temperatures and humidity not right

[Starywary]

I am having trouble getting my tank at the proper temp and humidity. I have a uth on one side, and I had a towel covering 2/3 of the tank as I thought it wasn't humid enough. Turns out the temp above the uth ( is it right to put the probe a tiny bit into the substrate?) is way too high, about 97 degrees, and today I got the Accurite thermometer and humidity gauge , and it says that on the cool side it's only 73 degrees but the humidity is 79%!!! I took the towel off the top of the tank, and it went down to about 71% over the course of the day. My gf is putting a dimmer switch on the uth tomorrow so it can be lowered. But how do I get the temp up on the cool side? Do I lower the uth side enough that I can use a light to raise the temp of the whole tank? (seems redundant) or do I actually put a light (as a heat source) on the cool side making sure it doesn't get up too high. I had been using a spray bottle every day in the tank, but apparently I shouldn't be so hopfully after a couple days of not misting it it will get down to about 60%.

[snakesRkewl]

For sure get at least a rheostat/dimmer but preferably a thermostat, rheostats are crap unless your room temperature doesn't go up and down too much.
If the room temperature goes up 5 degrees so does the UTH(on a dimmer).

The uth temp should be read on the glass over the UTH inside the tank.
The hot spot should not go over 95 degrees directly on the glass.
If you set it to 93ish then cover with 1/2 inch to and 1 inch of bedding then your temps should be fine over the hot spot.

For the cool end you probably will need an over-head heat fixture whether that is a light or a ceramic heat emitter depends on you.
That needs to be in the middle of the lid but a little closer to the warm end of the tank so it heats up the warm end a little and the middle of the tank also.
Doing that should also bring your cool end temps up.

In general tanks just suck...

[ballpythonluvr]

For sure get at least a rheostat/dimmer but preferably a thermostat, rheostats are crap unless your room temperature doesn't go up and down too much.
If the room temperature goes up 5 degrees so does the UTH(on a dimmer).

The uth temp should be read on the glass over the UTH inside the tank.
The hot spot should not go over 95 degrees directly on the glass.
If you set it to 93ish then cover with 1/2 inch to and 1 inch of bedding then your temps should be fine over the hot spot.

For the cool end you probably will need an over-head heat fixture whether that is a light or a ceramic heat emitter depends on you.
That needs to be in the middle of the lid but a little closer to the warm end of the tank so it heats up the warm end a little and the middle of the tank also.
Doing that should also bring your cool end temps up.

In general tanks just suck...

All of this is great information. I used to use tanks also until I struggled with temperatures and humidity. I now use a tub for my ball python and I could not be happier. I will never ever use tanks again.

[Starywary]

yeh, I have been seriously considering switching to tubs the past few days. I love the look of tanks, but it's driving me crazy the way the temperature is fluctuating. I used a dome light with basking light ( my night bulb burned out). THe hot side has been between 89-94 and the cooler side 79-87. WAY too much drastic in temps I think. I have read that Balls don't need a night time drop. My gf says that there is always a temp drop at night, especially in the wild, but my thought is, this isn't a wild caught BP. Now that I got the cooler side temp up though, the humidity is out of whack. I have been trying to keep it at 60% with daily misting, but the light seems to be drying out the tank too much, it goes down to as low as 51%. without the light though, it was up to 75%. aghhhh!!!!! I think I need to either get a night bulb that's less wattage so it can stay on all the time and get the damn dimmer put on the UTH, or get another UTH for the other side on a dimmer too but set lower. I do keep a towel over a little more than half the tank to help with humidity, but if it keeps fluctuating too I might have to get a piece of plexiglass or something. Fortunately, he is still feeding super well, and I am going to increase his feeding amount to two adult mice a week, see where we go from there. I found a couple local people on craigslist who breed and sell live or frozen mice and rats thank god. He does great with frozen.