Help with the homemade humidifer on this site?

I built the homemade humidifier that this site has details on and I have the little tube in my Animal Plastics T3 cage. It has been running for about 5 days straight now and the humidity only increases about 5-10%. It is currently about 35-40% humidify, nothing really special. Is there a way to make this humidifer work better? I have a 60 gallon aquarium rated air pump so I believe the air pump is well big enough. Maybe I need bigger hoses? I am using the standard fish tank hoses that fit the air pump..

I built the homemade humidifer and it didn't help much either. I want to try next is buying a ultrasonic humidifer at wal-mart and plumbing it up with pvc pipe and a timer. I heard people have great success humidifying multiable enclosures with just one humidifer that way.

you know what I think it might be, I noticed that the water level in the 1-gallon jug has only gone down about 2 inches in like 5 straight days of running, so I don't think that much water really evaporates into the air with this setup..

Do you have a picture of the setup?

Have you checked your seals?

What gage tubing are you using and what is the pump rated for?

Worked almost more than I wanted it to when I was running it.

no not right now, but it basically looks identical to the article on this site, only difference is I am using a 1 gallon round juice container instead of the 1/2 gallon gatorade bottle they use on the directions, I don't think a bigger container should have any negative effect, I would think the more the water in the container the more the humid air will be..

I used to run one that worked quite well. It sounds like you are not getting enough air flow, but without seeing the setup I would be guessing.

I am using a 60 gallon pump the Whisper 60 here: http://www.tetra-fish.com/catalog/product.aspx?id=67

the tubing is the stuff they use for the pumps.. the standard tubing that fits the air pump, it's pretty small and flexible, I would say the outside diameter of the tubing is 1/4". It's standard aquarium air tubing. My seals are all good, I double checked that, and I put a big layer of hot glue all around the seals so that's fine I am sure. Plus I can feel air coming out of the tube that goes into the cage... it's not a very powerful blowing, but it certainly does blow out, and if you put your finger over the tube end you can hear the air backing up and then when you release your finger the air will come out much harder for a few seconds, sorta like the same thing as if you stop a hose from spraying and then release your hand, the water comes flying out much faster for a few seconds..

I just think that there isn't enough water evaporting into the air inside the bottle, as I said before the water level only went down about 2 inches in the 1-gallon bottle over a 5 day straight period of running 24/7... at this rate, I wouldn't have to fill the 1-gallon bottle up again probably not for another month or so.

Now in comparrision my room humidifier can suck through 2-gallons of water in one day, so I know that's much more efficient but I don't like the idea of blowing a room humdifider on my cage plus there is no way for that humid air to really get inside the cage from blowing on the outside of it..

as for my tubing hose lengths, I have about 1.5 feet of hose going from the air pump to the bottle, then from the bottle to the cage is probably about 4 feet long.

Try warming the water in the home made humidifier......

A home humidifier works cause it is warming the water to make steam... causing humidity in the air.... ok I think I explained it right, I know what I am tryin to say.....

no I don't think warming the water is really going to do much righ tnow, plus I have no way to keep the water warm, my ambient air temp in my room is like 63-67 degrees so the warm water will cool off quickly anyhow..

I don't see how I am not getting enough airflow, the water inside the bottle is bubbling quite well and I can see dew all over the inside of the bottle..

I just don't think enough water is evaporting into the air inside the bottle and thus the air coming out of the tube and into the cage is not really all that saturated with water...

I was thinking mabye I should try thicker tubing, but I don't know if that will even make a difference or not

All sounds about right to me. I have no background in hygromics or thermodynamics (if anyoen does pls chip in here) but I imagine there would be a limit on how big a container you could utilize without the moistened air getting re-absorbed before getting pumped out. That would likely be tied to the amount of air space at the top of the bottle. Again that's just a troubleshooting shot in the dark. I am assuming you have a covered lid/top for the enclosure. The tube lengths sound good - is the tubing fed in on the arm side or cold side? How far down into the enclosure does that tube run? Another factor that would be sure to play a role is the overall ambient room humidity. Maybe any or some of that will help - I've only used the bottles as described in the DIY (though diff sizes of the same) but nothing approaching a gallon size. My first stab at it used a 2L bottle - which also worked fairly well with the exception the lid was painfully small to get both tubes fed in aand sealed right.

how often would you have to put new water in a 2L bottle?

my ambient air temps in the room are 63-67.

I have the tubing sticking about 1" into the cage from the rear on the hot side. I tried the tubing on the cool side but it was worse, I am assuming warming air holds humidity better so the hot side is the better side for the tubing to be on. The tubing just sticks through one of the air slits on the back of the cage which is towards the top of the cage. The tubing has to sort of be flattened out to get through the skinny air slot but this doesn't seem to affect the airflow coming out of the tubing..

