It is very possible that your ball was laying out like that because it wanted more heat from the lamp. Providing a regulated uth will keep your snake from needing to do that. An IR temp gun could help you figure out what your surface temps are.

I wrapped the foil around cardboard to make it rigid and give it insulation. Just cut a window big enough that your lamp does not touch it and has a gap on about an inch, at least.

I personally like using lamp stands to suspend my lamps over the tanks instead of having the fixtures rest on the screen. This protects the screen from getting hot and protects me from having to move a hot lamp around. This can me dangerous as it can melt materials it touches. Also moving the lamp around and banging it around shortens the life of the bulbs. The big box pet stores have these for about $20.

As for the hides I believe each size has suggestions for the snake size it should handle. You should have at least one hide on each side.

As for the tstat I like to suggest getting the best one you can afford. Many times one snake turns into many snakes very fast. Having the tstat that can handle more than you need is great if you can afford it.