My tank !

[GarterGuy17]

Well this is how my tank has come along ( missing plants and substrate ) ! Tell me what ya think. Also I have a non florescent bulb and the heat is still not over 85 ( its 85 exactly ) warm side , and about 81 on the cool side does this work ? and tell me what you think :)
3680

[katach]

Looks good so far. I would offer a few more places to hide though. Have you chosen a substrate yet?

[GarterGuy17]

Not really , i'm deciding on substrate tomorrow when I go pick my snake up. I want to know if she likes to burrow before I buy a substrate so I could know which one to get. Actually I was thinking about getting some more things for her to hide Ill just have to check tomorrow.

[guidofatherof5]

Looking good. I would think your cool side should be down in the lower 70's if possible.
This way your snake can do all the Thermoregulating it wants.
Just my opinion.

[GarterGuy17]

See that's the thing though my room's temperature is 80 meaning I have to figure out a way to make my room cold.

[guidofatherof5]

Doesn't sound like lower 70's is going to be possible.
Just run with what you have and see how it goes.
I know my snake like to switch from cool to warm a lot.

[katach]

Most garters love to burrow. We have lots of tunnels in our tank. Even the baby makes little bitty tunnels. I've used paper towel, aspen, and carefresh. Paper towel is really cheap, but needs changed a lot. No option to burrow. They usually end up hiding under the paper towel too. Aspen is nice it lasts a little longer in the tank and it's easy to spot clean. Feeding in the tank is a no no with aspen although if that bad your only option, be really careful. Carefresh is what we are using now. It is really absorbent and the natural colored option is ok to look at. It does tend to get smelly faster though. It is not as bad to feed on, but still needs to be watched carefully. Chantel recently had a loss from a blockage with carefresh. All options are pretty inexpensive. I would try them all and see which you prefer. Another option that is more expensive is reptibark. The chunks are larger and safer to feed on. It can increase your tank humidity though. I don't have experience with reptibark though. I hope this helps a little with your decision making.

[EasternGirl]

The tank looks really good. What is the branch in there though...is that real wood? I would really try to get the temps lower in the cool side...I'm trying to figure out how you can do that. I really think your best option would be a flourescent bulb since they don't give off any heat, considering the temp in your house...I wouldn't want to add any heat from a lamp to your tank. Also..I think Kat is right...a burrowing substrate that the snake can go down under will allow the snake to cool off a bit.

[chris-uk]

Options for cooling the cold side are really limited... Your looking at similar techniques to the ones used to cool high end PCs.
- peltier cooling... I've used it to cool a PC processor, it's pretty energy inefficient and controlling it would be an issue with the stats designed for reptiles. If it goes wrong it would keep cooling and you could potentially end up with a frozen snake. Not sure about the practicality of cooling a large area. Probably expensive to use as well.
- refrigeration... Again I ran a PC with refrigeration, it's noisy, bulky and will cool too much.
- water cooling... Most common way to cool a PC other than standard air cooling. I think this is the first method I would try if I needed to cool. You'd need to work out how to keep the water temperature right because over time it would sit at ambient temperature, there are aquarium coolers which would do the job, but they tend to be a few hundred quid, so not cheap.

[GarterGuy17]

The branch is not real wood I bought it at the best store along with a new thermometer and hygrometer. I thought to see if putting my air conditioner back up in the room will do anything its on high now , I think I would constantly need to have it on though.

[infernalis]

If you use the dog food bowl I suggested, it doubles as a water cooled hide spot. ;)

[EasternGirl]

Well done on the branch because it looks very real...I thought it was real wood.