Humidity help

[simon17]

Hey guy's need a little help with keeping my humidity at a steady 50-55%.

I have a 3ft beech vivarium by vivexotic which has 4 small rectangle vents, and lately im having to spray more than twice a day! It seems to be dropping fast, and always drops to 40% never any lower.

My gauge used to measure is Exo Terra Analogue Hygrometer?

Whats the best method i can use which keeps it at that level????

Auto misters??

[CoolioTiffany]

Hey guy's need a little help with keeping my humidity at a steady 50-55%.

I have a 3ft beech vivarium by vivexotic which has 4 small rectangle vents, and lately im having to spray more than twice a day! It seems to be dropping fast, and always drops to 40% never any lower.

My gauge used to measure is Exo Terra Analogue Hygrometer?

Whats the best method i can use which keeps it at that level????

Auto misters??

What are you using as a heat source?

Analogue hygrometers are no good, a lot of the time not accurate at all. Try looking into purchasing an Accurite if possible. Definitely an awesome tool, it measures the warm side and cool side temp along with the humidity (it is digital). They are around $12-$15 that I have seen. You can find them at Home Depot and most likely any home improvement store. Get the one with the probe though, I've noticed there are some without the probe.

[simon17]

What are you using as a heat source?

Analogue hygrometers are no good, a lot of the time not accurate at all. Try looking into purchasing an Accurite if possible. Definitely an awesome tool, it measures the warm side and cool side temp along with the humidity (it is digital). They are around $12-$15 that I have seen. You can find them at Home Depot and most likely any home improvement store. Get the one with the probe though, I've noticed there are some without the probe.

Im using a 100w 24/7 infra red bulb? She doesnt seem to be bother with everything, its just keeping it at that steady level where im not doing it that often,lol

[ogdentrece]

Actually I don't wish to confuse you but SOME analogues are no good at all, but usually when it comes to hygrometers, I don't trust digital ones at all. Accurites aren't so bad, but many other brands that I've tried are even more off than analogues, with the same brand's products having more than 30% difference in humidity readings. Temperature readings with digital thermometers however have not given me many problems. The best thing to use for humidity, as I have been adviced by kitedemon, are those with calibration usually used for more professional stuff like weather and what not. The slightly cheaper ones which are flimsy and loosely attached can be moved around abit. But before you discredit your humidity measuring device, you can perform a salt test to test its accuracy. Do google it if you have time.

Anyway, I think it's the lamp that is reducing your humidity by so much. They are notorious for doing so. First thing you can try is having your water bowl right under the lamp, another thing is to put it on a dimmer or thermostat so it isn't running full power 24/7, it'll help to increase the average humidity levels too. You can just create a humid hide, an ambient humidity of 45-50% should not be a big problem if you have a humid hide for it. Of course, the standard recommendation of changing to a UTH is a great one, I only use my heat lamps if I need to increase ambient temperatures and even so its positioned over the water. Humidity is so much easier to control that way.

[kitedemon]

A humid hide will solve your problems.

I like hygrometers that can be calibrated. Ones designed for humidors seem to be quite good. The analogue ones are cheaper and hold calibration longer (less likely the snakes will change the calibration too.) Digitals seem to be all over the place and need to be kept clean (no dust) to continue to work well. When they get gummed up the solution is to toss em as they become erratic. Accurites are no better or worse than the others on the market, I find them to big and bulky. Hygrometers are easy to test, google hygrometer salt test. It takes a bit of time but knowing what the humidity is is better than not knowing.