Bright lights can be stressful to BP's.In the wild they spend most of there time in a hole in the ground and come out at night.

I agree loose the light and get a UTH controled by a t-stat.
Those gauges are extremely inaccurate, go for the digital ones.

I dont mean to be so critical but you asked

pet store info is not very good, they just reccomend the crap they sell there, not necessarily the right/best stuff.