No higher than 88.3 not sure what to do.

Ive got a heating pad on high, no substraight, just to see how hot the bottom would get righ tover the heating pad.Im using a digital hydrometer/thermometer put the sensor right on the plastic. I took the heating pad out of the cloth sleeve it comes in, in order to get more heat and the highest reading I get is 88.3 degrees. Any ideas what I should do? Repti-therm maybe?

Sounds like you have a backup heat source there. I would definitely look into a Repti-therm or other brand UTH or a different brand of heat pad. Alternatively, you could use a light to boost daytime temps and let that be your night temp, as long as the cool side isn't too cool. Adding a light will drop your humidity, though, so you'll need to plan a way to address that.

By taping the heating pad to the bottom Im reading 97.7 degrees right on the bottom, again no substraight. Is that about right? :o

97.7 sounds a little high, can you turn down the heating pad?

Are you planning on using a substrate? If so, I would just put the substrate in there and then monitor, so you aren't trying to get a reading with no substrate. Adding substrate will decrease that number.

Jennifer