Humidity keeps dropping

So I seem to have a problem, my humidity keeps dropping gradually. I get it up to about 55% and it keeps dropping down to below 49% after a couple hours. It was steady for about 4 days when I first setup the tank now all of a sudden it's all FUBAR'd! My setup is as follows 10gal critter cage, UTH on the warm side, Infrared heat light in the middle (which is causing my humidity problem), 2 thermostats, my temps are 93.2 & 82.4. I was wondering if it would work if I put another UTH on the cool side and set the temp to stay in the low 80's with the thermostat probe on the heating pad like on my warm side, this would allow me get rid of the heat light which I needed originally because my cool side temp wouldn't go above 75.

What substrate are you using? If you are using a wood substrate more then likely it is drying out...which is common. If you can maintain 49% I wouldn't worry about it...if it continues to drop then you may need to mist daily to offer humid period each day.

As for your question about the UTH, yes that will raise the surface temp on the cool side but it may not raise the ambient temp much...only way to know for sure is to try it out.

You can also put the water bowl right under the CHE which will cause more evaporation and raise the humity (a larger water bowl can also help with this)

i'm using cypress mulch, the problem is i'm having to mist about 5-6 times a day to keep it above 49%. When I leave it overnight it drops down to almost 45%. If take out some of the cypress and really moisten it would that do the trick?

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Originally Posted by Enve

i'm using cypress mulch, the problem is i'm having to mist about 5-6 times a day to keep it above 49%. When I leave it overnight it drops down to almost 45%. If take out some of the cypress and really moisten it would that do the trick?

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Cypress is really wet out of the bag and will dry dramatically the first week. You don't want to over moisten it as they can lead to skin issues for your snake.

I would suggest - cover some of the top with plastic wrap which will help hold in some of the humidity, get a larger water bowl and place under the CHE to create more evaporation. Then let it settle and see where you land.

i just picked up some sphagnum moss i'm going to try throwing a little in and seeing how that does. I have some of the top covered with tinfoil and duct tape already so hopefully this will work :confused: Thanks for the help

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

What substrate are you using? If you are using a wood substrate more then likely it is drying out...which is common. If you can maintain 49% I wouldn't worry about it...if it continues to drop then you may need to mist daily to offer humid period each day.

As for your question about the UTH, yes that will raise the surface temp on the cool side but it may not raise the ambient temp much...only way to know for sure is to try it out.

You can also put the water bowl right under the CHE which will cause more evaporation and raise the humity (a larger water bowl can also help with this)

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So can I take this to mean that if my humidity is too high it might be helpful to use aspen shavings instead of newspaper?

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I don't know if this would work for a BP setup. I use it for cresties.

With screen tops its really hard to keep the humidity right, its either too high or way too low with no in between.

Misting my cresties tank heavily at night it would drop to almost 30% by morning. So by accident I put some non adhesive shelf liner on top of the tank leaving about 3 inches of screen exposed on one side. It was perfect. The liner has holes in it so you get really good ventilation but the humidity doesn't drop drastically. So I mist at night, then put the liner back on top and it drops to 55% by late morning and stays that way all day.

So maybe that would keep the humidity at the right levels for you bp.

I was having the same problem with my screen topped tank.

Here is what has been working for me:

I use two paper towels, folded over, spray them down until they are damp and place them on top of the screen in the back center. I then cover the entire top with a towel.
As humidity begins to drop I fold back the towel, pick up the paper towel and remist it till damp and recover with the towel.
If the humidity is too high I simply fold one of the corners of the towel back to expose some of the screen and then cover it all back up when the humidity is at the desired level.

Well I added in the moss and my humidity is 56% and has been for about 4 hours now! All seems well for the time beeing, we'll see in the morning I guess :O Thanks again guys/gals 2Devious, i'll deffinitly keep that trick in mind once winter hits.

We are having similar problems. We have a UTH on the warm side as well as a 40 Watt bulb in a lamp (aims to side of tank). Our humidity was fine, but temps were too low on both warm and cool sides. So we got a CHE in a lamp above the warm side. At first, it was in a lamp that couldn't handle 100 Watts, but temps and humidity were good, with temps only slightly lower than ideal.

