Heat and Humidity concerns, pre-snake nervousness!

[Reakt20]

you could also keep water on the hot side to help promote humidity or keep some moss in the hides to at least keep the humidity up in those, which they will spend most of their time in anyways. ideally, you'd want 60% humidity and 70% when shedding. u r close. I think with a couple adjustments, you'll get it.

[Skittles1101]

Even if you can't get the humidity correct in the entire tank, you can easily make a humid hide, which work pretty well for people struggling with humidity

[ravenx99]

Nice looking setup. I'm new at this myself, and I have to say that the non-contact thermometer (temp gun) brings a lot of peace of mind. You can check any surface instantly, and often as you want. Makes this "fretting father"a lot more relaxed.

I got mine at Harbor Freight for about $30 on sale. Checked it against other thermometers I believe to be accurate to see how far off it was and it's pretty good.

I have a screen-top tank, and finally got the humidity stabilized by putting foil over 2/3rds of the lid and putting in a shallow bowl of water with a bit of terrarium moss in it. Don't drown the moss... most of it has to stick up out of the water.

Even with misting, my humidity kept dropping below 30%... with the moss, it hangs at 55% consistently, even though I have a heat lamp. I placed a terracotta saucer in a deeper bowl... it wicks up the water in the lower bowl and transfers it to the moss, while keeping the moss from drowning. I only have to add water every few days.

Don't let the moss touch the substrate... it'll feed the water right into aspen and such, making a soggy mess.

[ravenx99]

Oh, yeah... I'll second the hydrofarm thermostat. For the money, it's doing a fine job for me. I tried a rheostat (dimmer) and had to adjust it multiple times a day.

Amazon has the hydrofarm and even though they're meant for seedling tray heat mats, many of the reviews are from herpers.

[Toxic Tessa]

I'll definitely look into getting the hydrofarm thermostat! It looks promising and is right in my budget. Also, I am pretty much sold on the idea of a temp gun... mainly because I find it so much cooler then a thermometer lol.


I'll have to try the moss in the hide method! Thank you for mentioning it, It didn't even occur to me to try that. .


The terracotta saucer sounds amazing. I am gonna run to the store after work tomorrow and pick one up to give it a shot.


I think after getting a thermostat, the aspen bedding may be my best bet since it will raise the hot side temperature, and it will be easier to set up some form of humidity control in the tank.

I really appreciate everybody giving me input! You all are awesome. <3

[Toxic Tessa]

On a side note... the plain black backdrop due to blacking out the tank drives me crazy...so I am in the middle of painting a backdrop to give it some pizazz.

[jjmitchell]

using cypress bedding will help bring the humidity up if nothing else helps. Everything sounds good, glad to see you did your homework and prep..........

[Vypyrz]

Since you are using an Under Tank Heater to provide a warm spot, the air temp on the warm end does not need to be high. As long as you can maintain the ambient temp of 75-78F. After you get your thermostat and temp gun, I would suggest getting a larger Under Tank Heater. Something that will cover approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the floor space. This will give you warmer spot to place the water bowl over. which will cause the water to evaporate a little quicker and help with the humidity.

[kitedemon]

It looks good. What brand of UTH are you using? Some brands are designed to not get over 90º if you are using a self regulated one you might be able to get away with out a T-stat (it is ALWAYS recommended!! but the regulated ones usually under correct operation do not get much hotter than 10º over the room temps it is painfully imprecise but it seems to work for some) I would second Lgreys t-stat selection I suspect you will end up looking at the hydrofarms the issue they seem to have is when the probe (the part that checks the temps and allows the controller to adjust things) is not exceptionally accurate (it might read 80 but the correct temps could be something 76) With this in mind a hydrofarm IMO must be accompanied by a reasonably accurate 'set up' thermometer. With out getting too detailed (one of my tendencies) I'd highly recommend a liquid crystal type they are about as accurate as you can get on a budget. Don't stick it anywhere is it is a stick on just place it until you figure what the hydrofarm should be set on to give you the correct temps then you can remove it from the enclosure and use that to check digital ones against.

[Toxic Tessa]

I'm not sure what type of UTH I have, it has no writing on it and is a hand-me-down from a friend.

However, I seem to have gotten humidity fixed. It has stayed constant at just under 70% since last night. Now, I need to find a way to lower it some lol. As for the warm spot under the hide, it still reads at around 86-87F. the cool side is still around the same, same for the warm. I'm going to be nabbing a temp gun and thermostats tonight hopefully. All depends on what time I get off work.

Do you think it will be possible to find a temp gun at Walmart, same with a thermostat?