Thank you for the welcome & the reply!

I owned a few snakes (burmese, ball, kingsnake) about 20yrs ago so you will have to bear with me because I am sure I will have several questions due to being out of the loop for so long.

I was always told in the past to make sure you have overhead heating, you said "If you're set on using bulbs" so I am assuming it's not really mandatory?

If I get a big enough UTH then overhead lighting really shouldn't be necessary? & assuming with the dimensions I would need a Medium (8x12 zoo med) or even a large (Exo-Terra I found on ebay 11x17)? Being a hexagon I think is going to be a pain with the UTH but, for now I think it will work.

I have a (older) Alife thermostat that I will use, as far as that goes should the probe go in the tank above where the UTH is placed or under where the UTH is? When I used it in the past I put it in the tank on top of the bedding but unsure what is the correct way.

If everything works out I am planning on just building a custom enclosure in the near future for this, I just have to let the wife get over being mad once she finds out..

Thanks again