humidity help!!!

Ok, we have 3 tanks. My husband has put foil over the top, the heat lamp is directly over the water bowls, we wrapped black contact paper around the 2 sides and back (from theoutside of course), we mist, we have a humidifier....and the humidity won't go higher then 40 (staying between 33and40). We finally put some moss in one of the hides to make a humidty hide. But what can we do to boost the humidity in those tanks?!?
:confused::confused::confused::confused:

you could switch from heat lamps to using UTH's as the primary heat source, that way you could probably use a lower watt bulb to keep up ambient temps. or if you have a room you can keep heated up to 80, you could discard all heat lamps, and only use uth's. you also might want to try putting foam boards around three sides of the tanks, this should help heat hold in better, wich means you could possibly use lower wattage bulbs. wich in turn would help out humidity

What are you using to measure humidity? I had a hydrometer that was bad and never read above 60%. Do you mean that you can't even for a short period of time get the humidity above 40 or it won't stay above 40? If you can't even get it above 40% I would question your hydrometer.

two tanks have uths on a thermostat and we do use a low wattage bulb in our lights. Each tank has a digital accurite temp/hydro plus each tank has two analog thermo and one analog hydro. The humidity has fluctuated all the way up to 63 on the digitals as well as the analogs. Last reading of them was 42 percent all tanks humidity. I'm just gonna start misting three times a day and stuff stome more moss in the tanks maybee dampin the moss a bit.

you probably just need to mist more then, i have mine in a 55g right now, and i have to basically spray an entire coat of water over everything about 5-6 times a day, sometimes more

Hi, I had similar issues a few years ago when I started my collection. I couldnt keep the humidity up either.. To me, by adding foil to the top of the tank ( IF I READ RIGHT ) Foil actually absorbs the heat emitted by the lamp, acting as a over head head pad if you will, which intern kills the humidity.. I would get a piece of plexy glass cut to the size you need and drill a few wholes for air ventilation NOT to many as hot air rises. IF you have a ball python they dont really "need" over head lamps, you can switch the over head to a belly heat source whether be flexwatt OR zoomed pads that will be put under the glass ( not inside the tank )very inexpensive alternative to a light as flexwatt has a wattage per feet. adding a rheostat which is much cheaper than a helix will control your heat output.

I keep my snakes in tupperware containers with underbelly heat and i dont have any issues with humidity nor shedding.

Won't that put them at higher risk for scale rot getting the bedding that wet? I don't wanna cause mildew or mold to start forming

And we do have uth on the tanks we have the zoo med heat packs stuck to the underside of the tanks. We did a lot of homework on the matter. I just misted their tanks and the humidity jumped to 50 and I made humid hides in each of their tanks they seem to be doing a lot better now and the foil only covers half of the tank tops and the lights don't touch the foil. There about to go into shed so well see how the humid hides worked when they do shed thanks everyone for all the advice

I use Eco Earth substrate and make sure to stir it around weekly also I use a Plexi Cover with foil tape to reflect heat back in looks like
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...64496118_n.jpg I have no problems with humidity :D neverhad an issue with scale rot or RI yet as well hope this helps

I started out with a UTH and a bulb as well and had the same problem. IMO, bulbs just are not your friend, no matter what. I found as soon as I removed the bulb, humidity shot up and ambient temp plummeted. :mad: So, I got two more UTH. One was one of the smallest you can get and I put it on the outside of the back corner at the hotspot, on the side wall, just to raise the ambient temps. Then I got a third one for the cool side, but set the thermostat WAY low to 75. It just kicks on if the room temp drops on a really cold night, making a gentle, negligible heat. I will remove that one in the summer months, it's just my winter solution. Solved all my problems, three UTH in total. This system works great for me, but of course, all heat pads have GOT to be regulated, and I manually check hot, cool, and ambient temps every morning and every evening, just to make sure. I mist lightly about once a week and humidity is golden.

Just my solution. The right solution depends on type of tank, temp of the room, size of water bowl... it's all about analyzing the situation and finding what works for you and your set up. :)

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Originally Posted by nikitajane25

Ok, we have 3 tanks. My husband has put foil over the top, the heat lamp is directly over the water bowls, we wrapped black contact paper around the 2 sides and back (from theoutside of course), we mist, we have a humidifier....and the humidity won't go higher then 40 (staying between 33and40). We finally put some moss in one of the hides to make a humidty hide. But what can we do to boost the humidity in those tanks?!?
:confused::confused::confused::confused:

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Stop trying to raise the humidity in the enclosure.

Provide and maintain a humid hide. 40% humidity is not going to harm your snake.

What will harm your snake is restricting air circulation and promoting conditions in which bacteria will thrive.

