Dubia Colony rebirth!

[nahuelarg86]

Special heat reflective tape used instead of regular clear packing tape-

WHERE did you find this? I have called my local hardware store and lowes and they have never heard of it nor do they know who would sell it.

I would like to use this idea but I have no idea where to get it.

It's also called foil tape, Home Depot has some varieties, here is a link:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100030120/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[Cowabunga]

Special heat reflective tape used instead of regular clear packing tape-

WHERE did you find this? I have called my local hardware store and lowes and they have never heard of it nor do they know who would sell it.

I would like to use this idea but I have no idea where to get it.

It's also called foil tape, Home Depot has some varieties, here is a link:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100030120/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Its not basic foil tape.

This is reflective tape that's actually different. If this isn't available at your local HD then it'd need to find an HVAC specialty store. I'm an engineer for a large sheetmetal/plumbing/fabrication company (union) Either way as I mentioned in my previous post that regular foil tape will be cheaper and be somewhat similar in performance. (close enough) The foil tape however will be a lot more fragile and I have seen the babies cling to foil tape after it has weather and lost its sheen.

 

[nahuelarg86]

Its not basic foil tape.

This is reflective tape that's actually different. If this isn't available at your local HD then it'd need to find an HVAC specialty store. I'm an engineer for a large sheetmetal/plumbing/fabrication company (union) Either way as I mentioned in my previous post that regular foil tape will be cheaper and be somewhat similar in performance. (close enough) The foil tape however will be a lot more fragile and I have seen the babies cling to foil tape after it has weather and lost its sheen.

Sorry, I thought they were the same. Do you know what is the difference?

 

[Cowabunga]

Its not basic foil tape.

This is reflective tape that's actually different. If this isn't available at your local HD then it'd need to find an HVAC specialty store. I'm an engineer for a large sheetmetal/plumbing/fabrication company (union) Either way as I mentioned in my previous post that regular foil tape will be cheaper and be somewhat similar in performance. (close enough) The foil tape however will be a lot more fragile and I have seen the babies cling to foil tape after it has weather and lost its sheen.

Sorry, I thought they were the same. Do you know what is the difference?

Foil tape literally is like foil with stickback to some degree. This stuff has a plastic covering and the foil is highly reflective. Its used to seal the insides of duct work seams in rare occasions and sometimes used on the outside (Types with no writing). Most commonly its used for wrapping flex. Its a hell of a lot stronger and naturally the coated that it has makes is smoother than even packaging tape. Dubia touch this stuff and they faint nad fall to the bottom of the bin. :lol: It's not magical stuff or anything but its pretty awesome for what it is. Due to my occupation I have never had to pay for the tape or find it so I am not even sure if I can actually say HD/Lowes wont have it or something similar. Just whatever you do, don't get the regular stuff because I have seen them climb it plus if you rub against it a lot it will scratch and or peel off. The scratches alone will allow even the adults to climb at that point.

 

[nahuelarg86]

Ok, I think I found it:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&productId=100575721&R=100575721

It's the same code as the tape in your pic, UL181B-FX

 

[Cowabunga]

Ok, I think I found it:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&productId=100575721&R=100575721

It's the same code as the tape in your pic, UL181B-FX

That could very well be an alternative. Good searchin'... I doubt there is much difference in brands. I personally use 'VentureTape' brand and the second most popular is 'ShureTape' and the Venture is definitely a higher quality but for what we are using it for on these bins it doesn't really matter. (As you cans ee, this type of tape has a lot of attractive attributes just from that description alone to name a few) As long as its tough and will hold up to mild abrasion it will do the trick. A lot of products are the same anyways and re-branded so ya never know.

 

[Cowabunga]

Ok so now that I have a good amount of dubia nymphs (10s of thousands) and wont have any issues feeding off of them with my 5 dragons I decided to finish off the bin with flexwatt and temperature regulate it so that I can grow some of these bad boys a bit faster. (I kept it in the 75-80 rang which is slight above room temp. Some times it'd get warmer but never colder.)

Here's how I cut the flexiwatt to use.

Picks of the breeder bin comin soon. Been setting up my vivs for my new beardies so I've been busy.

 

[nahuelarg86]

Can I ask where dis you get the felxwatt?

 

[Cowabunga]

Can I ask where dis you get the felxwatt?

THE BEAN FARM

One of the best prices I found and they allow you to order by the foot with no minimum. I got 3 feet of 11" wide 20 watt tape (the hottest tape) I used about 30" for the big colony tube and 6 for this one. None of my other bins have heat because I want them to stay their sizes as long as possible..

