IR temp gun, thermometers x2 (warm & cool side) and ditch the ZooMed UTH for a T-Rex Cobra Heat Mat or something similar. The ZooMed's are junk, from what of them I've used/tried. A thermostat or dimmer switch to run the heatmat would be a top priority.

As to keeping the hide on one side of the tank or the other, the little guy knows what he needs as far as temperature. If he's moving it, I wouldn't worry about it. Mine are in a rack and have two hides per tub but still move just the one from cool to warm side, so I wouldn't stress that part of things or if nothing else, just give him another identical hide so you have the same thing on the cool and warm sides. This will give you a rundown of what you might need:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

Hope that helps and good luck!