Hognoses can be successfully kept in a Rubbermaid container and a rack system. Not only do I not recommend an undertank heater (where did you hear that they are required?), but an under tank heater should not be used with plastic containers (mylar heat tape however, will work fine). Hognoses burrow into the ground to escape high temperatures, it only makes sense to provide heat from the top. Of course this is not an option in a rack system.
Most snakes do not require any special lighting. However, with the high degree of variability in feeding responses in hognoses, it would be beneficial if you could provide it with full-spectrum lighting.
Hognoses are indeed mildly venomous, but NOT dangerously venomous. Do a search on this forum for more detailed information. Any amount of research on hognoses will tell you that they do not bite out of defense. If you do get bitten from a feeding response, it is entirely your carelessness. The severity of your reaction to a hognoses bite is completely up to you, and maybe correlated with your sensitivity to insect bites and stings. In my opinion, hognoses are not dangerous and this feature should not be a deciding factor. Hognoses are completely safe to handle, as I maintain a small collection of hognoses for use in educational outreach programs where they are touched by hundreds of children a day. It simply is not an issue, but only adds to the interesting features and appeal of hognoses.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)
