First time breeding. attempt.

[Insane]

That sounds good, except I keep the big female in a 55 quart tub, and with her water bowl and hide, I don't see how two big adults would be comfortable in there? Maybe I'm over-estimating how cramped they would be in a 55 quart tub.

As a first time breeder myself with 1 clutch hatched and 1 in the incubator, I won't pretend to know what the best method will be. All I can do is give you my own personal experience. My females are in a 60 qt tub and when I introduce the male I take the hides out. This is more so I can monitor locks without having to interrupt them by pulling out their tub/lifting hides. It didn't slow my bps down, I had locks within the first 24 hours on all 3 of my first time females/males. I keep my rack in an area that has minimal traffic and try to keep minimal light in from the window (easier in winter when you only have 6-4 hours of daylight). So that might be also play a factor in my experience.

Best of luck! I guess the advice I would give is don't lose hope. I stopped pairing after about 5 months because I was not able to see any follicle growth/ovulation. I stopped checking for eggs because I thought there was something wrong with my set up or the Alaska weather was throwing them off (just moved them up from Florida). I ended up getting an 8 egg clutch from my GHI 4 months after her last pairing and a 5 egg clutch 5.5 months from my Albino Clown's last pairing. I ended up losing 2 eggs from each clutch because I was not looking for eggs from them (assuming they had reabsorbed or were not producing follicles at all) so the eggs weren't put in the incubator immediately. Either the eggs weren't fertile or the switch from tub to incubator were too much.