OP Caspar has been polite and has been responding with thoughtful posts to people who are giving good solid advice.
I think there's some confusion about the thermostat probe placement reasons.
You put the probe between the bottom and the pad. You set the thermostat based on the temps you measure inside the tub over the pad(using a thermometer). So your thermometer may show the temp (inside the tub) at the heatpad spot as say... 80F. You set the thermostat at 90F and wait a few minutes(up to an hour even) and then you measure the temp again(inside the tub with your digital thermometer) and see the temp is now 85F. Or maybe it's now 97F. You adjust the thermostat again, up or down as needed until the temp inside reads what it needs to be. So your thermostat will probably NOT be set to the temp number that you want inside the tub, see? But it will be set to the number that makes the temps the right number.
Make certain you measure the temps several times a day to make sure you are not getting heat spikes or drops too, or that the temp kept rising after you got it to the "right temp", or whatever. Once you get it dialed in, you shouldn't have to mess with it and you can just check the temp occasionally.
I hope this helps make it clear about where the probe goes and how the adjusting is done.
And yes, take out the hide with the duct tape. Ball pythons are like horses, they WILL find any method to injure themselves possible. They will rub against things to shed for instance, and roll that tape edge up and stick themselves to it. You can replace the mesh hide thing you have with any plastic bowl or tub(that isn't see-through) by cutting a entrance and then using a nail file(emory board) to take any sharp edges off the cut part. I still have cereal bowl hides I made for some of my first babies. They were Christmas ones I bought after Christmas, 4 bowls for $0.50 at the Family Dollar store, lol.
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