Right now, I have the ZooMed UTH stuck on to the bottom of my glass tank. Between the tank and the UTH, i stuck the herpSTAT probe. The Herpstat temperature on screen reads 92.3 (meaning the UTH is at 92.3 F)

I have the thermoMETER probe hot glued to the inside of the tank, dead center of the UTH. I then spread a 1.5" coat of Exo Terra Plantation Soil (coco-husks) over the bottom & placed a hide over the hot spot. The thermoMETER probe is reading 88.3 and the whole setup has been running almost an hour.

The thermoMETER readings dont seem to be going any higher, staying at 88.2-88.4

What should I do ? I want 90-92 F on the warm side above the UTH, should I use the infrared heat lamp that I have to level off the temps ? Damn I thought the UTH would be enough to heat up the warm side, leaving the infrared to control ambient temps.

Also, a question about Safety.. How thick does the layer of substrate have to be in order for your snake NOT to get any burns ? I have around 1.5" layer of coco-husk all around and its pretty moist stuff. Will this do?