Thank you very much to all! I am having a day off today and am getting a new tank for him that is bigger. However, for now I will have to keep him in the smaller tank so that he can feed before having to get used to another environment again. Thinking of waiting out two feeds. Also, the hopper rat may be slightly on the too large side. I used that size because he'd been fed that before, but the first feed, when he ate it, I could see the whole rat outlined on his body. Feet and all.
The tank may be getting a bit to cool on the hot side. To the touch, the glass is very cool. The bottom on the hot side is only slightly warmer than my hand. Today I am getting thermometers to get an actual reading of these surfaces.
I will close off the air conditioner vent for that room as well so it stays warmer in there. That should help keeping up the temp. Also I'll get an infrared light bulb for the heating so I can keep it on overnight. (Before I'd turn off heat lamp to maintain day/night cycle, but that caused the temp to go to 78 degrees. That's air temp above the hot spot. Cool glass.)
Getting pretty good ideas of what to do, just never sure if it's the right thing. That's why I appreciate your feedback so much.
By the way, he is almost done with his shed. Though it was a bad shed... No surprise.
I am quite surprised how much I am messing up with my poor Ball. Had a corn snake before and NEVER a problem. I guess the environment for my Ball must be much more adjusted because this is not normal environment for him here in Sacramento area.
Well. I am all set to fix everything. Your advice is much appreciated.