Whoa!?
Okay, a step back please. I'm stressing out already due to it for I never had this problem to get the temperature at the right temp.
Right now, there isn't even a inch of Cyprus much covering up the heat pad right now and not even getting anywhere near 88. It's reading in the 70s - 84. A spike of 85 here and there.
but as soon as I put on the thermostat on, I'm lucky enough to get a 88 spike. It mainly ranges between 78-86 and I had to remove a lot of substrate to cover up the heat pad to an inch.