First, I hope that all your heating equipment is regulated by thermostats...?
UTH is not generally* designed to penetrate heat thru that much (2-3") of substrate, especially not the dense materials (soil or sand) like you'd use in a bioactive set-up, so that's the problem.
*One exception are some very old ones that I have that are no longer made -to the best of my knowledge- that are black & flat-but-thick ceramic that's embedded with heat cables that are designed to be safe when buried in dirt & used in zoological displays. If you want to use something along this line, look into heat mats made (& grounded!- safe for potentially moist environments) for farm or kennel use- one type is called a "pig blanket" (it's not a blanket but a very sturdy & large heat mat for large animals), but some smaller ones are made for chicken coops (etc) also, and some for "whelping quarters" for raising canines.
Otherwise, yes, you're stuck with overhead heat sources (CHE)- & while I know some ppl have them inside the enclosure & caged for animal safety, that doesn't seem to be ideal. You might look into the newer types of heat for reptiles, not sure if that would work or not- I haven't tried them (RHP) & don't need them. https://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels
You might be able to mount brackets on the inside of the glass top to install one? Plenty of ppl here use RHP, let's see what they say?
While I was typing, bcr229 mentioned the DHP, that's the one I was trying to think of- I haven't tried but seems most likely what would work best for you. Like this: https://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-e...projector-80w/
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