Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Suboc-worthy rack units
A few months ago, I ordered several racks from Vision Herpetological. These cages have a genius design...period. They were designed with ardent creativity to maximize the efficiency and minimize cost of the set up...and Vision executed their "vision" without cutting any corners on quality whatsoever. Heating is simple. Ventilation is simple. The entire rack is light and easy to maneuver. A new rack can be assembled within minutes straight out of the box. My wife even assembled one in about 25 mins. :)
On the larger adult racks like the CB70s, there is about a 3/4 cm space (rough estimate) between the top of the tub and the ceiling panel. This leaves plenty of space for ventilation around the entire rim of the tub, and each ceiling panel is perforated. Judging by the rapidity by which the water bowls evaporate in these set ups, Vision racks seem adequately ventilated for Trans-Pecos Ratsnakes. If desired, Scott at Vision can actually custom-tailor the racks (for ventilation-needy species such as subocs) to leave an even wider gap between the tubs' rims and each ceiling panel.
Now heating a Vision rack takes the cake. Each ceiling/floor panel has grooves manufactured into the topside of each panel, where you can fit a desired length of Zoo Med Heat Cable. You can use as much or as little heat cable per level as desired. And here's the kicker...you only need one Zoo Med Heat Cable to heat an entire rack. No more heat tape. No more costly heat panels per level.
Now if Zoo Med came up with a Heat Cable that had a built-in rheostat like some of their heat pads, then I would consider these cables perfect.
All racks come with casters for wheel maneuvering, and they also come with a heat cable. Side guides snap into place easy and enable the tubs to glide in and out easily without any turning. And each rack can fit through a doorway.
The bottom line is that these racks are simply a joy to assemble and to use. We keep our hatchling subocs in Vision Table Top Hatchling racks, our 2 year olds in 32 quart Vision racks, and our adults over 3 years of age in CB70 racks. If you keep and/or breed subocs, we advise you to do the same.
# posted by Dusty Rhoads @ 6:04 PM 
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Nice to see you give the thumbs up to these racks. I was planning on getting some at the reptile show here next year but was not sure if I'd have to do some ventilation modifications to the tubs for the TPRS's. Sounds like they are good to go from you said though so thats one less thing for me to worry about. Glad tto here these racks are living up to the reputation.
# posted by 
: Saturday, December 30, 2006 12:58:00 AM
: Saturday, December 30, 2006 12:58:00 AM
Hey Sean,
The only modifications I made were some holes that I drilled into the hatchling tubs with a Dremel tool.
The hatchling tubs fit more snugly into the rack, and rightly so, since you wouldn't want a big space between the rim and the ceiling pannel.
It may turn out that I'll need to drill a few holes into the adult racks, but not many if any. I'll just have to closely monitor the animals and the ventilation to make sure that there are zero signs of stagnant air. When in doubt, it's best to drill holes and turn on the fan. Err on the side of dry and super-ventilated.
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The only modifications I made were some holes that I drilled into the hatchling tubs with a Dremel tool.
The hatchling tubs fit more snugly into the rack, and rightly so, since you wouldn't want a big space between the rim and the ceiling pannel.
It may turn out that I'll need to drill a few holes into the adult racks, but not many if any. I'll just have to closely monitor the animals and the ventilation to make sure that there are zero signs of stagnant air. When in doubt, it's best to drill holes and turn on the fan. Err on the side of dry and super-ventilated.
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