Total Frustration

First of all, Vaughn, thanks for your help. As it turned out, I was not allowing enough time for the temp gauge to correctly measure the temps. That being said, my cool side still never rose above the temperature of the room. Obviously a cool side at 72 or 73 is not going to be sufficient. This is inspite of the fact that the warm side rose as high as 109F! I found it insanely odd that two temp gauges that were about two feet apart could rattle off such different readings.

I know that I can cut a hole in this thing for a heat lamp to supplement the temps on the cool side & I know that I can use more substrate to bring the temps down on the warm side. More frustrating than either of these two things is the fact that I was always told rubbermaid enclosures were amazing when it come to humidity. Well, despite the fact that I have a HUGE waterbowl inside the tank AND it is right next to the humidity gauge, my humidity stayed at a steady 34% last nite! This is in a rubbermaid. The tank that Hissy is in right now is a glass tank with a screen top & the humidity in it never dropped below 48% last nite! This has me completely frustrated! I have to switch tanks soon because she is gettin too big for her 20 gallon. I went with a rubbermaid because it is so much cheaper & it is supposed to be an easier way to maintain temps & humidity. So far all I am finding is more difficulty in holding proper temps & an extreme lack of humidity. :angered: Anyone got any suggestions to help me out?

Can you post a pic of the enclosure? There may be things you can do. A front view and top view both would be good.

also if you aren't using a digital thermometer/hygrometer i'd bet that the readings are just off. before i got the digital model i thought my humidity was too low because of the readings i was getting from my analog gauges. i got the digital and it turned out i was pretty much right on.

Unfortunately Marla, I don't have a digi-cam or a scanner. The best I can do is describe it for you, which i will do below.

Mlededee, i use the digital thermo/hydro combo by acu-rite that you get at walmart. I know that my readings are accurate, but thank you for the suggestion.

Now to describe in the best detail that I can:

It is a 28 gallon rubbermaid that I layed on its side. I have 12 holes (about the same circumfrence as a pen) on each of the long sides (which are actually the lid & the bottom because like I said, it is on its side). There is between a half inch to an inch between the heat pad & the bottom of the container. The substrate is a reptile rug. The water bowl that sits in the middle is really big. The cool side somehow manages to stay at room temp only even though it is only gauged about a foot from the edge of the heating pad.

I know that this would be FAR easier with a picture or two but hopefully based on the description somebody can give me some ideas. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

OK, first, the taller the container, the harder I think it is to get temps and humidity right. It can be done, though.

Going without a picture, a few suggestions: reduce the space between the container and heat source, because you just need enough room for air to circulate between them, and turn your heat pad a little lower if it's going over 100. Next, you might want to scootch the heat pad over a wee bit to help warm up the cool side. Then, if your water dish is plastic, consider switching to glass or ceramic or similar. You can get a round ceramic casserole dish at wally world for just a few bucks that should work to help conduct heat and up the humidity. Finally, give it hours after making changes to see what effect they'll have before deciding if they've made a difference.

Hope this helps. Get back to us and let us know your progress.

Thanks Marla, I am gunna make those changes right now & see what sort of differences it makes. It is going to be a bit mis-leading right now because it is real hot & humid out here right now anyways.

Oh, & the water dish is ceramic rock type stuff, not plastic.

what do you think about using a stainless steel dish? would that be condusive to helping out with low humidity the same way a glass or ceramic one is? i ask because i have one that i want to start using and i'd like to take the humid hide out if i can because my tank is on the small side right now. otherwise i may take a little trip to walmart for some ceramics. :D

hey eddie, you'll get it. i work as a service tech in hvac so heating and cooling issues interest me. humidity is basically controlled by moisture and ventilation. too much ventilation lowers humidity, not enough ventilation you have too much humidity. high temps can also dry out the air (109 deg. might do this) heat tape, heat pads and flexwatt provide good heat without overdrying. you can check your hydrometer by breathing on it it should rise considerably. a humidifier in the area the cage is should also raise moisture. temps above 90-95 can lower humidity. properly setup and ventilated you should be able to keep temps and humidity in check with a spray bottle. i spray my green trees twice daily and my bp once daily. just going to have to experiment a little

hope this may help

thanks

vaughn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mlededee

what do you think about using a stainless steel dish? would that be condusive to helping out with low humidity the same way a glass or ceramic one is? i ask because i have one that i want to start using and i'd like to take the humid hide out if i can because my tank is on the small side right now. otherwise i may take a little trip to walmart for some ceramics. :D