Today I put in two humid hides per tank. One over their uth's and one in their ambient zone. Not all the way on the cool side but like dead center of the tank. I filled the hides with moistened sphagum moss( or however its spelt lol ) and I turned the room humidifier off. I'm trying to get a heater for the room today just like a 20 dollar homelite one. Hopefully that'll boost the room temps up enough to where I can take the lights completely out which will help with the heat disperssing the humidity.

Skip has the simple solution humid hides. Type of heating does not change humidity the amount and location of air flow and size and position of the water bowl does. Lamps only alter humidity because they are often mounted in such a way that they increase air flow, that is all.

Ok so I bought a little heater for the room to bump up ambient temps. They have uths on their tanks. So if I bump the room up to 85 86 then will that temp work for cool side and then set the thermostat to 90 94? That way I can get rid of the lights all together and they won't be sucking the humidity dry. Plus each tank has two humidty hides now. One hide sits on the uth next to their big water bowls and the other sits in the middle of the tanks.

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Originally Posted by nikitajane25

Ok, we have 3 tanks. My husband has put foil over the top, the heat lamp is directly over the water bowls, we wrapped black contact paper around the 2 sides and back (from theoutside of course), we mist, we have a humidifier....and the humidity won't go higher then 40 (staying between 33and40). We finally put some moss in one of the hides to make a humidty hide. But what can we do to boost the humidity in those tanks?!?
:confused::confused::confused::confused:

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Those are all good ways for good humidity but if you still cant acheive it try an under the tank heater under the water bowl preferably to evaporate your water and with the help of your moss you should acheive high humidity. Good luck

keith88 no that is a bit warm for the cool end 80 should be fine. If you are using an oil heater a baking pan with water in it on top will add a few % to ambient humidity as well. It might help a bit. Keep the hot spot at 90. It make no difference how you mange that as long as you do. (is the snake little? Like under 400 gm? if so a hot spot of 88 is fine)

90-92 is a good set point for the hot spot. It allows for thermometer or probe error and still is 'safe' from over heating. Most thermometers have a +/-2ºF error margin it may be off or not but if you allow for the potential error there are no issues in the future.


The issue with humidity and to a lesser amount heat is the open top. Cutting off air flow is not a good answer. The way the vents are positioned need to change so air flows well but heat and humidity are retained. This is an option for the future, if things are still an issue then maybe it is worth the effort.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution

No its just a little electric homedics room heater. I have a humidifier set up right next to it and I've got them positioned so that their air streams combine so I get a nice warm humid ambient air. And all three are under 400 grams. Are smallets is a 69 gram black pastel. Are largest is my dinker male and he's 270 grams. Today I'm gonna try messing with a couple different things to either get the lights gone completely or at least used in a better way. And I'm also gonna mess around with the tank lids a little bit now. Thanks you guys for all the info.

Ok so I changed some things up... I uped the under tank heaters to 90F. I put a big water bowl on the hot side and a medium water bowl on the cool side. The rooms ambient temp is 83F. I took the tinfoil off of the tanks to allow for the air circulation to regulate better. I placed my sensors in a better spot and I put a damp old tshirt folded in about a 4in by 10 inch section to cover the middle third of their screen lids. Also I messed with the substrate a bit. I mixed aspen with some off the coco husk and sphagum moss and of course all tanks have two humid hides a hot side one and a cool side one... Humidity at last reading was avg of 60 in the tanks and 58 ambient room humidity. :) I finally think I've done it and just in time as their all looking to be starting shed cycles. Thank you all for the helpful input

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Originally Posted by nikitajane25

Ok, we have 3 tanks. My husband has put foil over the top, the heat lamp is directly over the water bowls, we wrapped black contact paper around the 2 sides and back (from theoutside of course), we mist, we have a humidifier....and the humidity won't go higher then 40 (staying between 33and40). We finally put some moss in one of the hides to make a humidty hide. But what can we do to boost the humidity in those tanks?!?
:confused::confused::confused::confused:

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I had similar problem's with a 20g with mesh locking lid. I just switched over to a tub.
Some people say use a damp towel and cover the majority of the mesh lid. I've never tried it but it may work.
Do you use Uth's with your lamp's on any of your setup's? What is the type and wattage of your bulb's you use in your lamp's? Depending how much your water bowl's hold you may want to increase the volume.
For me, I knew that the 20g was only going to be a temporary setup. So, in the meantime I covered the screen with packaging foam,used a 100 watt basking bulb (heat ended up being to much. had to use aluminum to decrease heat. the heat produced would dry out the substrate hardcore. you have to read the heat bulb info and find out how far the heat will reach. The bulb I used was for 20" I think. The 20g was only 12" high). Used a uth. Had a water dish and large pool on the hot side. Had my anaconda in the tank. The humidity I'm pretty sure got up to 60. Didn't really pay attention since the annie had the pool to stay wet.
Another option you may want to consider is to switch over to sterilite tub's. Hold's heat and humidity very well. Sometimes to much much humidity and so you have to make sure there is enough ventilation.

