Ah,
That thermometer strip is slightly worse than useless I'm afraid.
It only reads the temp of the glass.
We normally recommend the acurite digital weatherstation with probe - it reads the temp and humidity at the base unit and has a probe that reads a second temp.
They sell for about $12 in wallmart and online.
Until you have an accurate way to measure the temps in the various places in your tank it is going to be a bit tricky to give advice.
Hot rocks are definately bad - but you can use red lights for 24 hour heat.
How are you controling the heat mat? Some brands can get up to 120f which is hot enough to burn the snake if they aren't controled in some way.
We normally recommend a thermostat but if your room temps are really stable you might be able to get away with using dimmer switches.
dr del
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