I had to top off the bottles (any given size i had used) about 3-4 days - they werent near empty but i wanted to try and keep the open space at the top of the bottle somewhat consistent.

With the tube in only 1" (near the top yes?) you may be losing the moisture quickly. Warm air does hold more moisture than cool air - but it also rises and if the tube isnt in there very far it likely isnt taking much effort for that to vent right back out. The tube being pinched also might be affecting it - as I know that will create increase pressure at that point and might bleed humidity off as well or at least constrict it (any HVAC folks in the hizzy?) - again all that is based a my shoddy understanding of the science behind it.

How arid is the room all of this is in?

The tubes in your bottle, does the air supply bubble thru the water or just pass above the water?

the room humidity stays between 35-40% during the winter..

the air tube goes all the way to the bottom of the bottle where it connects to a circular air stone and then the air comes out of this air stone and makes bubbles in the bottle..

so what type of bottles where you using and how big were the bottles? what size was the tank that the you had the tube in? towards the bottom or the top of the cage?

ps.. I put the tube through one of the air slats in the back of the cage because I didn't want to drill another hole in the cage for this tube and since I could sort of flatten out the tube to fit through one of these air slots I thought it would not be a problem, as I can still feel air coming out of the tube just fine with it sorta flattened out going through the air slot in the cage...

Weird. Environment I was using it in was even drier than that. I was feeding it into a 10 gal (for a juvie) with a contac paper covered screen lid. I'd used the size gatorade bottle pictured in the DIY section as well as one size smaller - both of those after having tried the 2L. Your enclosure simply DWARFS what I was using. I ikmagine for somethign that size youd need bigger tubing and a higher rated pump to push it. And definitely a gallon resevoir or larger. But with that T1 I'd expect it would hold heat/humidity more efficiently.

My more arid environment might explain why the water was spending faster - then again the humidity in the tank was right where I needed it. The tubing I had ran into the cage to about midway between hot and cold and was close to the floor of the cage.

I think I will have to go with not enough airflow for the size of enclosure you are dealing with.

i would guess, bigger pump to push more air. you want to see a little water in the tube going into your cage. for the price of a pump you could just buy a room humdifier and treat the air around the cage and do the same thing. i.e. if the room is 50-60% the cage in the room will be close to this too.

vaughn

yeah I can't make the room humid enough because it's in my living room which has all open walls to the rest of my house..

I don't want to push too much of a high air stream into my cage becasue it might give my snake an RI..

I thought that the do it yourself humidifier was made for a cage the size of my T3? I would say my T3 inner dimesnions are about equal to a 40-50 gallon glass aquarium. And the air pump I have is rated for 60 gallons.

i don't think it would push enough for that much space. You're right that's about 40gal - but i don't know that the flow rating for liquids would translate directly trying to push humid air this way. It is after all just a DIY solution - but I don't think you'd have much luck getting that particular setup illustrated to work on anything bigger than say a 90qt Sterilite. But using those I don't need anything to enhance humidity other than pushing the water bowl further over the warm side.

Does your setup have lights?

yes I have a 150-watt CHE over one side of the cage and flexwatt under the other side of the cage. I tried putting the water bowl directly under the CHE but it makes little differeence in my humidity. Is it not safe for the snake to stay in 35-40% humidity all the time?

the 150 watt is drying out the air...


vaughn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kavmon

the 150 watt is drying out the air...


vaughn

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/beaten

:clap:

Splendidly done, Holmes!

How much of a drop in temps do you get without it?

I think the hose is too long. 5 and 1/2 feet may be excessive. Is it possible for you to reduce the hose-length going into the enclosure? For every foot of tubing, you're adding that much back-pressure against the water and the pump. The low-gauge hose doesn't help this much. Also, what is the angle that the hose is running at from the pump to the enclosure - is it traveling at an incline, a decline, or a level angle? All of these things combined can really have a negative effect on the efficiency of the pump. There's an equation for this, but I can't remember it.

If at all possible, get some photos posted. This would really make the problem-solving alot easier. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by squale

yes I have a 150-watt CHE over one side of the cage and flexwatt under the other side of the cage.

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Under-Tank Heaters are really the only way to go when dealing with humidity issues. Get rid of the lamps all-together and you'll be a much happier camper. They're simply unnecessary.

With the ambient temperatures in the room being what they are, you may not be able to adequately heat the tank using UTH.

Does anyone know if the shape of the bottle makes any difference? i.e, is more surface area for the water (a wider bottle) better? I was using a gatorade bottle, and it worked, and later I bought a humidifier, which worked better. The store bought one is no wider than the gatorade bottle, but there is a sponge in between the two hoses so that more water is exposed to the moving air. I was thinking, rather than the sponge, perhaps a wider container could do the same thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kavmon

the 150 watt is drying out the air...


vaughn

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vaughn

Anything that gets narrower toward the top and the tubes might tend to "funnel" the output better (I'd think). Sponges anywhere they tend to stay moist, whether its in a tarantula's water dish or anything blowing into an enclosure makes me nervous for the prospect of mold etc.