But now that we installed the proper lamp that can handle up to 250 watts (with metal shade to keep heat in better), the temps are getting high on warm side and the humidity drops like crazy. We have the cool side covered to keep in humidity (water bowl on that side) and added a small ceramic dish of water on the warm side to aid humidity in evaporation. Usually we turn off the 40 watt now and turn down the UTH slightly. My husband has the UTH on a dimmer and is thinking of adding the CHE to the dimmer, too (he can do electrical work). We have a "true light" fluorescent light, as well. Our substrate is fir mulch that came with the "reptile critter" 20 gal tank we got.

This is what happens, temps rise to about 93 / 82 but humidity drops to 35%. (Once I think the warm side even reached 95 - yikes! - needless to say, we check OFTEN to monitor the situation, and luckily Mr. Snake is moving back and forth from warm to cool, so he seems to know what he needs). So I mist quite a bit (and NOT directly on the snake!) to bring humidity back up. Then the humidity rises to about 60% and the temps drop to 87/78. Then as it warms up again the humidity drops again - perfectly inverse correlation here, all the time!

The humidity and temps have also dropped a lot where we live in the past few days. Winter will be fun! (eastern panhandle of WV).

Any ideas, folks??? Should we try the moss, too?
Thanks!

I'd try the moss, it's working great for me right now. My humidity is actually going up a little instead of going down like it has been. It's cheap enough even if it dosen't work not like you spent a bunch of money on it. I started out with very little in the corners of the tank then gradually increased the amount till I had it at a good level. I ended up putting it on top of his hides (couple pinches).

Covering the screen with almost any non-porous material will help keep both heat & humidity in. Don't cover the whole thing or make holes to allow for air exchange, and you can adjust how open it is as necessary. I'm currently using some styrofoam-like stuff which seems to be working well, and we had it already so the cost was right even though it looks horrible. I've seen plexiglass suggested, and that probably looks tons better but won't insulate as well.

Something more porous, such as cardboard or the damp towels suggested by 2Devious MIGHT be a concern as far as providing a breeding ground for bacteria or other nasties that like warm damp places. I'm not sure how it would be different than something like damp moss in a humid hide, which is something I haven't done yet but it seems to be a fairly accepted practice so maybe as long as you change it out frequently it won't grow nasties fast enough to matter.

As far as the humidity going down when the temps go up, that is because of how humidity is measured. Humidity is NOT a count of how many water molecules there are in a unit of air. Rather, it is an expression of what percent of the water that could possibly be in the air is actually there. Warmer air can hold more water. Therefore, if you have 50% humidity at 80 degrees, and you take that air in a sealed container so no more water can get in or out of it, and heat it up to 90, the humidity will go down even though the actual amount of water in the air remains constant.

That explanation wasn't very elegantly worded, so if you have trouble following it I might try again when it isn't so late at night!

To raise humidity, you need water to evaporate faster than it escapes out of the tank once it is in the air. The more water surface area you have, the faster it can evaporate. Making the water deeper won't help at all. You can also put the water on the warm side of the tank.

Misting, or having a little bit of dampness in your substrate, both essentially raise the surface area of water that is exposed to the air and can evaporate. But once the mist droplets or the substrate dry out, you are back to only the water container, and as your humid air escapes, there isn't enough surface area to keep the humidity up.

I know the substrate shouldn't be too damp or it can cause skin problems for the BP. I wonder if it would be ok to dampen 1/2 of the substrate, and put that in the bottom covered with a layer of drier substrate? It should still raise humidity (until it dries out again) but hopefully that would prevent problems for the snake's skin.

However, I think the easiest answer is to find the right amount of coverage for your screen top so that the water container provides enough humidity. That will be more consistant humidity and easier to maintain.

Most of this is based on my knowledge of how humidity and evaporation work, some of it is based on what I've read about keeping BPs, and a tiny bit of it is based on my personal experience with keeping a BP. So if someone with more knowledge directly related to BPs has something different to say, I'd listen to them above me.

i have 2 ball pythons in 2 critter cages. and the 40 gallon one was a pain to get the humidity up to nominal levels little lone the 70's for sheds. there is a wonderful sticky about taping up the top of your screen with some tinfoil in between the tape and the mesh since i did that i have had no issues with humidity and even had it up to 90 for about 10 mins before i removed the top to let some out.

