How should I cover a screen top?

As the topic says, what's the best way to cover a screen top to hold in humidity/heat. And how much should you cover?

If you want my honest opinion, I would throw the screen top away and buy a sheet of pegboard and cut it to size to fit for a lid. This stuff works SO well for keeping in humidity in a glass tank, too.

Just my $0.02. I've never wasted my time with a screen lid, but I know alot of people here use them and cover them with duct tape. I would wait for their advice on it, I have no idea how that would work.

Jennifer

duct tape....i cover about 2/3 of the screen top with duct tape. you may need to cover the whole thing with just a whole for a heat lamp(if you have a heat lamp). or just hole for ventilation.

I used contact paper on mine to cover most of the top, you can cut it to fit and I think it looks a little better than duct tape. If you get it to match the tank trim, it kinda looks like it belongs there. Granted it doesnt stick all that well, but it does well enough. I also built the home made humidfier found on this site, and it worked wonders for my low humidity problem!

I do exactly what Mike said - duct tape covering all of the top with holes around the lights (or if you don't use lights leave holes for ventilation. I found some black duct tape that looks better than the traditional gray. In addition I use a Tropic-Aire humidifier w/ air pump - no humidity problems since and no need to mist.

Here's what I had to do to get my levels where I needed.
https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop.../Lid%20Web.jpg

Thanks for the input guys. Especially the picture, that helps. :)

Good ole duct tape!

peg board sounds ok what about a piece of glass i have a 55 gall oceanic lizard tank glass with a screen top i can't keep humdity higher than 35 i..im worried about the spotlight on the glass yes--no would the glass crack because of the heat :!:

We've been using contact paper, but I like the pegboard idea. We were considering getting sheets of acrylic and drilling holes in it, but the pegboard sounds like a much easier option. Thanks, Jennifer!

By the way, do you treat the pegboard with anything or just use it as is?

I've seen it used as-is, but if you want to 'treat' it easily, cover it with contact paper and then poke your holes back through.

Another good idea. Thanks, Marla.

If you want to know the easiest way to do something, ask a lazy man how. ;)

If you use a substrate like Eco-earth the humidity would be really stable. I love that stuff, and so does my plated. It's real good stuff.

I use eco-earth for my gopher. It works wonderfully as a dry substrate, too.

I've been having a hard time with the humidity too. I've been wanting to cover up the screen lid with something, but not sure what. What's the best? and would it be a fire hazord?

I think steelsack's picture on the first page shows an excellent way to cover the screen w/out it being a fire hazard. Just leave a gap around your lamp. You could do the same with contact paper.

Thanks, I'll ty it.

Well, I did it! I put duct tape all over the top of the lid. I left holes for the lamps and gave the substrate a good mist. Now to see if it holds!

Just make sure your substrate doesn't stay continually wet. Damp/wet substrate can cause a host of other problems such as blisters or scale-rot. With a lamp over the top of the cage, it'll probably dry out alright, but keep an eye on it.

What I did in Phil's enclosure was to buy a sheet of plexiglass just slightly smaller than the screen on the top, and they drill the corners and the middle of the plexiglass and tie-strap it to the underneath of the screen. It not only helps hold in humidity, but also helps prevent Phil from rubbing abrasions into himself against the screen.

Plexiglass is inexpensive, easy to work with, and easy to find. However, make sure if you do something like this that it is attached tightly to the top at more than just the corners. I had mine attached just at the corners at first, and found that Phil had managed to squeeze between the screen and the plexiglass. Adding another attachment point in the center prevented any further occurences of that.

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Just make sure your substrate doesn't stay continually wet.

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Yes, that would be not good! But I never give the misting an "over-dose" - it's always still "dry" afterwards.


I just checked the humidity...it was 40% that's actually a little improvement. I think that once I build the humidifier it should be better.

I just finished constructing the humidifier (from the DIY section). As I said earlier, I covered my screen top with duct tape (like steelsack's pic) so now I just have to wait and see how it all turns out!

I checked the humidity and it was around 65%! I think I have to lower the water level. The problem was that it sprang a leak so I'm going to redesign it.