Adjustable Vent

[Spektyr]

The cage I built is running higher humidity than I'd like (it gets up to 70-80% pretty reliably). This just by not having much airflow and the water dish inside. (There's plenty of air volume for quite a long duration closed up, and I open it daily to let the humidity out.)

Ideally I would like to retain the ability to crank it up that high during shed, but maintain a more sane and less bacteria/mold-friendly level most of the time. This means I need some venting ability that I can open and close as needed. Something like the vent on a barbecue would work with some mesh to prevent escape attempts, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea just yet. I'm betting there are other designs out there and thought I'd run it by the forum to see if anyone has a good idea.

My "everything" feature list would be that it can fully close (or nearly so - actually being air-tight is not necessary), doesn't allow for escape or is easily modified to prevent it, and can be adjusted easily/remotely. I would want to put it on the back side of the cage if I can, and down the road (when there's another cage on top of this one) I won't be able to easily reach back there. One alternative is if it were adjustable from the inside, since it's not hard to reach in to do things, but then there'd need to be some way to guard against it being snake-operated. Oh, and looking nice would be on the "has everything" list as well.

So, anyone have any ideas?

Even non-adjustable vents that you think work well or look cool, post up some links/pictures. I've got a MacGyver streak that might be able to cook up something slick if I can just get the right inspiration.

[Spektyr]

Here's an example I found.

http://www.cagesbydesign.com/p-354-3...et-in-one.aspx

It doesn't have a great picture, it's not clear how the vent is adjusted (what you use to turn it), or say what the material thickness limits (if any) are.

[jason_ladouceur]

My cage line offer's adjustable vents. The solution I came up with was just adding a U bracket that I milled to the cage over the vents. The user can just slide a piece of PVC into the bracket covering some or all of the vent if they wish to increase the humidity in the cage.
http://www.herphouses.com/shop/featu...g-vent-covers/

[SideShowMom]

The slide/vent cover design would be simple to replicate and place where you need them. I have my BP in a 20 gallon long tank with a screen top. I regulate humidity/airflow with two 11 x 14 inch panes of glass (with their edges taped) on top of the screen. I can slide them from either end or the center to regulate cold- or warm-side or close it almost all the way for shedding, but with a 1/4 inch all around for some air exchange.

14 - 1.jpg by SideShowMom, on Flickr

[jclaiborne]

I use pretty much the same method Jason uses for the vents I added to my Vision Cages, however I had to cut some PVC and make a channel that can hold the cover and epoxied it to the sides of my cages since this was an "add on"