Thanks so much for everyone’s input - for reference, I had a lamp stand, but it wasn’t getting nearly hot enough inside with the distance between. I also was losing a lot of humidity.
I also had a 100 Watt before this, but it wasn’t getting hot enough inside either.
Because of these reasons, I’d much rather change the whole lid to a mesh top instead of put the lamp stand back if necessary, but then I’d need to find one that will fit since this 40 gallon exo terra has a bit of an odd length (~35x18). It also already has the 6 lock latches on top, so I’d need some sort of clamps to add too if I replace the lid.
All in all, a hassle, which is why I was hoping that it’d be fine to leave the perimeter of the dome on the plastic borders since I covered it with HVAC tape. It’s not the biggest deal if the plastic warps a little in time, but I definitely don’t want melting plastic to put carcinogens into the air....
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