I'm hoping I can get some help here....we purchased a baby ball python two days ago from what we thought was a good store....seemed knowledgable, etc. We read alot on the net prior to making the purchase so we thought we kinda knew what we were doing. We were told that the python is approximately 6 months old. We purchased a 10 gallon aquarium, screen, 8 watt under the tank heating pad thing, hiding logs, water dish, and I believe cypress bark (the dark stuff), a crappy temp gauge - actually have two now....one of those strip things and one is a dial looking one. We were told at the time of purchase that we did not need a humidity gauge or a heat lamp...that the heat pad would work just fine. Got the snake home...set up the tank....realized that the pad was not working very well....is that normal? First night...it was approx. 73 degrees on the warm side and God only knows on the cool side. SOOOO...went to another store to purchase a heat lamp....the person there told us that the heat pads really don't work well so we're getting even more confused. Got the heat lamp and two bulbs - both 75 watts - one is a infrared and the other just regular lighting. We were able to heat up the warm side to approx. 92 degrees but the cool side remains at approx. 76 degrees or so. And now after reading the forums....I'm becoming concerned and really don't know where to go for answers since we've lost some faith in the place where we bought it. The snake seems to be doing okay....still hiding the majority of the time but seems 100% happier since we got the light. Any advice you all could give us would be great....
1. How can we get the temps up to what they need to be based on the tank we have, etc
2. What additional supplies should we buy if necessary?
3. Do we need a humidity gauge? Do we need to mist the tank due to the lamp?
We are looking for some sort of direction here....we want our snake to be happy so any advice, tips, secrets, etc. you may have for a new snake owner would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Thanks in advance