Humidity problem

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L82lalaland

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Help, I can't seem to get my humidity to stay up. I pour a large glass of warm water in the cage in the morning and wet all the coco, then I spray the cage in the evening before bed but my humidity stays around 60 then drops down to 40 by the afternoon. All my other temps are good. Basking 98, one side of the tank, glass, stays at about 85 and the other is between 75 and 80. I think one of the babies is starting to Pyramid. They get daily 30 minute to 2 hours romps in the sun then a soak before I put them back in their cage. They were born Nov 3 so are still little guys. Any suggestion?
Also where should the humidity gage be right next to the coco or in the middle of the glass.
 

Dizisdalife

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I had to completely cover the top of my enclosure to keep the humidity in. It wasn't a sealed top. I had holes for the lights to hang through so I still had to spray the walls of the enclosure often.
 

mainey34

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Agreed cover. The top at least 1/2 way your temps could come up just a little also..
 

Tortus

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Can you post pics of your enclosure? How deep is the coir? Deeper will obviously hold more moisture. Have you considered using a humidifier? Also as others have said covering it or even putting the entire enclosure in a less open location can up the humidity.

I've played with all this and it's always between 70-90% throughout the entire enclosure, day and night. Higher in the covered and and when the lights are off. I also use a heat mat with thermostat in the covered end since my enclosure is shallow and that seemed like the best option for me.
 

Levi the Leopard

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cover your top!

I have a covered top. I use a tank with a screen lid. I put aluminum foil on the entire lid and cut out holes for the light fixtures. It works great. In the morning when I spray I get 80% humidity and the lowest it ever gets is 50%. Of course I can spray it to increase it throughout the day, but the point is even if I dont spray it again, the humidity never goes below 50%...
 

Tortus

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I also spray, just once in the morning, but it really seems like a waste of time when you compare it to dumping water onto the substrate to make it really moist. Misting just covers the top layer and evaporates quickly, where saturating will last throughout the entire day and then some depending on the depth of the substrate.

I usually stick my finger in the driest end every couple days. If I don't feel any moisture, I'll dump a few cups of water onto it.

How we maintain humidity depends on the setup and will vary from person to person. It's hard to try and give someone advice if you don't know what their setup is.
 

omgdoubletacos

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I had a really hard time with the humidity for my Chomper as well. I found a really nice humidifier on Craigslist for about 30 dollars. (it was a $100 humidifier). And now my humidity hangs between 80-90 all day.
 

Zamric

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Do you have a bottom heater? chances are all your water is settling in the bottom of your coco and being insulated from the heat to allow proper evaperation (and thus your humidity level) Iff you have a glass bottom, get a bottom heat mat that attaches to the bottom of the tank (outside). If you have a wooden bottom, get a heat cable and tape it between the coco coir and the bottom of the tank (inside).

NOTE: if you use the heat cable, make sure you get a thermal regulator to go with it or it will evaporate all your water quickly and back to the same problem, with a differant cause.
 

Tom

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L82lalaland said:
Would it help if I picked up the zoo med reptile humidifier fogger system? Or would that be too much.

I have used them before, and they don't hurt anything, but you are still fighting the same problem. The open top allows the warm humid air to be drawn up and out into the room.
 
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