thanks for takin a look... Here is some good news... The temp now is 92 degrees in on the hot side and the humidity there is just over 60%, I have been misting every 15-20 minutes for the past hour or so in order to get it up from the 40% it was at... Once I get it up to about 60-65% i am going to hopefully be able to slow down the misting to every few hours...

Still not running a thermastat because the reptile shop I went to was out of them and wont be getting in for a few days. I'm going to be closely monitoring temp though now with my new and accurate thermometer and will probably order a stat online, time to research the best ones for the best price. I might just cough it up and go for a really good one!

I guess if it is scale rot, and pretty obviously not because of too much humidity in the tank, I just need to do a better job of keeping the substrate clean ( spot clean daily instead of twice or week or so) and I will be a bit more careful the surfaces he is on when handling... Is it advisable for me to not handle him while taking care of the scale rot? Did I catch it early enough that it will be easy to get rid of?

Thanks for everything!!!

Sam (and George)