humidity going crazy!

[mommanessy247]

i know that humidity issues are common in the winter but i'm seriously gonna scream if i cant get mine at least somewhat stable...
i JUST discovered my girl in blue last night and scrambled to get her terrarium set up for that process.
i had her on newspaper but switched to cypress so i can keep it moist.
i've put a water dish over the warm spot and a water dish on the cool side.
i've covered the screen top with a wet hand towel.
my problem: the humidity is either almost 50% or almost 90% depending on what i move around, tweak or replace. now i have newspaper on the cool side and moist mulch on the warm side - 1/2 & 1/2.
i've tried covering all the screen or 1/2 or 1/3.
i've tried having the warm side water dish full and the cool side water dish 1/2 full.
i've tried 1 water dish full and the other empty.
and my poor girl...she just cant seem to relax before i'm in there playing with her furniture and bedding again! she's so pissy right now i'm afraid that if i keep disturbing her she'll finally snap and bite me.
not that i'd blame her, shoot if i were her i'd have bit me a bunch of times by now, lol.
i cant let the humidity stay too high or she'll get sick and i cant let it stay too low or she'll have a bad shed...
what gives?

[anatess]

What are you measuring humidity with?

Also, if you got a picture of the set-up we can get a better idea of what to suggest.

[mommanessy247]

i'm using an accu-rite.
i'll have to put batteries in my camera in order to show ya'll my set up...but i think i forgot how to upload pics here...
ok then, just gimme a little bit to figure this out again.
be right back...

[mommanessy247]

ok my camera is missing...

[anatess]

What size tank do you have?

I have a 20L tank and my humidity stays pretty stable.

This is my set-up:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ss+Tank+Set-up

Check out Step #8 in that pictorial. So, that specific water bowl gives me the humidity I need - moving it closer or farther from the heat pad.

Also, I use cypress in winter and aspen in spring - that is, I use cypress when the room humidity is low and then aspen when the room humidity is higher.

With the foil top, the cork bark surrounding the tank, substrate and choice of water bowl, it's enough for me to raise/lower humidity by 20%.

I usually don't need to spray (sometimes, I spray the cypress substrate a tad bit when in shed) and I don't use wet towel.

I put clumps of wet sphaghnum moss around the hot-side hide (not inside) if I'm using the heat lamps.

That's really all I do.

P.S. Make sure you read the posts in the entire thread before following anything on that set-up thread. There's some stuff that is not good on that set-up - like the tape, the positioning of the acurite, etc.

[mommanessy247]

i dont know the equivalent gallon size of my terrarium but it's 30" long x 12" tall x 12" deep...that might be slightly smaller or larger then a 20 gallon. i have pics of it in my gallery. but the pics are of right after it was assembled so theres nothing in/on it.

[mommanessy247]

i have my accu-rite in the middle of the terrarium against the back glass. i still need to get some velcro so i can actually attach it to the glass to keep it off the terrarium floor. theres no tape inside my set up at all, i kept that in mind when i was setting it all up.

[anatess]

A 30x12x12 is a 20L tank... The exact same thing that I used.

[MitsuMike]

i have my accu-rite in the middle of the terrarium against the back glass. i still need to get some velcro so i can actually attach it to the glass to keep it off the terrarium floor. theres no tape inside my set up at all, i kept that in mind when i was setting it all up.

With this statement I am guessing the humidity reader (vented area on the bottom of the unit) is in the or on top of the substrate. If so this is your problem.

Also to help your worrying add 2 extra hides on both the warm and cool side. Fill with wet paper towels or moss to add a humid hide. Add 2 on both sides allows the animal to not make a choice between cool, warm or humid allowing both humid hides on cool and warm sides.

I would also like to add that I keep my animals as HIGH as possible in the time they eyes go blue until shed day. Remember high humidity without condensation doesn't cause RI's but low humidity does.

[mommanessy247]

so your saying that as long as theres no water droplets on the glass i'm ok?
the humidity reading has been at "HI" since last night, even after the mulch has dried out...the accu-rite is supposed to say "HI" when the humidity level goes above 90%.
i moved the mulch out from underneath the accu-rite as well. now it's just sitting on the bare bottom of the terrarium, leaning against the back glass. wish my camera wasnt missing so i could show ya'll my set up...freakin' kids! lol.