Controlling Humidity -- Help!

I just set up my new tank for my 2 year old, 2 foot long Ball Python, Slithers. However, I live in a naturally humid area, where the interior humidity rests around 50%. When I raised the temperature in my plastic tank to 75, the humidity inside the tank shot up to 80-90%. I used the soldering iron trick to make 1/8 inch holes every 2 inches on the length of the tank, but I'm guessing it doesn't let enough of the humidity out.

I'm worried about making more holes in the enclosure, because the interior of my house is around 68 degrees, and the tank does not seem like that good of insulator. I have a larger water dish that is big enough for the snake to soak in, and keep it around an inch deep.

Any suggestions on regulating the moisture content?

-Matthew

Start off by getting a smaller water dish. The snake doesn't need to soak at all. Make sure the water is on the cool side of the enclosure. Also, a fan circulating the air nearby will help a lot, too. And then if those things don't bring it down to more manageable levels, you may have to put more holes.

I don't really have a 'cool side' to my tank. On one side of my tank I have the 84 degree heating pad + enclosure, and on the other side I have my 92 degree heating pad + enclosure. In the middle of the tank I have the water bowl.

You say that the snake does not need to be able to soak in the water bowl.. Would a water bowl that is pretty small, so that the snake can't even fit inside of it -- work?

I had the same problem and had to use a smaller water dish. My humidity now stays in the 57-60 range. I also have a fan around for when the humidity is ridiculously high (80-100 outside) it helps maintain proper levels.

In the summer we have to have a fan running nearby our enclosures to avoid the same.

We do not have air conditioning and the summers here can be surprisingly swampy - if you have enough air moving around the tanks you should be able to manage fine - it doesnt have to be a wind tunnel or anything - a little box or ceilign fan on low did the trick for us.

Do you have any holes in your lids as you do on your sides? Adding a few more of those should have some impact as well.

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Originally Posted by Stewy

I don't really have a 'cool side' to my tank. On one side of my tank I have the 84 degree heating pad + enclosure, and on the other side I have my 92 degree heating pad + enclosure. In the middle of the tank I have the water bowl.

You say that the snake does not need to be able to soak in the water bowl.. Would a water bowl that is pretty small, so that the snake can't even fit inside of it -- work?

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The biggest water bowl that I use is 16oz, about the size of a cereal bowl. I use these for all my snakes over around 750 grams. The smaller snakes have smaller water dishes. My littlest ones get 4oz bowls.

As long as the humidity in the enclosure is good, there's no need for a water bowl any bigger than necessary for drinking.

Steve

Well, when I came home yesterday one of my roommates had taken it upon himself to add some more holes to the top of my tub thinking it would help regulate the humidity, since the relative humity was close to 100%.

However, this hasn't done anything... When I woke up this morning, my AccuRite therometer read "HI" as the humidity. Any recommendations on a small fan that I could use to move some air through the cage? I was thinking of mounting a small computer fan to the cage, but those run on DC. Any idea of a small fan that runs on AC that I could use? I really don't want to run a huge fan on the snake cage -- I don't have enough space in my house for that!

i run a fan, all year long. it's at the ceiling height,helps to even out temps and humidity.

a few questions, what are the room temps, what is the room humidity? i personally wouldn't want a fan running air inside the setup, too drafty. if the tub is a tall one, you might want to do 2 rows of holes. i space my 1/4" holes about an inch apart. for tall tubs one row down low and one row up high might work better.


vaughn

Did you ever try the small water bowl? And when I suggested making sure it's on the "cool" side...I simply mean wherever the coolest spot in the enclosure is...I know it's not really "cool" by human standards. Still, it will make a huge difference if the bowl is sitting on top of a 92* heat pad, or sitting in a 82* corner.

Also...what kind of substrate are you using? If its that coconut stuff you have to soak before using, that can cause really high humidity readings for quite awhile until it dries out completely. Or if water gets spilled or sloshed on the unit...that'll screw up your readings, too. Are you getting condensation building up inside the tub? That's a good sign you don't have enough air circulating.

Whenever I suggest a fan to someone, I never mean to put it inside the tub...or even blow directly on the tub from the outside....just sitting someplace nearby and moving air around the room. A standard box fan set a few feet away from my tub and blowing away from it will drop the humidity by more than 10% very quickly.

