The most important thing is the heating source.
A lamp is not required. Some form of UTH is probably the best type of heating to get.
If you do get a UTH (under tank heater) you have options, flexwatt is cheaper because it's only about 5 dollars for the clip set and the flexwatt itself. However, the tape + digital thermostat is going to probably top 50 dollars.
What did he leave you with for heating so we can work with that?