New Ball Owner with a few questions

[Daniel Dow]

Alright, so ive been spending a few weeks trying to get temps just right as my house gets a little cold in the winter, and I dont wanna take a new ball into a freezing environment. I have a very deep tank but it was all I had, its a large 55 gallon glass tank, that was once an aquarium, I sanitized it very well. But its hard to keep the ambient temperature right. I can keep the warm side at a proper temperature, currently about 85-90 during the day, but the cool side says its only around 75, is that acceptable? or if not, what should I do to raise that? I currently use a heat lamp, infa red bulb at night, 100 watt during the day, but im thinking about just using the infa red bulb all the time and letting the ambient light in my room control its light dark cycle. I am still very nervous, as I want to make sure its as happy as it can be . And as it should be it hides alot during the day and it is its third night with me, and it is wide awake around 1 am, it is pacing the tank quite frequently and flickering its tongue quite often, could it be hungry and in hunt mode already? Or is he still just learning his surroundings? any advice would be much appreciated thank you

[Daniel Dow]

After more reading ive read that maybe I should use two UTHs? and two seperate thermostats? would that be the best method to obtain optimum heating levels? and use the infared as an ambient heat control?

I also forgot to mention in the first post that I use a zoomed UTH with a thermostat of course

[PitOnTheProwl]

Yes, a hot and cold side t-stat would help with your problems a lot.
They are nocturnal so it's sleep patterns are about right.
Also, what is your humidity level in your 55?

[Daniel Dow]

Overall the humidity is about 55, it is a little closer to low 50s on the basking side and probably around 58 on the cool side where is water dish is at

[Brstin2flames]

I would definitely use two UTH's. Thats how i have my 30 gal tank setup and it works great. I have them on two separate thermostats to control hot and cold side and occasionally when the ambient temps get low I use an infared bulb. Good luck!

[FatBoy]

I would suggest using the money you were going to spend on a 2nd t-stat and buy a 20g tank. 55 is too big for a bp. You can set up a 20 and keep your temps and humidity under control a lot better.