Ideas?

Maby I should have not listend to him based on the fact that they misinformed me about fish on several occasions. oh well I guss Ill ebay the heatlamp and get a heater. before I purchesed it I did read on several places on the internet that said to use one to heat a bp's cage. and yes im going to provide 3 hiding places and branch to climb on just in case my snake gets the desire.

I guess Ill rip out that mesh and use some plexiglass and paint the wood black. thanks for the help.

Hang on to the heat lamp until after you get the UTH and get everything set up and tested. It's possible that the UTH may heat up the warm side enough, but the cool side is too cold, etc. With my current setup, I have to use a lamp to warm the cool side, even with a UTH/t-stat on the warm side. (And my tank is about 1/2 the size of yours)