A Simple, Inexpensive, Reliable incubator

[John_White]

Here's a simple, inexpensive, reliable incubator that I've used for many years. Start with a fairly large aquarium, I mainly use a 75 gal aquarium fill to 3/4 with water. A submersible aquarium heater is set to the desired temperature and placed on the bottom of the aquarium. The size of aquarium (volume of water) will determine the size of the heater used. If I remember correctly, a 100 Watt heater is sufficient for a 30 gallon aquarium. Be careful not to use a high Wattage heater in a small volume of water as this will cause large swings in the temperature as the heater cuts on then quickly over-heats and cuts off. Next fill the plastic shoe or sweater boxes with 2-3" of moistened vermiculite and floated them in the aquarium. The probe from a digital thermometer is inserted in to the moistened vermiculite within the shoe/sweater boxes. Monitor the temps for at least a week before eggs are due to arrive. Check the aquarium water level every few days as it will evaporate (this also helps to keep the eggs hydrated). Another advantage of this incubator is its large thermal mass, one can lose power for several hours and the incubator temperature with only drop a couple degrees.

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[haroldo359]

good tip John!

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[thetupak]

very cool info

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[Ed_r]

Very cool!

Only hard part is finding a herper with that size tank that actually holds water.

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[natas]

you mind if I put this in the How-To section?

Also if anyone is wanting to do this, do yourself a favor and buy one of the titanium heaters. They cost a little more, but do not shatter like the glass ones

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[haroldo359]

another good tip natas. thanks.

	Shane The Man, The Myth, The Mystery that is RTB!!!

[John_White]

Originally Posted by natas

you mind if I put this in the How-To section?

Also if anyone is wanting to do this, do yourself a favor and buy one of the titanium heaters. They cost a little more, but do not shatter like the glass ones

Feel free to use the information in the how-to section.

A titanium heater is unnecessary in my opinion. Once the incubator is set-up there's little chance of breaking the heater sitting on the bottom of the tank. During the past 20 years I've never broken a glass heater in the incubator. Titanium heaters are great for turtle, crocodilian or other large semi-aquatic or aquatic animal enclosures. Of course one has to make sure that the power cord is protected.

If anyone is interested I can post the plans for my home-made heat exchanger? In short, it allows one to heat the water without bring power into the enclosure.

	Shane The Man, The Myth, The Mystery that is RTB!!!

[thetupak]

I'd like to see that

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