New to BPs, Help me fix this - cheaply.

[Larissa]

Hi, Im Larissa and we adopted a BP this week. He is about 18" long or so and maybe two thumbs wide. He is beginning to shed.

He came with a 20 gal long tank, screen topper. UTH (exo terra brand) on right side, aspen substrate and a thermometer on the cool side that looks like a sticker. That therm showed 75 temp so I knew we needed another heat source.

Last night we went to Petsmart and bought a set with a therm and hydro meter which we stuck in the center of the tank. We bought a second therm with probe that we placed under hot-hide. So glad we did, it read 117degrees. Ive placed about .5" of newspaper over the UTH and covered with aspen shavings. I also raised the tank bit off the table hoping to disperse some of the heat. It now reads 113. The center therm dial reads 80.

Also bought a 8.5" heat lamp and a 75watt red bulb. Humidity was at 40% with wet towels covered in plastic covering screen on all but center where lamp was. I since added dampened paper towels rolled into tight tubes along edges and and brought that up to 80%. I had moved water bowl to the middle hoping the heat lamp would cause evaporation and improve humidity but it raised temp to 90 so I turned it off.

Help me fix this in a DIY kinda way, we dont have all that much more that can go into snake fixings this week.

[Spaniard]

You'll want to have all your heat sources regulated by a thermostat or rheostat. Thermostat will be best in providing the proper temps but a rheostat will ensure that you don't fry your snake with an unregulated heat source. You can find a rheostat (dimmer switch) at any hardware store. If the temps in your house are stable you could get away with using just a rheostat but if your house gets particularly cold at night you'll want to eventually replace the dimmer switch with an actual thermostat.

[Exotic Ectotherms]

You can pick up one of these at Home Depot or Lowes for about $10. It is the absolute minimum thing you should be using to regulate a heat source....a thermostat is better, but more expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-TT-300H.../dp/B0000BYEF6

[NewbieNick]

Besides something to control your temps Thermostat/rheostat. You REALLY need an good way to gauge tempature. Go to walmart and get an "Accurite" indoor/outdoor thermomater with the probe. this 13 doller unit can give you a probed hot side tempature (for under tank heaters) cool side ambient (heat lamps) and a general humidity number. thats pretty good for under 15 bucks- im not the only one on here that uses them. Many people on here disagree about many things but this is not one of them. Many many many people love these things!

[Ed Chisholm]

I love my Accu-Rite. Lowe's has them for about $14.00. They were in the outdoor garden area of the store (I found them after the store employee told me that did not have such a unit).

Welcome and good luck!!!