Need help with wine fridge incubator

[euphuistical]

So my parents' wine fridge broke in the move. The seals are fine, it just doesn't run any more so I've started to convert it in to an incubator. I want to get the maximum space out of it and I need advice on the placement of the fan and power strip.

Here are two pics of the inside:





Just to check how it held temps I put the heat tape at the top, I really don't know a good place for it. And I also don't know how much to use. I have 3 1 foot pieces and 1 18inch piece. I think the 1 foot piece would be enough.

Should I use the racks? With the racks I can fit in 5-6 shoebox sized tubs (the 6th depends if it would be too close to the heat tape).

So, please give me any suggestion on where to place the heat tape and the fan. I am also debating on using the shelves or not. I could probably fit 6 or 7 (maybe even 8, I don't have enough boxes on hand to check at the moment) if I just stacked the tubs on top of each other. Is there a down side to that?

I guess I am also confused about some other things. I was planning on just going substrateless and use the lighting grate and fill the bottom with enough water so it would be just below the eggs and not touching them and then humidity wouldn't really be an issue. Do I have to open them up to provide air on a regular basis?

Is it basically one clutch to a tub or can I put multiple clutches in one tub?

[zombieon3rd]

Only a suggestion, But I would run the heat tape down the back, Top to bottom. Then mount the fan at the top. Keeping all of your wires feeding thru one hole. Glad to see what you have so far. Thanks for sharing the photos. Great job on not waiting to the last second.

[euphuistical]

Only a suggestion, But I would run the heat tape down the back, Top to bottom. Then mount the fan at the top. Keeping all of your wires feeding thru one hole. Glad to see what you have so far. Thanks for sharing the photos. Great job on not waiting to the last second.

Ya think down the back on the top spot or sort of going over that hump in the middle?

Also need my question about number of eggs to shoebox question resolved.

Thanks

[Oxylepy]

! clutch per shoebox. And have boxes large enough to house varying sizes. Don't try and separate the eggs, leave them as one big group.

[euphuistical]

And what about stacking the bins? Or should I use the shelves?


Also, when going substrateless if a bit of water happens to slosh up on the eggs is that very dangerous? I could see it happening when I burp the tubs each week and needed to move or rotate them for some reason.

[twistedtails]

I use the ziplock tubs and they work perfect! I use the equal parts vermiculite to water by weight and that in combination with the ziplock tubs has proved to be a great method. As for the incubator I would use at the very LEAST 2 foot of the 11". You could run it down the back and on the top also(I myself would try and get 3 foot in there). It is easier to control hotter temps in the incubator than it is to heat it with the lack of power(you will over work your heat tape, and that is not risk that I would like to take personally). Hope this helps you.

[euphuistical]

I use the ziplock tubs and they work perfect! I use the equal parts vermiculite to water by weight and that in combination with the ziplock tubs has proved to be a great method. As for the incubator I would use at the very LEAST 2 foot of the 11". You could run it down the back and on the top also(I myself would try and get 3 foot in there). It is easier to control hotter temps in the incubator than it is to heat it with the lack of power(you will over work your heat tape, and that is not risk that I would like to take personally). Hope this helps you.

The 1 foot of 11in has been holding the temp just fine. I'll probably change to the 18in just to be safe when I am actually expecting eggs. And yeah I am going to run it down the back and top (about 6in on the top 12 on the back I think) and glue the fan on the side near the top. Sound like a good idea?

[twistedtails]

The 1 foot of 11in has been holding the temp just fine. I'll probably change to the 18in just to be safe when I am actually expecting eggs. And yeah I am going to run it down the back and top (about 6in on the top 12 on the back I think) and glue the fan on the side near the top. Sound like a good idea?

Sounds good. One thing to keep in mind is the fact that the back of the fan needs to be off the wall of the fridge so it can work efficiently.

[Watever]

I get my information from someone who have been in the field for over 30 years.

For pythons eggs you need to have a 90F temperature, if room temp is around 70, that mean a delta of 20F.

To achieve that, you need 10-15 Watts for each cubic feet.

Your wine fridge looks like a 3.6 cu. f, isn't it ?

Meaning you should need between 36-54 Watts to heat it.

Knowing that flexwatt is 20 Watts per feet for a 11'' and the 4'' is 8 watts per feet.

if you use a 11'' : 1.8-2.7 feet should do the job. So a 2 feet should be good I think.
If you use a 4'' : 4.5-6.75 feet should do the job. So a 5-6 feet should be good I think.

You can also do a combination of both, there is no problem in that I think.

One last thing : DO NOT USE MORE FLEXWATT THAN NECESSARY. If you go over the 15 watts of flexwatt, it can be DEADLY if you have a malfunction. Using too much of tape will create overshoot, meaning a bigger error margin in temperature fluctuation. And if your thermostat break and just keep heating, you take the risk of COOKING your eggs. While if you have a bit less, the temperature won't sky rock as much. But you also need enough to achieve the desired temperature all the time.

[takagari]

! clutch per shoebox. And have boxes large enough to house varying sizes. Don't try and separate the eggs, leave them as one big group.

This is personal opinion. I know of many breeders who seperate.

if you catch the clutch on the day of laying, separating them is fine, any longer though and leave them as is. just do not rotate them. Err.. I remember hearing not to rotate the eggs but i'm not sure how much merit that holds. I do believe someone on here tried it one time, do not remember the result.


Shawn