Hey everyone, just signed up a few days ago. I've been trying to get a tank setup, but, of course, I'm running into some heating problems. I was given a 55 gallon tank for free, so I'm using that. The top of the tank is separated into two halves, each 24 inches. I found a nice aquarium hood with a florescent light for daytime light/viewing (adds very little heat). So that takes up the one side. For the other, I bought a 150w infrared heat lamp to put in the clamp light fixture I got for free. This fixture is sitting on a plastic/wire mesh top (24") that came with it. I also have a medium sized UTH with no thermostat. I used an acu-rite thermo to see what the temps are and the side with the heat lamp is going to ~105F and the cool side is at about 75F. The humidity is at 80%, but that's because the eco earth is still drying out, almost done though. Anyway, 82 cool side, 92 warm side is what I'm supposed to be seeing, so I was thinking I would take the infrared heat lamp back and get a 100W che. Can I put a che on a rheostat(plug in dimmer)? Having that red light on all night doesn't appeal to me as much now that I've seen how bright it is. So what about the cool side? 76 is pretty cool and it's about that temp all the way until the middle of the tank. I was thinking I would just insulate the back and one side. But, I can't think of anything that would look good and do a good job of keeping the heat in. Any ideas? Any suggestions about anything are welcome. This is my first attempt to setup a snake enclosure.

Here's a pic...