Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and I have just a couple questions! I recently adopted a pair of young ball pythons from someone who no longer had time for them. Its been about 6 years since I've owned one and I'm a little rusty on my knowledge.
So..first question, I bought a new UTH today because the previous owner had the original one in the middle of the tank. I placed the new one on one side of the tank and purchased a digital thermometer to regulate and keep track of the temperature. The man at the reptile store told me I should place their hide on the side with the UTH and when I had it there, it was reading at 103.4 degrees. I couldn't tell if it was because I had the thermometer placed wrong (the probe was inside the hide so I could keep track of the temperature inside) or the UTH was just too hot. I moved everything around, the hide is now on the cool end and the UTH temperature is now reading about 94.5 degrees. What would be the best way to keep the temperature regulated? The digital thermometer I have only keeps track of the temperature and I'm worried of it getting too warm for them. I've read that the warm side should be between 80-96 degrees. Also, the previous owner gave me a UV light as well, that I really would like to use because the room I have them in isn't well light and I'd like to simulate a 12 hour light / 12 hour dark cycle but when I had that on, it spiked the temperature up pretty drastic. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I want to take them best possible care of them as possible.

Ok, second question. They are being currently housed in a 30 gallon tank. The slightly larger of the two is about a foot and half, almost 2 feet and the smaller is probably a little over a foot, so they are relatively young. I've read several places that they sometimes get stressed out in larger tanks and the guy at the reptile shop said they should be fine in the 30 gallon even at full size. This may be true but even now it seems like it's a little small. I'd like to eventually move them to a larger tank, preferably one that's wider and longer so they have room to stretch out. Any thoughts on this and any suggestions on future cage ideas?

Sorry for the long, rambling post. I just have questions that the guy at the reptile store failed to fully answer for me.
Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to talking to you all soon!