Need Help With Building/Buying Rack Systems

Hello all! We are newer to the reptile breeding scene and we want to ensure a nice and controlled environment for our leopard geckos and ball pythons for optimal health and wellbeing and also breeding excellence! We live in Cincinnati, OH and we are looking for blueprints or someone who is willing to help us with a rack for ball pythons and also leopard geckos! If anyone has any information then please send it our way, it would help out a lot! Thanks!

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Hello and welcome to the forum! You will get plenty of great advice for your ball python and gecko projects! I’m excited for you! All the best and you will love it here because this community is filled with a lot of truly wonderful reptile breeders and keepers! :sunglasses::+1::blush:

And we love pictures! :pray:

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Hello, and welcome to our community forum. Can you give some specifics on size of tubs you will be using and how many levels and what material you would want to use. I am unfamiliar with gecko needs so I’m not sure if they have similar humidity requirements to possibly be housed in the same room as your snakes.

We will definitely try to help once we have a few specifics; there are so many great people here who are also knowledgeable and experienced, I think you came to the right forum to get answers :blush:

Editing to add that every once in a while you can find a great deal on Craigslist or FB.

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For your ball pythons, it can be very easy or extremely complicated. For starters I would go the east way. This is not a rack, but still a nice setup for a smaller number, both cost and animal count.
A standard shelving unit will work. You can use storage container from Target (Ezy storage is waht I like) and either heat tape or pads. You can find pads on Amazon that have a controller attached or you can get heat tape from “the bean farm”, thermostat and everything you need to set it up. This setup will allow you to use different size tubs without having to have several racks for the different sizes you will need.
If looking to build a rack, you will need to know whatt tubs you are going to use and how many. Then it will need to be built around that. And the build can be just like a book shelf frame with devided shelf space for each tub. Both ways you will need the same heat options, you will most likely need to cent the tunds in both options (definitely the first one since you will be using the lids.) this can be done with a 1/4 inch drill bit with holes spaced about an inch apart. The amount of holes will depend on your environment. I would start with fewer and test then add as needed. If you make to many, you can always cover them with tape. The hear source can be secured with tape. Hope this helps some. I do have more info if needed.

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The Bean Farm that @d_y_python Duane mentioned is a great place to buy your heat tape. They sell it in rolls and also in ready to plug in individual heat units, of which I have several.

Also you can use the universal all purpose shelving units from Amazon if you start out small and work your way up. I am a keeper with 21 snakes and about half of them are in tubs on these types of shelving units and they work great for me.

As Duane said, it depends on which way you want to go. :blush:

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Here is a small rack I made with a wire shelving system. I used the Sterilite 15 qt. tub # 1754 for baby boas and the Sterilite 74 qt. tub # 1969 for sub adults and boas about 6 feet long and less than 12 to 15 lbs. The 1754 tub measures 17 inches x 11 inches x 6 - 3/8 inches, and the 1969 tub measures 44 inches x 19 - 3/4 inches x 6 - 3/8 inches. You can fit 8 of the 1969 tubs or 36 of the 1754 tubs on this rack.

Set up like this picture cost me about
$350 with 4 inch X 44 inch flexwatt
on each shelf. I made this in the late 90s, so it’s probably a little more expensive now to make.

I also have 1/4" masonite on each shelf to cover the flexwatt so the tubs don’t set on or rub the flexwatt.

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That looks really nice Tom! I have 2 smaller shelving units similar to that one and they are on wheels as well…

I need to teach myself how to make my own flex watt heat tape units. It would be a whole lot cheaper and I am sure it’s not that difficult to learn how to make them! :blush:

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@caron it’s much safer just to buy it pre made from Reptile Basics. That is what I do. Most of the time, I just buy it from them at the Tinley show when I need it.

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Thank you Tom! Point well taken and I will check out the site you provided! :pray::+1:

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Yup the Ultratherm heat strips are the same as I buy from The Bean Farm. I swear by these strips! I’m going to compare prices……:+1:

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