Hey all,

I just posted in a thread about my brand spankin' new PVC set up. As I suspected, the temperature is not holding as well as I'd hoped. The humidity seems to be high, and I'm wondering if an RI may happen.

What's going on: 24x24x18 setup (BP is 6 months old), humidity around 70-80% as I just yesterday set it up. Sustrate is cyprus mulch... ergo the high humidity. I have not misted. The ambient temp is stable around 77.5F, but ranges in different areas of the tank - the lowest being 74.F, which I am really not happy about. Hot spot is 92F (as I've got my thermostat cranked so heat will actually get through the PVC - I am monitoring with both a separate probe thermometer and a handheld digital thermometer, to see what happens).

Now my real question... Do you think the mulch will dry out over the next few days, so that the humidity will drop a bit and reduce the risk of an RI? Or will it maintain its dampness?

I am working on finding another method to up the ambient temp of the cage, however I have a corn snake in the neighbouring vive - a connected PVC cage, therefore the entire unit is actually 48". I am against RHPs as they are expensive and quite frankly, don't seem to alter the temperature any different than from UTH from what I've read. I really don't want to add in a mesh top, as that defeats the purpose of me getting the PVC cage.
Unfortunately I don't have control over my thermostat, so turning up the heat in my apartment isn't an option. It's stupid, I know.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to your responses!