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First off...welcome to the forum! Clockwork looks like an importer, which probably isn't your best bet for a first time buy. Often it will cost you more in the end with vet bills. There are a lot of low priced, nice animals right here on this forum in the classifieds and more babies will become available soon. You say you're new to snakes in general, but that you've been around them for a long time. I'm not sure what that means. If you've cared for different species than you are probably all set for a chondro. If you've only handled them, but never cared for them, I'd wait for a while and keep something else so that you can get a better feel for some of the behaviors and problems that might come up. While it is possible to keep a chondro as a first time snake, it is definitely valuable to have had some experience keeping other types first. I found it very valuable to have had other snakes before getting my first chondro, and helped eleviate some of the stress from any odd behaviors. The Zoo med terrarium will probably work fine if you have a room that stays fairly warm all year round. Some of the glass type terrariums have a hard time keeping up the heat. You'll have to cover the screen lid or you won't be able to keep the humdity up well. Babies require a more constant humidity of 80% or so. You don't really need a UV light. These animals are nocturnal, and I've gone back and forth about whether or not I want to put UV lights in. It shouldn't hurt them especially with the low UV you're buying. I prefer thermostats over rheostats any day. Rheostats do not react to outside air temps. If the temperatures in the room should for some reason get up to 88 in the summer or something, the rheostat will continue to provide power to the heating unit. Thermostats will turn off the heat when the temperature inside the cage reaches what it should be and won't turn power back on until the temperature drops sufficiently. I also prefer proportional thermostats over on/off ones as there is usually a great deal of fluxuation with on/off. They cost more of course. A nice herpstat proportional costs $110 and a nice on/off thermostat can be purchased at Big Apple Pet Supply for around $40 It would probably suffice. I use live branches for all my cages as well as silk plants to decorate. I usually just give a live branch a good scrubbing with bleach and hot water. Live branches rarely have insects living in them. It's sick and deadwood that do. I leave the bark on. Good luck with your new animal.