55gal Aquarium Conversion

I just bought a 55gal aquarium off of craigslist for $35. I am planning on using it for my BP once he grows out of the 10gal I use for him now. It's really tall and narrow. I saw the plan someone on here made where you flip it on it's side and make a plexiglass hinged door, but then the top would be made of glass that doesn't work well with a heat lamp. My room is over the garage and has horrible insulation, so in winter and fall, it's freezing. A UTH is just not enough. Is there a way I could somehow make it so once it's flipped on it's side, it could have some kind of way for a heat lamp to work with it? Either build a screen top for it, or drill a hole for a wire to go through so a heat lamp could hang from the inside top? (Then I'd have to figure out how to make something to block it off from my snake so he can't burn himself). Any ideas? I'm pretty illiterate with building stuff, so the more simple, the better.
Or, should I just keep it tall and narrow, standing up the way it's supposed to go?

WHile it is cool you got a good deal, it seems that is not the optimal enclosure. Especially since you may have trouble with temps.

i also have a cold room and i have my 4 foot ball in a 75 gallon tank i worried about heat. never put a heating bulbs in tank, what i did was make a tank lid out of wood so heats traps better and made vents out screen for venting and to put my heat lamps on them, i would try that

my house is cold, between 65-70 BUT my room also has 3 tanks going so this may not work for you. I simply use a 150 wat heat bulb. works perfect, the humidity is low but she has a perfect shed every time. Use the UTH and then add maybe a 75 wat bulb to make a basking temp and go off of that.

The real problem is we can't be much help... As much as we try we all have different living condition and that is what effects us the most.

Thanks for the advice everyone :) I'll see what I can do. It's no rush since my ball is still a juvenile and will be in his 10gal for a while. I also have a 29gal (currently housing fresh water fish) that I can use once he gets bigger and my fish go bye bye lol.

A heat lamp will still heat the ambient temps up a little, so I would try that at first. I have a little bitty space heater I got at wal-mart that I put by my tank to help keep the area warm, and it works like a charm.

I did one of the side turned tank DIY here. It might take a bit of playing with it but I found that a insulated the sides and adding a flourscent light inside the tank (hot melt glue) and a mood light (transformed LED) went a huge way to hold ambient air temps. I added a second UTH to the cool side (and tstat) in case it got really cold over night but it is rarely on at all. It is running 20ºF over the room temp. (Ambient temps, 60-65º room and 80-85º enclosure) Every set up and room is different so one personas solution may not work for the next but this has worked for me. Cool rooms present quite a challenge for sure. I have never had a tub by itself hold proper temps in a room this cool the temps are always too low.