Placement and direction of forced air heater for small spider room

I just turned my walk in closet into a spider room, it's about 9 feet by four and a half feet. The deep end of the closet shares a wall with the front of my apartment, so it's a little chillier towards the back. The closet doors are slatted, shutter folding doors, so air readily passes in an out of the closet.

It gets to be about 60 in my apartment during the winter, and sometimes it's almost 5 to 10 degrees colder in the closet because it shares the outside wall.

I bought a little tiny heater with a fan. It has 3 power settings and a minimum maximum dial. I have been warned, and am very aware of the dangers of putting a heater in a small closet spider room. However, on the lowest setting on the lowest power level I think it should be fine. I've got a nice temp and humidity gauge, & I plan on testing it both during the day and at night for a week before I move in the tarantulas.

My question is, do I place the fan just inside the door of the closet blowing in, or place the fan at the back of the closet blowing out?

I use a space heater in my main spider room. It has a thermostat so I can dial in a precise temp. I'd point yours towards the cold wall, which is what I do. Make sure it's not pointing directly at any spider cages. Does it have a fan? I'd put a couple thermometers in there too, at different heights. Temps can be chilly at floor level and where there's less air flow. Normally they can take cooler temps, but premolt and molting spiders may have trouble in the 60's, especially if they're tropical. Slings are more sensitive to cold, plus they molt more often. You want them to keep eating thru the winter, or it'll take a lot longer for them to grow.

Yeah, thanks, I have 2 temp/humidity gauges, one towards the front and lower shelf, and one on the top shelf towards the middle to get the two extremes. The heater does have a fan and I have it on the left side of the closet in the front, underneath the shelves of the tarantulas, but blowing out from underneath them and away from them towards the back right hand corner. Should give a nice "figure eight" draft configuration. But like I said, I'll be checking the temperature at different times of the day and night for the next week before I move the tarantulas.

Poec54 said:

I'd point yours towards the cold wall, which is what I do.

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+1 That's exactly what I would do....good advise poec!

Poec54 said:

I use a space heater in my main spider room. It has a thermostat so I can dial in a precise temp. I'd point yours towards the cold wall, which is what I do. Make sure it's not pointing directly at any spider cages. Does it have a fan? I'd put a couple thermometers in there too, at different heights. Temps can be chilly at floor level and where there's less air flow. Normally they can take cooler temps, but premolt and molting spiders may have trouble in the 60's, especially if they're tropical. Slings are more sensitive to cold, plus they molt more often. You want them to keep eating thru the winter, or it'll take a lot longer for them to grow.

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+1 I know that almost all those space heaters have a built in thermostat /fail safe but you should look into buying a secondary digital thermostat. Set it 2-3% higher than your heaters thermo it could definately save your collection if your heaters thermo fails. Also keep an eye on the humidity/substrate moisture level in your enclosures as heaters speed up evaporation and dry the air.

yoyotits said:

+1 I know that almost all those space heaters have a built in thermostat /fail safe but you should look into buying a secondary digital thermostat. Set it 2-3% higher than your heaters thermo it could definately save your collection if your heaters thermo fails. Also keep an eye on the humidity/substrate moisture level in your enclosures as heaters speed up evaporation and dry the air.

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Good call, I have a spray bottle and an eyedropper to mist and wet the Coco fibre. On my way to the store now to check into one of those secondary thermostats.

Your t's are in a closet, so they almost never have light?

Neoza said:

Your t's are in a closet, so they almost never have light?

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A t has no light requirements. They will thrive in total darkness.

Neoza said:

Your t's are in a closet, so they almost never have light?

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I mentioned in my original post, the closet doors are slatted, shutter style doors that allow light in during the day, as well as heavy air flow or ventilation.

---------- Post added 12-01-2014 at 11:55 PM ----------

cold blood said:

A t has no light requirements. They will thrive in total darkness.

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That's good to know, there's definitely a variance of opinions on arachnoboards. Although sunlight does permeate the room, I was wondering if it was enough. I have the heater on a timer as well as the thermostat, the room drops 5 to 10 degrees at night to reinforce their daily cycle.

Yes indeed, but they need to know its day or night, thats what i red on arachnoboards many times

---------- Post added 12-04-2014 at 12:28 PM ----------

Oh sorry i didnt red it well enough than

Neoza said:

Yes indeed, but they need to know its day or night, thats what i red on arachnoboards many times

---------- Post added 12-04-2014 at 12:28 PM ----------

Oh sorry i didnt red it well enough than

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the slatted shutter style doors allow just enough light for Ts to know it's daytime, not to mention the fact that the heater is on a timer and shuts off at "sunset" and the room gradually drops 10 degrees for the rest of the night, reinforcing the 24 hour cycle.