Divided tank set up

[Neal]

I have a 30 gallon breeder critter cage that wasn't being used. I decided to split it up and put two young bps in it. Each side.of the enclosure will be 18lx18wx12h...I have blacked out all 3 sides of the tank and have plexiglass and foil waiting to be cut to size for the top. I did a quick experiment today and threw in some aspen a hide on the hot side and a water bowl. I cover most of the top and put a 100 watt bulb over the one side that had everything in it. The accurite said it's 84 on hot side and 78 on cold with humidity of 39%...could I use a larger uth (11x17) under the tank and split it right at the divider? I was thinking of that and then putting 2 lower watt heat lamps over the center/cool side to help raise ambient Temps and have water bowl under heat lamp to raise humidty. Does anyone think this will work or have any other suggestions on what's the best way to attack this. Thanks

I don't really fancy accurite things because I found them to be way off, but I've had in the past where one was accurate, so it's a hit or miss thing. Instead I found these digital temp and humidity things on amazon for around $5-7. They're accurate as far as the three that I've used.

A 100w bulb will easily give a hotspot of 95+ degrees. Ideally you would want a hot spot in the upper 80's, and with a 60w you should be able to do that unless you live up north and maybe the room gets pretty cold. Now with that you're going to run into major humidity issues, because bulbs kill humidity. You need to be careful of using an UTH & heat lamps because if you're not using a thermostat you'll easily kill your snake if something goes wrong, especially with two heating sources. A UTH would help with temperatures, but not so much ambient more than maybe a degree or two. Putting the water bowl over it would help with humidity yes, but then you're heating the drinking source for your snake.

The best way to give you advice is for you to snap a few photos of your setup. Also a PVC cage will work way better and not being open on all sides your snake will likely be much happier. The screen top along with the glass aren't that good for retaining humidity or heat for that matter. Snap a few photos for us though so we can give you better advice.