Professional opinion wanted!

I'm a first time snake owner, and I just got my pastel ball python two days ago. He is 2 years old and kind of a big boy. I'd like to have an opinion on weather or not my tank setup is good enough to keep my snake healthy and stress-free. I have him in a 55 gallon tank with two large hides on each end, each hide covers the whole end of the tank so that there is no space behind it or beside it. I have a medium-ish water bowl that's about and inch deep that he can only fit about 3 or 4 inches of the front of his body in, enough for his head to soak or for him to soak his tail to poop in the water if he wants. I have an analog thermometer at each side of the tank at about mid height and an analog hygrometer at mid height right in the middle of the tank (both thermometers and the hygrometer are small ones from zoo med). I'm currently using the eco earth substrate, just enough to lightly cover the bottom of the tank (sometimes the substrate moves and exposes some glass. I have an 8.5" dome clamp lamp that I set right on top of the wire tank with a 100w bulb and on the cool side of the tank I have a smaller dome with a 75w black light bulb (marketed as a nighttime bulb). The bulbs are both right on the mesh screen about 13 inches above the substrate. On the warm side I have a 50-60gallon zoo med heat pad and on the cool side I have a 5-10gallon heat pad under his hide. The large heat lamp, large heat pad, and small heat pad are all plugged into a thermostat which is set to 85 F. The probe for the thermostat is taped on the large heat pad under the tank. My logic for this is that both heat pads heat at the same rate and temp so having the probe on one is ok and the heat lamp is so far above the substrate that it only knocks the temp up an additional 5 F so I plug it into the thermostat so the bulb can take a brake every once in a while (I'm scared about the bulb busting and hurting the snake). The 75w light stays on 24/7 except for when I take the screen off to hold my snake. I try to keep the humidity between 50%-60% by putting a damp towel over the top of the mesh screen, if that doesn't knock it up to sufficient levels, then ill spray the sides of the tank a bunch and then over the substrate and snake just a little bit (he kinda likes it). I want to know if what I'm doing is alright and if not what I should be doing. I don't have much to spend, only about $100 put away for snake food until my b-day. Pictures of tank available upon request. Any help is greatly appreciated, I do love my snake <3 :)

Hello :) sounds like your set up is pretty good but their are some things I would change. I would get rid of the analog thermo/hydrometer because they are very inaccurate and get a digital one. Also the heat lamp and heat pads being plugged into the same thermostat is an issue since the wattages of the heat pad and light bulb are totally different so the thermostat must be struggling to try to regulate a heat pad and light. Also pictures would be a huge help in figuring out anything else that I may have missed. It's late and my brain is just fading away lol. But check out these threads and they should be an even bigger help :)

This one give you a step by step layout on how to set up a glass tank
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-With-Pictures!

This is a good one that will help you keep the humidity in the proper range for your tank
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...tment-Tutorial

I hope this stuff is helpful :D

do you have a recommended thermometer and hygrometer that is reliable?

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Originally Posted by CharlieThePython

do you have a recommended thermometer and hygrometer that is reliable?

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I love this combo!

http://www.hygroset.com/products_detail.asp?ID=577

The Hygrometer on it is adjustable so you can calibrate it yourself and ensure its accurate, I love this one! I think the temperature is good on it too, maybe not the best, no decimal points. But definitely still works.

I also use my herpstat, which has a very accurate temperature probe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CharlieThePython

do you have a recommended thermometer and hygrometer that is reliable?

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Here's a link to the one I use :)

http://mobile.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rit...ype=10&veh=aff

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

Here's a link to the one I use :)http://mobile.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rit...ype=10&veh=aff

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I also use this same one. The probe on my uth or basking areas and the device itself stuck on a suction cup to the side inside my tanks.