Give the heating pad about a day to heat up fully. They tend to take a long time to warm up, and since your tank is an aquarium it will take a bit longer than normal (because it has thicker glass than an terrarium). As for the wood, I would think as long as it is not used it should be fine to put directly in the tank, since you don't have to worry about it leaching tannins into a dry environment or anything. Of course, if you do want to sterilize it by baking it for a few hours, that wouldn't hurt either.
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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

1.0 Banded California King
1.0 Mexican Black King
1.0 Bay of LA Rosy Boa
0.1 San Ignacio Rosy Boa
0.1 Ortiz Rosy Boa
2.3 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1 Saharan Sand Boa
1.2 Rubber Boas
0.1 Pickering's Gartersnake

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