Good point, I can't believe I missed the staples. I made sure to clean all of them out underneath and somehow missed the ones on top.
The whole tank is covered right now with cardboard on every side. I went with the half log just for now sort of knowing he may need something different soon. It was cheap and readily available until I found a better solution. However, since the whole cage is blacked out right now, I didn't worry as much about the log being open. It does have some moss around it but I will try closing one opening with it.
Thanks again for the suggestions!