I have made a plan for a 20L tank following cassandra's Glass Tank Setup (found as a sticky under BP HUsbandry) with a few changes. And Ive run into a couple of questions.

Basically, I will be using a 20L with two small Zoo Med heat pads connected to a Herpstat II. I need two heat sources both connected to a good thermostat because the tank will be placed where temperature will fluctuate.

Substrate: I really like the idea of using repticarpet under aspen, so the snake will never come in contact with the glass, which is slippery and can be harder to move for the snake. But is that necessary? And I understand that the snake can have direct contact with the glass as long as the UTH has a thermostat. Lastly, it seems like repticarpet has a pretty bad rep for being a bacteria breeding ground, and is hard to clean/maintain.

Placement of Probes: I was thinking of using cassandra's idea of securing the probes with repticarpet, or placing them inside each of the hides. But I it some more research and it seems that the thermostat probes should be placed outside of the tank where the snake cannot temper with it, and should be placed directly on the heat pad. If I were to do what with the Zoo Meds, should I place the probe between the sticky part of the Zoo Med pad and the glass tank? or on the other side of the pad?

thanks in advance!