All,

I am getting my cage finalized before getting a snake next weekend, but I am having some trouble getting the basking area up to 90deg for a BP. I have a 15QT sterilite tub and 1' of 3" 10W FlexWatt taped to the bottom. Since the tub isn't a foot wide I have about 4" taped up the one side. For temperature control I am using a lamp dimmer and the substrate is about an inch of cypress mulch.

Anyway, after sitting overnight with the dimmer 3/4 on the warm spot is only a little over 80 degs, but the FW is definitely warm. I am wondering a why this may be.

1) is that the cypress mulch is chunky enough that it isn't conducting the heat well? a buddy of mine that keeps snakes in naturalistic vivs using a mixture of cypress and sphagnum peat (both of which I have a ton of being into carnivorous plants) and I am thinking the peat will help fill up the airspace and conduct the heat better.

2) I am using bungees to keep the lid down. They are wrapped around the bottom and hooked into the lip of the lid. That allows for an air gap between the bottom of the tub (where the FW is taped too). Is that allowing too much heat to radiate away?

thanks!