I agree with everyone on the sterilite for a home, it works wonderfully for the little ones.....and CONGRATS!!! I can't even imagine how cool that was to find a little hatchling crawling around out there!!

Sorry about the continous flow of questions...

Are there any brands of these basking lights that are better than the others?

More importantly, I was "bathing" him today and noticed that there was a fair amount of dirt stuck to his underside - right in the middle...as I was trying to clean him, I noticed that it looked like there was an indentation there and I did not go any further, is this normal? it almost looked as if the bottom of the shell was not complete...( i did not want to accidentally remove something that might be protecting him )...still a concerned new parent...

What you are seeing is where his yolk sac was attached. Nothing to worry about.