OK, your tank is indeed large enough. I use 48 x 24 x 12 sized cages but yours should do unless your BP gets huge.

Chicken wire isn't the best wire cloth would be much better or even better yet would be something like this:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution

under tank heaters (which I will abbreviate UTH's) are the best for heating your tank, but they have a few issues that you need to understand.

1. They must be regulated by a thermostat, if left unregulated they can easily get up to 130 degrees which is enough to kill your BP (I will get back to thermostats later)

2. The layer of substrate much be thin. UTH's need a substrate layer of 1/2" or thinner to be effective

3. UTH's do NOT change the temperature of the air in the cage. All they do is heat up the floor of the cage. This means that if your room gets below 75 degrees you will need an additional heat source to keep the air temperatures high enough.

You need to get a UTH large enough to cover approximately 1/3rd of the bottom of the tank

The thermometer that you want to get looks like this, it can be purchased from Walmart for $12. Don't buy the crap from pet stores they don't work well and are overpriced. this unit measures 2 temperatures and humidity so you only need 1



Now back to thermostats. like thermometers don't waste your money on the crap sold at pet stores.

Here are 2 good ones.

The hydrofarm, sold on Amazon for $30 these are cost effective but lack accuracy and safety features. They will work if you are on a budget but should be replaced with a better thermostat when possible.

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR..._bxgy_ol_img_b

The herpstat, these are the best but have a higher price tag. starting at $99 these are extremely accurate and have many built in safety features.

http://spyderrobotics.com/


In the long run I think you will find the tank to be harder to keep than you want. tubs and PVC cages are much easier to keep the proper temperatures and humidity in. here is some info on both.

Tubs:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Basics...*DUW*

PVC Cages:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!