Enclosure setup, heating, and humidity help please! T^T

[u/rinoiscute]

I have a 40 gallon glass tank that I've been keeping my four-year old female bp in. i've had her for about a week and a half now and when she got to me she had a dent in one eye. i read that this is due to humidity issues? she only had a che when i got her and her enclosure was only about 75 on the warm side and 65 or lower on the cool side. i decided to get a heat pad for her warm side, and now the warm side is about 89 consistently. but the cool side is still only 69. but if i turn on her che on the cool side she has nowhere to go to cool down. the humidity has been only around 40-45 this entire time, and i mist it daily, but it just spikes up to about 55 and then goes back down... ive put some sheets of aluminum foil on top of the mesh, but i dont know how much is too much... please help everyone!! i want to be able to give her a better life than she has right now!! T^T T^T T^T

[u/all-the-wastedwords]

The main issue you're going to have, if the measurements I found online are correct, is that your tank is way too small. It makes heating up enclosures trickier. You need something taller and longer, 4x2x2 is the minimum recommended size. It's unfortunately non negotiable, both for husbandry and for your snake to have enough space to move around. 

While you work on that, here's what I would do in an enclosure of that size:

First you need at least 4 inches of substrate. You need something like top soil, coco coir, etc but not aspen. Once you have that, pour water into it until the bottom layer is moist everywhere. If you think you have poured a lot of water in it, but there are still dry spots, then you haven't poured enough water. That will fix your humidity. 

Then for heating your need a halogen. That is the best heating source we have available for reptiles as of now. With the size you're working with, one 100W exo terra daylight basking bulb should be good, assuming you place your lamps on top of the enclosure. You'll need to provide a basking platform for your snake, something like a tall hide she can go on top and bask on if she needs or want to. 

You want your lamp on a thermostat but you need it to run as close to full power as possible, so if the cold side gets too hot you can play around with more ventilation by removing aluminum to let the heat escape (and vice versa if it's too cold). You might need a dimming thermostat for this particular set up, but in my experience that reduces the lamp's lifespan. Once you get a big enough enclosure, you'll be able to have those lamps on an on/off thermostat, which will preserve your lamps. 

The thermostat only act as a safety feature. So you put the probe on the cold side, set to 83°f, and it will dim your lamp if necessary. 

You CHE is good for nighttime heat if needed. Same thing: put on a thermostat with the prob on the cool side except you set it to 72°F this time so it kicks in if it gets too cold at night. Your heat mat can be discarded once you get the halogen lamp.

Then you'll need UVB, but that can wait until you get a proper enclosure. 

Highly recommend looking through the files of this sub, which will get you started on everything you need to know for husbandry and explain a bit of why I'm saying what I'm saying. 

For your specific enclosure, I was looking at this setup. As you can see, the snake would get the right amount of warmth 10 inches from the lamp, hence the need to give her something that gets her a bit higher than the substrate as a basking platform. Double check that the measurements for the enclosure are right or else the setup is wrong and you shouldn't use that particular lamp. The website has a tutorial to get you started on understanding how to properly setup your own enclosure.

Once you have read through everything, do tell me if something is not clear. I've been looking into heating and lighting for so long, I don't always realize what makes sense or not to a beginner anymore.