Back when I was actively fiddling with this i tried using one of those bendable air strips instead of a bubblestone and had it set up so it kind of coiled like a slinky down in the bottle - worked better than the airstone but it was a mighty chore getting that thing in and out while maintaining the desired shape. Last time I actually put one together was for the pictures included in the tutorial. I hope some of this proves useful!

That makes sense to me. Like I said, I was just curious if anyone had experimented with different shaped containers. Incidentally, I agree about sponges and mold--I removed the one from the storebought humidifier--I was just using it as an example of exposing more water surface to the air at once. Some time I might try fooling with using two smaller jars simultaneously as well.

well I did a little experimenting over the weekend. I tried using a 2 liter cranberry juice bottle INSTEAD of the 1 gallon cranberry juice bottle I was using previously. I didn't see any effect on air output or any significant change in humidity inside the enclousure. So I went back to using the 1-gallon bottle. I also tried using 2 air stones each on it's own hose coming from the 2-output air pump. This didn't seem to make much of a difference compared to useing the T-connector with 1 air stone as shown in the tuturial. Next thing I did was to shorten up the hoses a bit, this made the air come out a tiny bit faster but not much of a difference at all in humidity levels inside the enclousure. I have my water bottle with air pump sitting BELOW the cage on the floor about 3 foot under the encloursure. The air tube has to go vertically upward a few feet from the bottle to the cage where I drilled a hole in the back center of the cage to stick the air hose through. I have the air hose towards the top of the cage with about 4 inches of the hose sticking inside the cage, pointing to the floor of the cage.

The ONLY noticiable difference in humidity I find is with using HOT water in the bottle. Right after I fill the bottle up with HOT water and then run the pump, I notice my humidity levels JUMPS up about 20% in about 20 minutes time after starting the pump. As the water cools down in the bottle the humidity in the cage also goes down, then basically overnight, the humidity is back down into the 30-40% range. So I have come to the conclusion that I need HOT water in the bottle at all times, (makes sense since hot air holds more moisture, the hot water in the bottle is warming up the incoming air from the pump, thus making the hot air hold lots of moisture which is then pumped into the tank). I was thinking of a way to put some sort of aqaurium submersiable heater inside the bottle to keep the water hot in there, but I don't know how I could do this and keep an air tight seal in the bottle..

the other option I was thinking of, is scrapping the whole do-it-yourself humidifier idea, going to walmart and buying a 'warm-mist' humidifier and somehow rigging up tubing to go from the output of the humidifier and channel it into my snake cage. This way I think the humidity would go up much better and since the humidifier is already putting out warm mist, that would solve my hot water issues..

Bear with me because I am going to ask a stupid question:

How much of your enclosure do you have sealed off?

I have the animal plastics T3 cage, so if you check that out you will see... only small air slots on the back of the cage

I am really stumped, sorry. I have a glass enclosure and am also running both flexwatt and a 150 watt ceramic heater because of low ambients, and with the humidifier I am able to maintain the humidity around 55%.


You might try putting saran wrap or contact paper over the air slots. You really don't need much in the way of ventilation since you are pumping air into the enclosure.

well I don't know how big your glass enclousure is, but my T3 inside area is about equal to a 40-50 gallon aqurirum. so that could make a difference. Plus my ambient air temps in the room at 63-67 degrees and the relative humidity in the room is about 37% Your's could be different and thus make a difference inside the enclousure. I am running about 10% more humidity than my room humidity in the enclousure with the DIY humidifier running.

i would be a little cautious about the warm mist humidifier exhausting directly in the cage. warm temps and too much moisture could be 10x worse than a dry cage? mold,fungus,bacteria,etc!!! i really think the 150 watt che is zapping all the moisture out of the air, going to a uth or flexwatt that is sized for your setup might do the trick.

i've seen the pic with the humidfier setup exhausting directly in the cages and it looks like overkill and something off of star trek, like the "borg" would use lol
just my opinion.

vaughn

how about this idea, use the same setup as described in the DIY section on this site, and then get one of those electric warmer things that you can put pots ontop of that will keep the pot warm....? I can then put the water bottle ontop of this..

My set-up is smaller, the cage is probably about 20 gallons and I am using a 30 gallon pump, but the ambients in the room are probably similar to yours--Around 67 degrees. Humidity in the room is probably around 45%. You might be better off saving yourself the aggrevation and just making a humid hide or two so your snake can get humidity when he feels like it.