Humidity too high?

I live in the high desert and the weather here has done what it does best. Our seasons change seemingly overnight. My basement is pretty cool and I had to add a small space heater to keep my temps up. I'm fighting to keep the humidity up as a result. It's not a big deal when I'm home and I can mist it throughout the day. Not so much when I'm at work. I've started keeping a damp towel under the lamp and covered most of the top. I've been putting in extra moisture the last couple days. If I bring it up to 90% in the morning then it's still in the 50's when I get home. Is it bad for me to put that extra in there to get it through the last few hours? It will just be short term too. I'm looking at investing in a fogger. If it's a bad idea I can make a trip home during lunch in the meantime.

Have you insulated the terrarium? You can wrap a few sides with foam or something. I used 1/2" foam from a hardware store. That should help some.

What kind of lamp are you using? What are your temps? Do you have any other heat sources?

i would probably watch out for scale rot with a 90% humidity, but if it is short term, it should be okay. a humidity of a little lower or higher should not be harmful for a couple of days

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Originally Posted by SquirmyPug

Have you insulated the terrarium? You can wrap a few sides with foam or something. I used 1/2" foam from a hardware store. That should help some.

What kind of lamp are you using? What are your temps? Do you have any other heat sources?

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I have all sides except the front of course covered in 1/2" foam insulation board and an opening on the top for a CHE. I'm also using a UTH. All heat sources are regulated. Temps are 88 and 78. If I put it all the way to 90% it drops down to the 70-75 range within an hour then slowly drops over the course of several hours. Once it gets below 60 the moisture gets burned off pretty fast.

My question would be what kind of substrate are you using? You could add some substrate that retains moisture better to what you already have in there. ie: if you use coco chip you could add some coco fiber or if you're using aspen you could add coco chip?

The other option I can think of that I use in the winter since I have gas heat is sphagnum moss. I keep some in a tub at all times for when I need to bump humidity quickly, but temporarily.

Wet the moss down and then squeeze it out so it's not soaking wet and then place some clumps in the corners or along a wall of the enclosure. It'll raise the humidity and holds it better, obviously keep something covering a bulk of the screen top so it doesn't immediately escape, and the only maintenance it needs is either to be re wet or swapped with the wet sphagnum stored in another tub.

That's the method I use for bumping humidity around shed time, because once shed is over I just pull the moss and humidity returns to normal.

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Originally Posted by Jasmijn

i would probably watch out for scale rot with a 90% humidity, but if it is short term, it should be okay. a humidity of a little lower or higher should not be harmful for a couple of days

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I more so associate scale rot with wet/damp subtrate more so then humidity, but high/low/fluctuating humidity could also cause concern for a RI to pop up. Not by any means saying that it WILL but more so that it MIGHT. Just my 2 cents on that.

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Originally Posted by RXLReptiles

I more so associate scale rot with wet/damp subtrate more so then humidity, but high/low/fluctuating humidity could also cause concern for a RI to pop up. Not by any means saying that it WILL but more so that it MIGHT. Just my 2 cents on that.

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Okay that's good enough for me. That was my main concern. I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend. It'll be nice from a convenience stand point anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jasmijn

i would probably watch out for scale rot with a 90% humidity, but if it is short term, it should be okay. a humidity of a little lower or higher should not be harmful for a couple of days

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by RXLReptiles

I more so associate scale rot with wet/damp subtrate more so then humidity, but high/low/fluctuating humidity could also cause concern for a RI to pop up. Not by any means saying that it WILL but more so that it MIGHT. Just my 2 cents on that.

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Scale rot won't be an issue due to humidity, but wet substrate for extended periods of time can cause scale rot. As well as dirty substrate.