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Yep, anything that conducts heat well will be a good water dish material if humidity is a challenge. I typically find stainless steel pet dishes are easier to overturn than pyrex pie plates, casserole dishes, and such, so you might check it for tippy-ness.

ALSO, I just saw some cool new pet dishes from Rubbermaid at my Dollar Tree. They have non-skid feet, sloped sides, and best of all, ball-python entrance and exit doorways for going underneath. I can't find them on the Rubbermaid site, but i think I'll be stocking up on some and may be able to upload a pic after I get them. They are plastic, though, so not for use in enclosures where humidity tends to be too low unless you also have a humid hide or just use them as hide instead of water dish.

those new bowls sound pretty sweet. i may have to check those out. the stainless dish that i got has a non-skid rubber edge around the bottom and is also sloped so that it really can't tip over. its just like a one of those plastic bowls that is partially hollow underneath and is sloped outward on the outside and inward on the inside. i tested every dish in the store for "tippy-ness". :P my fiance was very patient as i spent more time than any human has ever spent before in the doggie dish department at petsmart. :D

LOL. Glad he was patient for you. That's an important quality. And good for you for thinking about the tippy-ness ahead of time ;)

Well, thanks for all of the help. Things seems to have come under control. Again, it is a tough day to judge it because it is hot & humid even right now at 11pm here in Brockport. However, moving the heating pad over a little bit seems to have helped in conducting some heat over to the cool side. I want to avoid having to make the extra adjustements to the rubbermaid to stick a light in. With the old glass tank, I had to stick a heat lamp on the cool side just to keep the temps right.

At any rate, right now the humidity is really high in the tank but there isn't much I can do to change that because it is just so humid out here right now. She is intrigued. I have enjoyed watching her explore her new enclosure. She is tryin to figure out what the heck is goin on! :)

I do have a whole other problem now though... Empty Tank Syndrome! I gotta start workin Nanci over to agree to a new herp. Perhaps an African House Snake?

Haha, I'm already wondering what to put in my 20 gal tank once Pelota outgrows it in a handful of months. I'm thinking corn snake, because they don't require too much space until they're adults, and they're simple as hell to take care of. Especially compared to a ball.

Anyway, good luck with the new setup. Sounds cool. Wish you'd get your hands on a cheap digi camera so we can see some pics. At our local Walmart they have an uber-cheap digi cam for 30 bucks. It's a low-end camera, but it'd be perfect for pics for this site. Takes 640x480 pics. Company is Vivitar. Maybe you could look out for that next time you're around Wally World. ;)

Empty Tank Syndrome is a good problem to suffer from! Glad you got the temps worked out, and I'll bet the humidity will straighten out too. Here's some ideas for new herps: African house snake, crested gecko, blue tongue skink, Brazilian rainbow boa, rosy boa, Mexican black kingsnake, rankins dragon. :)

Things seem to be workin well with the new set-up. She is explorin the heck out of it & no doubt lookin for a place from which to escape. As far as the empty tank syndrome, i have PLENTY of ideas. Ever singe Jonah & I talked about it many moons ago, I have really wanted an African House Snake! I can keep a male in my 20 gallon for life. The problem is workin Nanci over & convincing HER that it is a good idea to get a new herp! LOL! I'll keep tryin...

I think an AFH is a great idea. :) Good luck w/ convincing Nanci. Maybe if she can meet one in person, it might help. Glad to hear the new setup is working out. I found it difficult to get some of mine right at first, but once I got them, they were a lot easier to maintain