 

[klm15975]

The heating setup is heat wire wrapped and insulated. It keeps the bin at perfect temps over all so it's pretty simple... I'll eventually use it to line the bottom of a rock for the 2 smaller bins and I'll use heat tape for the big bin.
Pretty simple I suppose :lol:

Maybe for you. Where would you recommend someone get heat wire and the other stuff from? I'm interested in heating my bin similar to the way you have. My old heating pad is going out and the new ones automatically shut off after 2 hours :?
Not sure if the flexwatt would work. Thanks!
Enjoying the thread and looking forward to pictures of your babies when you find time.

 

[Cowabunga]

The heating setup is heat wire wrapped and insulated. It keeps the bin at perfect temps over all so it's pretty simple... I'll eventually use it to line the bottom of a rock for the 2 smaller bins and I'll use heat tape for the big bin.
Pretty simple I suppose :lol:

Maybe for you. Where would you recommend someone get heat wire and the other stuff from? I'm interested in heating my bin similar to the way you have. My old heating pad is going out and the new ones automatically shut off after 2 hours :?
Not sure if the flexwatt would work. Thanks!
Enjoying the thread and looking forward to pictures of your babies when you find time.

I'll actually be posting up a thread for them today some time in the Beardie Tales section, keep an eye out! 8)

As for the heat wire, that stuff can be found at any pet store, or any online pet store (cheaper) and even some where like Amazon (really cheap..) I will be comparing the flexwatt on the big bin hopefully this weekend and I'll be able to let you know which is better. The flex watt is the cleanest route to go by far and the easiest so if it pans out then I'll be happy. Its keeping my feeder bin right around 85 degrees +and its just sitting in the living room by my fire place behind the couch for easy access to the beardies. In a closet environment or in somewhere else in the house (its in cold spot) I don't doubt it could push it over into the consistent 90s. On a flip note though 85 is good enough for breeding and more than enough for the feeders. Over the past few days the size of the roaches in the feeder bin has exploded and there are a ridiculous amount of freshly molted roaches every time you open the bin. I actually had to increase the opening due to the humidity going way high because of the increased heat.

 

[klm15975]

Awesome, I'll keep an eye out for your post.

As for now I just have a few adults < 10 and 500 babies all in the same bin. I have no experience with electrical stuff. Thanks

 

[Cowabunga]

Ok so I finally got a chance to get my 60gallon breeder bin situated...

I started off by cleaning the bin, inside and out as well as taking a razor to any high spots and sharp pieces of 'flash' left over from production.

After that it was time to lay out my Flexwatt-

My favorite HVAC tape.

I had some foam insulation laying around and figured I'd protect the bottom. (I know its suppose to breathe but the foam wont completely suffocate the heat tape..)

Did a little cutting to get it to fit perfectly flush.

Tape time..

While I was at it.. I had a 4'X8' sheet and figured I might as well do the sides..

Right-

Left-

Temp control knob added.

Next up I'll be doing updates on the inside layout. Stay tuned.

 

[Cowabunga]

This tape is AMAZING! At first I wasn't too impressed but it took a little longer for it to heat up but once it did, the tape mixed in with the insulation is crazy. Near the bottom of the bin it is in the low 100s and up top its still in the 80s. This is in one of the colder rooms in my house (needed to test its ability) and nothing else special done to it.

The Flexwatt strip I have is only 50 watts worth MAX and I can turn it down quite a bit to get the numbers I want. (One thing to note is with the heat cable I saw similar temps but only on one side of the bin and that heat cable was 100 watts.. Double the wattage of my heat tape which stretches the entire length of the bin meaning the heat tape uses 1/4th the energy which is a 200% increase in efficiency. Mind you this is a 3ft long bin that is probably 15-18" wide and just as tall... This bin is massive (60gal) That heat tape stretches from one end to the other and is 11" wide. And just as impressive if not more so is the fact that on my feeder bins I see similar temps using a piece of heat tape that is only 11X6" or so menaing its only using 10watts!!!! :shock: My feeder bin BTW is a 20gal Sterilite bin with no insulation on the sides meaning temps could get even better.

Considering the price of a UTH there is absolutely no comparison. That even includes human heat mats which you shouldn't use anyways due to the fact they aren't designed to be on all the time and are an extreme fire hazard. My bins are easy to move and retain their heating setups and its pretty simple. With the insulation on the bottom you can sit it on carpet, cement, wood, linoleum, tile, etc etc and it wont really matter.

_________


Anyways here is the setup in the large bin, I believe it used about 23-25 full sized egg flats to create :shock: Gives you an idea on how massive it is.

Stack up 9-for side one.

Perfect-

Duplicate for the other side-

Then my middle platform-

And there you have it!

Now they get to make lots of omnoms for my babies..

 

[Claudiusx]

Just read through the whole thread,

Was very interesting to read. You sure got a lot of roaches haha

-Brandon