Need advice on incubation set up

[Darthroastcoffee]

That’s a good idiea maybe I’ll get a couple large soft freeze/heat packs and lay them in the bottom. I set the cooling differential 2 degrees so when the heat tape kicks off it levels out 1 degree higher then my set temp so I lowered the set temperature 1 degree to make up for it. It’s stabilizing it’s holding temperature pretty good

 

[dshuld]

That’s a good idiea maybe I’ll get a couple large soft freeze/heat packs and lay them in the bottom. I set the cooling differential 2 degrees so when the heat tape kicks off it levels out 1 degree higher then my set temp so I lowered the set temperature 1 degree to make up for it. It’s stabilizing it’s holding temperature pretty good

Awesome, didn't take long to dial it in pretty dang close then lol.

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

It’s a perfect set up so far I’m goin to let it go for 24 hours and watch the temperature fluxes and if there pretty stable I think I will call it a success!! thank you so much for the help and info that inkbird!!! Priceless thank you for telling me about that!. Now it’s up to egg care luckily I’ve had a lot of discussions and help from @MattVanillaGorilla can’t say how much it helps talking to people that really have a passion and good understanding on chameleons

 

[dshuld]

It’s a perfect set up so far I’m goin to let it go for 24 hours and watch the temperature fluxes and if there pretty stable I think I will call it a success!! thank you so much for the help and info that inkbird!!! Priceless thank you for telling me about that!. Now it’s up to egg care luckily I’ve had a lot of discussions and help from @MattVanillaGorilla can’t say how much it helps talking to people that really have a passion and good understanding on chameleons

You're very welcome. I couldn't agree more either. I love it when we can all learn and share from and with each other like this. It makes all of our collective hard work with these mesmerizing little beings that much more rewarding lol.

 

[Curlytails]

ok so people love to play with the thermostat in my house temps are all over. But my garage is the coldest spot in my house I’ve checked and it stays around 78 in cold spots I want to set up an incubator for my panther chameleon eggs when my female is ready but I don’t have a spot that stays low enough and on hot days the temps are high and that’s no good for eggs as far as I know incubators heat not cool. So I was thinking about taking my mini fridge and putting a thermostat on the plug to keep it at a certain temperature and keeping the incubator in the mini fridge set at the exact temp. I was also thinking if the temp stays low enough in the mini fridge it would keep away bacteria but I’m afraid if the incubator gives out and I don’t catch it the eggs will get a drastic temperature drop witch is a scary thought but I don’t want my eggs to over heat that’s the hole point of the mini fridge. If anyone has any ideas or can point out any flaws please comment I’ve just been brain storming ideas to maintain temps.

is this a diy incubator you are talking about?

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

is this a diy incubator you are talking about?

Yes

 

[Curlytails]

Yes

get one of these. easiest way to control temp. also pierce water bottles with a thumb tack and put em in. it worked with my relatives gecko breeding incubator. i dont see why this combo wont work here

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

One of what? Also @dshuld I’m still trying to mess with the temps it constantly fluctuates 3 degrees I have it set at 71 it heats up then hits 72 then kicks on the fridge and it starts getting colder and colder it don’t shut off until exactly 71 by then it’s still got cold liquid going through and it drops it down to 69.4 the heat tape don’t kick on until 70 degrees. I put a dimmer on the heat tape and set it to the minimum to try to prevent it from heating to quick because it don’t kick of until exactly 71 degrees by then it’s still heating and drives the temp back up to 72.3 and it just keeps repeating that cycle I even put a small fan in to cycle the air it has to be 1 degree on the heating and cooling deferential I can 0 it out and it don’t self balance

 

[Curlytails]

my bad... i forgot to add the image

 

[Curlytails]

my bad... i forgot to add the image

its a dimming thermostat which constantly adjusts the temp. i have one hooked up to my current chameleon cage and i have had 0 problems. quite cheap too.

 

[dshuld]

my bad... i forgot to add the image

its a dimming thermostat which constantly adjusts the temp. i have one hooked up to my current chameleon cage and i have had 0 problems. quite cheap too.

Problem with that is darth needs cooling more then heating in his situation.

 

[dshuld]

One of what? Also @dshuld I’m still trying to mess with the temps it constantly fluctuates 3 degrees I have it set at 71 it heats up then hits 72 then kicks on the fridge and it starts getting colder and colder it don’t shut off until exactly 71 by then it’s still got cold liquid going through and it drops it down to 69.4 the heat tape don’t kick on until 70 degrees. I put a dimmer on the heat tape and set it to the minimum to try to prevent it from heating to quick because it don’t kick of until exactly 71 degrees by then it’s still heating and drives the temp back up to 72.3 and it just keeps repeating that cycle I even put a small fan in to cycle the air it has to be 1 degree on the heating and cooling deferential I can 0 it out and it don’t self balance

Have you put the water bottles/ soft packs in too?

 

[Curlytails]

you can always hot wire a pc fan to the thermostat

 

[Curlytails]

you can always hot wire a pc fan to the thermostat

not too hard to do. you just need a mains to 5v power adapter from an old phone and a soldering iron. then its just plug and play

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

I put in a constant running small desk fan I didn’t get a chance to run out today so no heat packs but I do have a large bucket of water at the bottom sitting on the heat tape

 

[Curlytails]

I put in a constant running small desk fan I didn’t get a chance to run out today so no heat packs but I do have a large bucket of water at the bottom sitting on the heat tape

if a fan is constantly running it can fluctuate temps too much. be careful

 

[dshuld]

you can always hot wire a pc fan to the thermostat

It's more a matter of stabilizing the temp at this point then anything though. Darth has the inkbird itc-308 for heating and cooling controls. We had discussed the water bottles and pc fans last night to try and stabilize it.

The mini fridge in use isn't like one I've seen used before for this though. With the cooling lines in the chamber rather then in the case it's throwing a curve ball into it lol.

A thought beyond what we had talked about before...

Home depot sells a 2x2 r5 rated insulation panel fairly cheap, $6 here, may need to "shield" the cooling lines in the separator to help slow the cooling down a tad.

 

[dshuld]

Getting anywhere stabilizing temps?

 

[Curlytails]

i dont know if this will help but i found a cooling thermostat for terrarium fans. i can put up the link if you want...

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

I got it all worked out the cycle is 11 mins from 74 - 72 in 11 mins the container stayes at a constant 73 small up and down but it don’t leave 73 I got a second temp probe on it everything is working great. As of now I’m incubating 4 perfect nosy be eggs from @Matt Vanilla Gorilla .!! Everything is going good waiting for my females now to lay some of there own!!!