heating pad

can you put metal tape on the stcky side of the heating pad so that it wont be attached to the bottom of the tub for easy manueverability?

Yes, just only do so on one side of the UTH.

so i can just take the paper off the sticky side and cover the sticky side with foil tape?

Yes. You could even just use aluminum foil.

what would you prefer?

Foil tape is just aluminum foil with glue on it. I'd do whatever was easier. I'd say that cutting a piece of aluminum foil to the right size then sticking it on would be a lot tile easier but it really doesn't matter.