Yes, yesterday on my way home from work I stopped by Petco and picked up this smaller water dish: http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_Prod...yID_12459.aspx

To anwser your other questions, the room that the cage is in is around 67 - 72 degrees, and around 50% humid. I use newspaper as a substrate, so that's not going to trap any water. I have the bowl situated between the two UTA's I have, so that it is not residing on either of them.

I'll try the fan thing this evening, but I'm going to need a lot more than 10% drop in humidity. For reference, I am using the 1886 tub from this site: http://sterilite.com/Category.html?S...uctCategory=37

I have holes drilled ever two inches in the sides, and around 12 holes in the top of the container. I'm worried about drilling more holes, because I will start to loose the heat that is trapped in the tank. Right now the ambient temperature is around 76 degrees inside the tank.

a room 67-72 that is 50% is already humid enough. the water bowl between 2 heat pads may act like a humidifier in the tub. i actually use a tub very similiar to that for quarantine. you may be getting higher humidity due to condensation, inside the tub the air is warmer and more humid than the air in the room. so condensation forms and adds to you humidity in the tub. i would try to use one heat pad and put the water on the opposite side. or put the tub in a closet and use a small space heater to heat the closet up to around 78-80 deg. this would stop the condensation.

vaughn

What type of substrate, if any, are you using in your setup? There may be some things you can do to altar that to help with the humidity...what are you using now?

-BT

I wish I had some advise for you. I cant keep humidity in my tank!:confuzd:

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Originally Posted by JLC

Start off by getting a smaller water dish. The snake doesn't need to soak at all. Make sure the water is on the cool side of the enclosure. Also, a fan circulating the air nearby will help a lot, too. And then if those things don't bring it down to more manageable levels, you may have to put more holes.

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For my sand boa, the coconut is great for when she's in shed. She always have a perfect shed and it holds humidity quite well. But you are correct, it can have insane humidity if its the whole tank/tub with the coconut if it isn't fully dried.

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Originally Posted by Vomitore

For my sand boa, the coconut is great for when she's in shed. She always have a perfect shed and it holds humidity quite well. But you are correct, it can have insane humidity if its the whole tank/tub with the coconut if it isn't fully dried.

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Yep yep. So if you are using a "moist" substrate like that...try taking it all out and replacing it with a couple layers of paper....not as "pretty" but could help with the high humidity.

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Originally Posted by kavmon

a room 67-72 that is 50% is already humid enough. the water bowl between 2 heat pads may act like a humidifier in the tub. i actually use a tub very similiar to that for quarantine. you may be getting higher humidity due to condensation, inside the tub the air is warmer and more humid than the air in the room. so condensation forms and adds to you humidity in the tub. i would try to use one heat pad and put the water on the opposite side. or put the tub in a closet and use a small space heater to heat the closet up to around 78-80 deg. this would stop the condensation.

vaughn

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I am currently using newspaper as a substrate, mostly because I don't want to deal with the effort that comes with other substrate materials.

What you're recommending is only using one heater? How hot should I keep it? I'm guessing 92-94, and let the snake sort everything else out? I know that the water bowl is acting like a humidifier.. It's pretty obvious, once I put the water bowl in the tank, the humidity shoots off the charts!

Thanks for any more advice you guys can give me.

-Matthew

yes, try using just one heat pad to get the hot side up to 92-ish. try heating just one third to one half.

vaughn

Well, using only one heat pad made the container only 60% humid, but I thought that the snakes needed two different heating zones to regulate their body temperature?

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Originally Posted by Stewy

Well, using only one heat pad made the container only 60% humid, but I thought that the snakes needed two different heating zones to regulate their body temperature?

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One heat pad on one side of the tub should create just such a gradient, although the cool side may be a bit cooler than ideal. But so long as its not TOO cold, (consistently or frequently below 75F) then I think that's better than risking scale rot from excessive humidity.

I have also heard (and someone correct me if I am incorrect) that the brown colored "snake carpet" that some people use in the bottom of their tanks can actually absord and reduce humidity. If this is true you could try adding that in place of or addition to newspaper.

-BT