HUMIDITY

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heyprettyrave

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OKAY, i have done everything now! currently i have downed all the dirt with water, i have heat ropes that are set at about 80 degrees and now i have my humidifier in the enclosure, i can see the water on the glass, YET my humidity gauge is only saying its at 36??? this cannot be right can it!?
when i stick my head in there it feels super humid, could i just have a bad thermometer? and if that is the problem which kind would you all suggest...
 

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wellington

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Your Gage is bad. I got mine from home depot by the indoor plant department. It reads temp and humidity. It was not that expensive. I would return the one you have if possible and get a different one. Now from what I see in the pics and what you have done, your humidity is good.
I just checked my Gage and it looks to be the same you have. The bad thing is the temp on the gage is not working on mine.:(. I guess they aren't that great. I have only had this one about 5 months. I only really use it for the humidity though.
 

heyprettyrave

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ha ha! i just wanted to check because i really think my humidity is alot higher than that! yeah mine was from Walmart and I've had these for like EVER
 

Kristina

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I use the same humidity gauge. I haven't had any troubles with mine, but I would also venture to say that you need a new one ;)
 

Mgridgaway

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Just a thought, but have you tried taking the gauge out, taking the battery out, etc? Maybe it's just needs to reset.
 

Cloud 9

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from the looks of the glass , that looks pretty humid ? geez :).
 

Madkins007

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If you have two of them, near each other, and they agree, it is probably not the gauge's fault. I would suggest that being on top of the box, there is a 'humidity shadow' (since the humidity is rising from the soil) and you would get a different reading if you placed it on the ground.

I'd also suggest that the calcium powder will absorb a bunch of the humidity, and clump up.
 

heyprettyrave

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Well i had the one on the ground and it was giving me a good reading but what do you mean by calcium powder? and its weird, i hope i have the humidity all figured out but when i looked at the gauges this morning they were in the high 70s
 

Redstrike

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From the glass, things look pretty good in there. Nice work! I think Mark is probably right about the humidity being blocked by the table top, though one would think the general air-space would be reading higher than 30-40%, given your steamed glass. Sounds like you've ameliorated this with Mark's suggestion for ground placement.

I also use the same units for measuring temp/humidity in my enclosure and, like Kristina, haven't had any serious issues yet. One of them is losing it's digital display (numbers are getting cut off, even after battery replacement), but this is probably due to it being dropped...oops!
 

Madkins007

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heyprettyrave said:
Well i had the one on the ground and it was giving me a good reading but what do you mean by calcium powder? and its weird, i hope i have the humidity all figured out but when i looked at the gauges this morning they were in the high 70s

For some reason I thought the Sunny D bottle was a jar of calcium powder. I mixed up what I saw in an earlier photo- sorry about that!
 

heyprettyrave

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Oh no :) its a jug of water i use to water down the dirt, but today their humidity is in the eighties... so IM WONDERING could the humidifier dry it out at first, because it gets low (its a warm humidifier) and then the next day the humidity is up real high??? is this normal? there isnt anything i can do about my enclosure this year unless it was a simple fix. I have struggled with humidity for a long time now and i just really want it to be fixed for them!!!
 

Madkins007

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The formula for humidity is fairly simple, but it is kind of like playing checkers- simple rules with pretty complex underlying issues.

Humidity is created when water is heated, if only a little, and becomes a gas. A given volume of air can hold different amounts of water at different temps- the warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold.

So... if you have a 1 square foot box with a specific amount of water vapor in it, the actual humidity reading will change based on temperature. It may be 90% at 60F, but only 60% at 85F and over 100% at 40F (there is actually a formula that would tell you the exact answer here, I am just making those numbers up to discuss the situation.) By the way, when the temps change and the humidity is now over 100%, the excess humidity settles out as fog, condensation, dew, and so forth.

Another issue is that humidity acts like warm air- it tries hard to move from where the humidity is high to where it is low, and it generally 'hitches a ride' on the warm air currents to do this. So- the better the airflow in the habitat (which is usually a good thing), the harder it is to keep the habitat warm and humid because the warm, humid air is going to just rise up out of there.

In the real world... as long as the glass is fogged or it feels warm and humid in the habitat- you are good. They don't need 80% or more 24/7- just most of time. They also don't need it in the entire habitat as long as their are humid spots they can hide in. As they get older, this becomes less important as well.
 

heyprettyrave

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OKAY thank you so much, anymore when i stick my head in there it is extremely humid feeling, so i think i am doing a lot better job! I will keep these things in mind as well!
 

bigred

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heyprettyrave said:
OKAY, i have done everything now! currently i have downed all the dirt with water, i have heat ropes that are set at about 80 degrees and now i have my humidifier in the enclosure, i can see the water on the glass, YET my humidity gauge is only saying its at 36??? this cannot be right can it!?
when i stick my head in there it feels super humid, could i just have a bad thermometer? and if that is the problem which kind would you all suggest...

Yep looks humid alright
 
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