Are you working with a baby or an adult? If it's a baby, I would highly recommend having an actual hide in the hot spot. If they don't feel safe enough to lay out in the open, they won't want to use the appropriate warmth and they may have regurges. If it's a non-shy adult, you might be able to get away with having no hide there, just some leafy cover.
As for night time temp drop, I wouldn't recommend it. The light will need to go off at night, so you'll need to heat the warm side either with an under tank heater or a ceramic heat emitter.
Also, your setup sounds cool, I would love to see pictures of it!
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