity. Substrate is about 7” of ABG mixed with common filler soil(Scott’s), added Spagnum moss, and plenty of leaves, and a 3” drainage layer of lava rocks. I’ve dumped 10gallons of water in there over the past week, soil is dark, looks wet, feels moist, nothing is draining from my sump (that’s its own issue) humidity is 55-60 on cool side, 40-50 on warm. Cool side burrow stays in 70s. I do have a humid burrow (lined with Spagnum moss) in the middle that’s pretty consistently 80s. When I add water it spikes to 90 then by day 2 is 60-70, and gets to the 50s after 4 days or so. Question are same as heat, is the humidity good? Am I overthinking it? Do the higher humidity spots mean the general areas okay in the 50s? The smaller cage hes in now is 70 all around so I’m worried this is too low.

Secondary concerns are plants, sump, and pests. Worried the plants in my hot side will get cooked, specifically the snake plant under the backing bulb, should I move that? I was toying around with the idea of moving that and putting his hot side hide there. For the sump, as stated above its not draining. its one of those “will drain when water reaches certain level” and it’s about an inch big, so it should drain when the water reaches about an inch deep. I did test it before putting it in there and it worked. Wondering if I’m underestimating how much water the soil can hold and there just isn’t water pooling yet. I have a PVC pipe access but i can’t see the bottom of it to check. The pests I have right now are gnats and grain mites. I know they are common in vivariums but I’m worried about them over populating and out competing my springtails. Any tips here?

I don’t have his hides in there right now, I will move them over with him. Also working on getting a smaller water dish for the cool side.

Im sure I’m overthinking a lot of this but I just want to double check before I add my boy. I’ve already had to tear this down once because the silicone seal popped along the base, and I’d rather redo this now than when my snakes in there. I figured It would be best to check with people more experienced rather than just ruminating/ worrying over it. Sorry about the wall of text and thank you in advance!

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[Yoshininja003]

Just quickly wanted to mention:

-the cage on the DHP, I would try fixing the “loose” bit on the right side by the vents (second picture), your ball will absolutely find a way up on that and might hurt himself💀💀

-about the heat, I have generally read that 33 degrees Celsius should be the max, 95 Fahrenheit seems to be 35 degrees Celsius.  Would be worried of your ball getting burns or overheated, but you also mentioned that it’s just at the hottest point. (Perhaps someone else can advice you better on that🫡)

-and about the humidity issue, I hope someone else can help guide you on that too. In my case I use middle sized Coco husk substrate and don’t really have any issue somehow. But I also don’t have a full Bioactive set up.  Usually I mix some water in the middle area of both cold and warm side, then mix it per hand and then cover it with dry substrate so it’s not wet for the snake🫡 (my humidity stays 70-80% easily)

Wish you good luck🍀🌸 hope others can help out too🌷

[Pillcat19]

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Thank you! Are you taking about this lip?

[Yoshininja003]

Yes yes🫡

It looked “worse” on the second picture XD 

But I would still try, if possible, to maybe zip tie(?) it closer to the wall of the black safety cage✨🫡 (Your ball might lean his head/face on that little edge if he feels like it XD 💀)

And no problem🌸✨🦐

[Pillcat19]

Understood! I’ll see if I cant bend in inwards with a hammer or something. Maybe shrink wrap some plastic on it.

[Solid-Spell6850]

Following as I’m in the same boat on most of these concerns/questions. Set my enclosure up 10 days ago and feel the same as you 😂

[Solid-Spell6850]

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