The temp on a thermostat probably will be different based on what kind of material the UTH is hooked up to. Also the type of thermostat will most likely affect this as well.
For me, my heat tape on both of my T8's that are made from a type of PVC, they are both set to 103 degrees. This gives my a warm spot of 89-91 degrees.
As for substrate, you want it between 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick to make sure the heat is able to penetrate the substrate and reach the snake. Like the above poster mentioned as well, balls like to burrow. With this said, you need to measure the temperature that your snake has the ability to reach, surface temperature.
I would most likely leave off the UTH until you can verify the temperature it's putting out, if you do use it, I would probably set it to 80 degrees until I could verify the temp output.
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