Will be picking up my bp soon, trying to get the tank ready before he gets here. Having trouble with temp and humidty, tho. The tank is a 30 gallon glass tank with a screen top, overhead light, and uth under the water dish and part of the cool side to keep it comfy. Problem is, if I dont use a 100 watt bulb, the hot/basking side wont hit 90. The cool side stays about 71 and the humidity is way low.........like 30 or 25 if I dont mist. If I mist, the humidity shoots up to 60 and then gradually falls over 2 hours to 30 again. The water bowl has a lid with an access hole cut into it for a soak/hide. If I provide a soak/hide do I really need to worry about the overall humidity? I have plastic over most of the screen top and it still holds heat poorly and the light bulb seems to want to eat up the humidity. The uth doesn't seem to do much but heat the glass under the astroturf that I have as substrate (granted it's meant as a radiating belly warmer).
I was thinking that a piece of driftwood nice and damp would throw some humidity, or a humid hide on each side. Up here in northern michigan the winters just gobble the humidity out of the air, house is dry, etc, and I'm going nuts trying to provide a favorable environment.
Any suggestions? Have read just about every post on the site and still stumped
Also, when talking about red bulbs left on 24/7, are these just simple red colored bulbs or the expensive pet store uv or red bulbs? Flood? Spot?
Right now just using standard 100w.
Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions!