I recently picked up some coconut substrate (Prococo Chips-N-Fiber) to try at a show. I've been using paper, but kept having issues with it getting soaked every night either by urine or by her pushing a corner of the paper into the water dish. I wanted to try an absorbent substrate so I don't have to take her out and tear down every time she urinates.

I soaked the coconut and then left it to dry out for a day. I should have waited longer, I'm having issues with the humidity being too high, but I expect that to get better with time.

My question is about heating - I have ~1" of coconut in the cage (boaphile 322), and I'm having trouble keeping the temps up without having the floor of the cage too hot. Right now I've got the thermostat set so I am reading about 96F max on the cage floor, but the substrate above the heat pad is only reaching the high seventies according to my IR thermometer. The cold side air temp has also dropped, it's now down around 74 instead of 79. Temps and humidity were great before the coconut, I just didn't like having to tear the whole thing down every day when it got wet. Will the temps improve once the moisture level drops? I imagine the evaporation is helping a bit to keep things cool.

Thanks for any suggestions!