I got it!!

I got bad news...my humidifier was not a sucess :(. With the heat lamp lights on it just wouldn't work. Then it sprung a leak!

But about a week and a half ago I build another one of my design...one that had the air tube come in through the top and an increased tube to the tank to a hose. I just filled it up again today and checked the humidity and it was... (drumroll please) 55% with a heat lamp and a viewing light on!!!

Ok now I'm real stumped!! I look at the hydrometer and see the humidity is 45%. What's going on here? Am I doing something wrong?

45 is not bad for daily humidity. It may also fluctuate between nighttime and daytime hours. Cool air doesn't hold humidity as well as warm, so if your temps drop at night, the humidity may as well. Keep an eye on it and see if it doesn't get better through the day.

Also, you may find that the humidity is higher on one side of your enclosure than on the other. This is very common. 45% isn't too bad for day-in-day-out humidity, but it's definitely not a number you want come shed time. If you can either avoid lights on the tank or use fluorescent only (which are much cooler than incandescent), that should also help with your humidity though you may need to work on your temps again after doing it.

Thanks, it did seem to loose some humidity at night...so I'll keep checking it.