Just brought our new Pastel baby, Leonard, home last night (First time snake owners).





Having trouble keeping the Temp/Humidity up in our 10G Tank. We have a Zoo Med UTH taking up about 1/3 of the left side bottom, controlled by a ReptiTemp 500R. At the max heat setting, it is only getting up to about 85° in the left hide (Didn't know we were supposed to put it on the bottom of the tank), with about 78° on the right side. Ambient room temperature outside the tank is 70°. Humidity is 51%. We need some ideas on how to get heat up.

A couple things we are planning on doing. We are going to get the flexwatt tape (Will buy two feet of the 11" version), hopefully that will put out a little more power. PMed Argentra about the Foil Treatment. Also, we will put foam core along the two sides. We already have a thick background on the back of the tank.



Anything else we can do to bring up the heat a little bit? Here is a pic of the tank. We picked up Leonard at East Bay Vivarium, which is a very highly rated vivarium in the SF Bay Area. They had us use this substrate, which seems to be something like a newspaper mulch. Said it would keep up humidity very well. We have an inch on top of the bottom of the tank. Would it help to take some out?

The one thing I am nervous about. We want to leave him alone for a couple of days, so reaching in there and moving things around now does not seem like the best idea. What would you do?

Thanks for the help,
Brandon