Remember, the "Air temp" at the top of the tank or the temp of the sides of the glass are not important. The important temp is the bottom of the tank where the snake actually resides. He doesn't fly through the air, he crawls along the bottom.
It's misleading to some folks when they hear that the Under Tank Heater doesn't make the tank warm enough. It's not supposed to make the whole tank a toasty 85 degrees. Just that spot where it's stuck to the bottom. If you've ever plugged one of those heaters into an outlet and let it heat up and then measure it (unregulated) they can easily hit 115 degrees.
The lamp on top is a means of warming the air in the tank because you feel it's not warm enough in there. But warming the air in the tank does very little for the snake when he spends the majority of the time laying on the bottom. All lamps produce heat, some more than others. "Overhead Heat" also increases evaporation and can lower the humidity in the cage.
I too use a lamp, not for heat purposes, but for viewing and to simulate daylight / night time. I keep the lamp a significant distance above the cage so that it provides light but no heat. The only heat Rufus gets is from the Under Tank Heat pads. If I measure the temp at the top of the cage or on the sides of the glass it stays around 73 to 75 during the day and drops down to about 68 to 72 at night. Most people would say that's too cold for a Corn Snake. But Rufus does not live on the sides of the glass or on top of the tank. He's laying under a "Hide" on the bottom and if I measure there, it's 85 on the high side and 75 on the cool side.
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