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Originally Posted by sophia

So can I take this to mean that if my humidity is too high it might be helpful to use aspen shavings instead of newspaper?

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No actually the opposite. If you have high humidity and want to lower it you should use a dryer substrate...like newspaper instead of aspen. Sorry if that was confusing. :)

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Originally Posted by Enve

I'd try the moss, it's working great for me right now. My humidity is actually going up a little instead of going down like it has been. It's cheap enough even if it dosen't work not like you spent a bunch of money on it. I started out with very little in the corners of the tank then gradually increased the amount till I had it at a good level. I ended up putting it on top of his hides (couple pinches).

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The problem with moss is the exact same as with Cypress. It is really moist when new but will dry out over the course of a week or so...so yes you fixed your humidity issue but it will start to drop again as the moss dries out and you will be back to where you started.

The ONLY way to fix a low humidity issue is to raise the amount of available water to be evaporated (or capture and hold the water that is already in the system). As I and others have said this can be done with daily misting (to add water) a larger surface area water bowl placed under the CHE (again adds water to the system) or covering the screen top somewhat (to keep what moisture in already present from escaping).

Just a note on the sponge idea...yes this works well to add water to the system but I would only use it during a shed and remove it immediately. Keep in mind warmth and moisture = mold/bacteria/salmanila and sponges are perfect breeding grounds for them (that is why they are used in ALL fish filters)..just I don't suggest long term use - I wouldn't even use one in my kitchen ;)

Have you thought making the switch to a rubbermaid? You will never have this problem again if you do. Otherwise the only thing i can think of is duct tape 3/4's of the screen with sran wrap and mist the inside walls of the enclosure (not the substrate) if your substrate is too wet its not only bad for your snakes belly but its a waste of substrate becsause you will have to change it out.

We have about 2/3 of the screen top covered (with a wooden dinosaur puzzle for now, ha ha). I guess we can try a larger water bowl under the CHE. Too bad we have that fancy "reptile" rock-like looking water bowl - cute, but not working for humidity!

Another question b/c it gets DRY around here in winter, what about an in-tank humidifier? Does anyone have experience with or advice on those?

Also, I know the ideal humidity (non-shed time) is 50 - 60%, right? But what is too much humidity? Anything over that, or is it OK if it goes up to 80% or so as long as it drops again soon? I guess I'm wondering if up and down are OK or bad for the snake.

Thanks, y'all!!

had this problem when I used glass (still have 1 40gallon in use) and I picked up some plexiglass from home depot and cut it out to fit the top... Also check petco... they have a reptile humidifier(20$) (which can actually be made at home out of a gatorade bottle) that can be used to pump up the humidity and also add fresh O2 into the tank. This way you can cover the majority of the tank top. All you need is an aquarium pump (15$), the humidifier(20$) and plexiglass(14$) and your good to go... In the end my strongest reccomendation is to switch to a tub. Much easier to maintain than glass.

Too much humidity is like 80%... when you see condensation on the inside of the glass or the substrate is wet you need to make changes... Could lead to belly rot. Mine are in the 60's low 70's all the time.

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Originally Posted by JoshJP7

had this problem when I used glass (still have 1 40gallon in use) and I picked up some plexiglass from home depot and cut it out to fit the top... Also check petco... they have a reptile humidifier(20$) (which can actually be made at home out of a gatorade bottle) that can be used to pump up the humidity and also add fresh O2 into the tank. This way you can cover the majority of the tank top. All you need is an aquarium pump (15$), the humidifier(20$) and plexiglass(14$) and your good to go... In the end my strongest reccomendation is to switch to a tub. Much easier to maintain than glass.

Too much humidity is like 80%... when you see condensation on the inside of the glass or the substrate is wet you need to make changes... Could lead to belly rot. Mine are in the 60's low 70's all the time.

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Thanks for all the clarification. We'll work on it!

I got a large, shallow casserole dish under the CHE and it seems to be working great! Thanks! I am still tweaking for the temps, but we are getting close!