Some day I will learn not to enter this one but... not today.

I have never found tubs to 'hold' heat at all. Perhaps I have different idea of 'holding heat' to me that means it stays warm for a while after the heat is turned off. I have never had a tub 'hold heat' for more than 4-6 min and it is at room temp. Based on my experience there is nothing worse at holding heat. Tubs offer space savings and flexible ventilation, as humidity is partially a product of ventilation that too I guess. Heating them is easy if you only talk about a hot spot when you add ambient and cool spot it is tricky. There are limited heating options with tubs, why most tubs in racks are in warm rooms.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Skip has the simple solution humid hides. Type of heating does not change humidity the amount and location of air flow and size and position of the water bowl does. Lamps only alter humidity because they are often mounted in such a way that they increase air flow, that is all.

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Disagree. I switched from a 75 to 100 watt bulb a couple months ago to try to keep the heat up over the winter. Afterwards I noticed an immediate drop in humidity (about 15%). Like I said I didnt change anything other than my bulb and still saw a significant humidity drop within a few hours. Another reason I believe the bulb is to blame is that over night when I shut the bulb off I can easily maintain 40% with no misting.
As far as your humidity problem goes, I'm not sure where you live but I know for me living in the Midwest I have humidity problems over the winter too. I have found that part of this is caused by the dry air produced by having my furnace on. About the only thing I've found successful is to do what Skiploader said: try to maintain the 40% humidity, keep moist moss in the hide boxes and just tough it out till spring.

Humidity is a product of heat, evaporation (water vapour) and air flow. I think, by changing the bulb, you changed the heat and movement of the air and never rebalanced the system (larger water bowl different location and or altering the way the air moves.

If you take a air tight box at a given humidity and add a uth to it raise the temp to 90º and measure the humidity and then exactly repeat the conditions using a bulb inside (still air tight) the humidity will be the same as the uth. The fact a bulb it there will not change the humidity it is not absorbent and will not draw out water from the air. Bulbs change air flow patterns that is the difference. That can be changed by changing the vents on the enclosure.

I kept a completely open screen tank in a room at 30% humidity with bulbs at a constant 80% with nothing more than water bowl size and placement and altering the air flow pattern with fins on the top. No substrate at all and no foil top or anything of that sort. Just a pan of open water that needed to be refilled every few days. (not for snakes but for stabilized humidity of paper.)

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Humidity is a product of heat, evaporation (water vapour) and air flow. I think, by changing the bulb, you changed the heat and movement of the air and never rebalanced the system (larger water bowl different location and or altering the way the air moves.

If you take a air tight box at a given humidity and add a uth to it raise the temp to 90º and measure the humidity and then exactly repeat the conditions using a bulb inside (still air tight) the humidity will be the same as the uth. The fact a bulb it there will not change the humidity it is not absorbent and will not draw out water from the air. Bulbs change air flow patterns that is the difference. That can be changed by changing the vents on the enclosure.

Ok, I see what your saying. I never thought of it that way, I'm might have to try a little rearranging.
I kept a completely open screen tank in a room at 30% humidity with bulbs at a constant 80% with nothing more than water bowl size and placement and altering the air flow pattern with fins on the top. No substrate at all and no foil top or anything of that sort. Just a pan of open water that needed to be refilled every few days. (not for snakes but for stabilized humidity of paper.)

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Reply fail (dumb phone).

@Kitedemon
I see what your saying now. I never considered that, I think I've got a little rearranging to do ;)

I have several suggestions. I live in Western Montana which is very dry and cold. I'm buying a new baby ball python in a few months, and I wanted to make sure I can provide the proper cage temperature and humidity before she arrives, so I've been experimenting with different methods.

First of all, I would suggest switching from an aquarium to a plastic tub. I know it sounds odd, but in nature ball pythons like small sheltered hiding places, so a shallow plastic tub is actually ideal. A Rubbermaid or Sterilite tub will also retain a higher humidity level on average because moisture cannot evaporate through the lid. It will also allow you to do away with any ceramic heat lamps or other basking bulbs (which greatly reduce humidity). Here is a helpful tutorial (which I did not create) if you are interested in this option: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...my-Ball-Python

If you don't want to switch to a tub there are several other things you can do. Switch to a substrate made of coconut fiber, as it will retain moisture better than aspen. Covering half of the cage with a towel will keep some of the humidity contained. Using an Ultratherm Heat Pad as the primary source of heat will also reduce rapid evaporation. Be sure to provide a large water bowl so your snake has the option to soak. Providing humid hides can also help.

Hope this helps :)