Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
How much of the top of the cage needs to be covered in tin foil, to keep in heat and humidity, but while preventing stagnant air from forming, and for BP to breath.
I saw people cover up the entire thing with aluminum foil, then just cut out, enough for the heat lamp, but an inch past it.
Thanks guys.
Re: Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
The best that I have used personally before moving to a rack is either a piece of Plexiglas or Glad Press and seal on the screen( worked great for me for a little while). Good Luck
Re: Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
I did use aluminum foil but switched to 2 pieces of plexiglass. That way I can slide one piece to adjust the humidity. Plexiglass is a lot easier. I cover between 80% to 90% with plexiglass. I heat only by UTH.
Re: Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
The air in my house is ridiculously dry so I always had humidity problems. I tried aluminum foil over about 70 % of the tank lid and it didn't do a whole heck of a lot. The one thing I found that I swear by for anything I'm keeping in tanks (mostly for QT purposes only now that I found a local guy that makes nice display cages that hold humidity wonderfully) is plastic wrap.
Again, if you really need to you can safely cover up to 90% of the top as was stated, but I rarely needed to cover much more than about 60%.
Re: Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
When I was using tanks, I didn't want to tape the foil to the screen, so my solution was to cut up a cardboard box into panels. Then I wrapped each panel in foil and placed them on the screen. Normally, when I didn't need the lamp, I would leave about 1 inch or so of screen open on each end. Whenever I needed the lamp for extra heat, I would remove some of the panels and put the lamp on the screen and use strips of just foil to cover the open screen between the lamp and remaining panels. This is what it looked like:
The panels:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../ztank0051.jpg
Panels installed, without the lamp:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../ztank0053.jpg
To use the lamp:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../ztank0054.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../ztank0055.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../ztank0059.jpg
Re: Humidity, aluminum foil on top of cage question
I have had good luck with 2/3-3/4 covered. If I need to bump up the humidity even more (if the air outside is really dry or there is a shed coming up), I put a wet towel in between the screen and foil.