Problems with humidity

BrinnANDTorts

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Okay so I am having so seriously frustrating problems with humidity in closed chambers!! I don't understand why?!
It's a closed chamber, lights and everything inside the cage. Caulked seams and painted with exterior paint. I don't know what's happening to all the moisture so quickly! I have to spray like three times a day or soak the substrate twice a day. I've never had to do it that much in any of my other closed chambers. The only gaps in the closed chamber are a 1x1 inch whole in the side that I had to put for the lights. It has front sliding doors of plexiglass. I'm using moss and Coconut husk chips as substrate. Even the humid hides won't stay humid!!! They have nothing but moss in them, that drys out completely everyday along with the moss in rest of cage.
The temps are the normal, a small basking spot around 95 to 100. 85 cool side day, 80 cool side night. Its driving me mad, I spray and spray and spray and within 12 hours it's all dry! I'm using very low wattage lights to maintain heat, 25 watt basking lights. 75 watt on the whole time and this is for a 5 foot long, 20 inch wide cage.
I've never had any closed chamber, whether it be a covered tank, one I made myself or a plastic storage bin lose humidity so fast!
The humidity problem is in my leopard and sully cage but even in my Burmese where it's nothing but a CHE on a Thermostat with cypress mulch is drying out way quicker than normal, the hide isn't even humid for some reason
 

Levi the Leopard

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Aside from saying your substrate is dry, do you monitor the RH%? I ask because the top later of my substrate does dry a bit but the humidity is still in the 80 or 90%

Remember, humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air not how soaked the ground is.
 

BrinnANDTorts

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I agree, but the thing is I have two humidity monitors in each cage, they change so much it's odd. With highs as much as 95% and lows in the 50s all in same day, sometimes as low as in the 40s


I prefer for the ground to not be wet under them all the time, it's not like they are unhealthy. Completely opposite really, they are very hydrated, eat really well, have rock hard shells. Really active, they are growing bumpy though.
 

TortsNTurtles

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Yes, I do. Also are you using chips? If so I would switch to something you can plant in like a soil Eco Earth mixture .
 

bellamia

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I just built a 5x3 viv , my humidity is excellent ! Stays at 95%
I have 5 real plants and I grew some grass in a tray from bird seed , I spray the plants and grass daily and it works really well. ImageUploadedByTortForum1389663010.198634.jpgImageUploadedByTortForum1389663031.463583.jpgImageUploadedByTortForum1389663072.499047.jpg
 
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BrinnANDTorts

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Digital, I question there accuracy maybe

Your enclosure looks almost just like mine, I think it must be my substrate. I am going to get Coco coir and use that and plant lots of real plants in the cage.


I'll also make the plexi glass doors more tightly sealed against air flow. Hopefully that with the substrate change will help the humidity
 

Tom

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Your house heater is running all winter. The dries out the air in your home tremendously and then circulates the dry air all around, helping it draw more moisture out of your enclosure. Also the cooler temps of inter mean your light bulbs and heating elements will run more and longer than other times of the year. These also dry everything out faster. Totally normal.

Close off those holes and just keep adding water to get through the "dry" season.
 

keepergale

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I have a cage with sliding glass doors on the front and it lost lots of humidity until I reduced the air flow with a couple of folded paper towels in the gap between the


Fat fingers

The panes of glass.
 

BrinnANDTorts

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Humidity problems fixed! I changed out all the old substrate that was a mixture of coconut husk chips (that I bought under the understanding they were amazing for humidity, no they suck! Never buy them) and cypress mulch. Replaced it with nothing but Eco Earth and wow!! By now, it's been about 24 hours, the other substrate would of been bone dry. My humidity is in the high 80s constantly now. I also have sheet moss in the cage that I love. I place it on top of decorative rocks and squirt it down real good
 

TortsNTurtles

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Yeah!!! I am happy it was such a simple fix. Add live plants to and they will help recycle the water :)
 
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