not getting good readings...

so i recently built a 4X2X2 for my little guy. its made out of melamine. i am having a hard time with basking spot. i have used several different bulbs to try and achieve a good temp for him... a 45w indoor flood bulb only gets the heat close to 90 degrees. a 65w bulb gets me just over 90 degrees. i switched over to halogen bulbs. a 90w takes this thing way out to 140 and possibly beyond. once i saw the readint that it was at 140 i turned it off... a 75w halogen, which the box says its a 53w=75w bulb gets me around 120-128. so, i switched it over to a 50w halogen (39w=50w). this gets me to 100-104 with the basking spot raised. the problem is, im not sure which reading to really believe... in this guys normal 20 gal tank, the probe and my pointer give an almost exact reading... it may be off by like 2 or 3 degrees from each other. but this is crazy.... with the 50w (39w=50w halogen) my probe says its at 102, and right before i turned it off it had just switched over to 103. but the pointer shows 86 degrees....




i would LOVE to use the 65w flood bulb because the light is white and puts out i believe PAR38. this halogen has more of a yellow tent and is at PAR20. everything i have read, including the "lighting for newbies" on the forum, states that with a wood enclosure that a 30-45w bulb should be plenty... please help me with this.... its so frustrating!!! and im ready to get the little guy out of that aweful 20 gal asap!

There's alot of different variables for lighting and heat and no tank is exactly the same so you'd have to experiment and play with it. The cheapest way I see to solve you heating problem is putting the 75 watt on a dimmer. The easier but more expensive way to fix it is buying a thermostat and hooking your heat lights up to this. I just bought one and honestly it should have been the first thing I bought. With a light on a dimmer you still have to constantly check temps as the ambient air temperature will undoubtedly change and this will change the temps of your basking area. A thermostat takes care of all that adjusting the temps for you. There a little pricy but if you do get one I'd go with a hq one for herps like the herpstat or herpkeeper and make sure that they do the things you want them to do. I learned the hard way and am returning my vivarium electronics 200-d and getting the herpstat 2

HOLY CRAP!!! yeah, that herpstat2 looks great... alittle out of my budget right now. home depot doesn't seem to carry plug in dimmers in my area. i may have to order one

You can get the herpstat 1 for cheaper, it does the same thing the only difference is it only has 1 probe where the herpstat 2 has 2 probes

just a suggestion on using those digital readings... it'd be a good idea to head over to a hardware store and pick up a regular ol alcohol thermometer to double check which digital reading is actually correct.