Keeping Humidity up (Tinfoil Help)

[FeathersRuff]

(Week old photo FYI, shes no longer in the tub shes just in the tank now AND I only have the red bulb, no daylight bulb anymore)


It's not a breeder its just a regular 10 gallon tank. I'm gonna run the undertank heater as well later in the week when I move her tank to somewhere else in the room.
It has a screen top but the top itself is made out of wood, but the center of it is mesh.

[Alexio]

Okay so there exists a product called reflectix. It looks like this :


It is a very useful thing which has literally 100's of applications. It is in essence bubble wrapped in foil insulation. But you can use it is a "cover" or a "lid" . this is what I have my pb in while waiting for my heat for rack I have. It's a 40 gallon breeder with a sliding lock top. It looks like this.


I keep tortoises as well in large enclosures which are large heat and humidity emitters. As a result the standing humidity is about 50% in my apt. So I don't need the cover for him but I initially invented this lid system for tortoises which require humidity into the 90's. When my pb started to shed a few days ago I added the panel's to the top of the cage.


In the first pic the humidity was around 62% you can see in about 5 minutes I've been typing it's up over 10% and rising. You can also build lids like this.


As I said before I keep tortoises in most of these so climbing escape is a non issue . however you could still build a frame, ( I use foil tape to tape the reflectix to metal screen door frames to make the tops less mailable so they can easily be added or removed over the existing screen lid. As you saw in the other picture you can also cut out holes for lights. Hope this helps


Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

[FeathersRuff]

I'll keep an eye out for that stuff. Looking online it seems that those rolls are very expensive so I'll hafta do some thinking on it.

Heres a closer and newer pic of the top of her tank.


As you can see its a very crudely done job of tin foil but it was the best I could do with how the top is made. You can see its two stacks of wood with the mesh in the middle.

[JoshSloane]

Ditch the UTH, and get yourself a CHE. They do not dry out air in the tank like bulbs do.

[FeathersRuff]

Ditch the UTH, and get yourself a CHE. They do not dry out air in the tank like bulbs do.

Dont you mean Ditch the bulb? Pretty sure I need the UTH. You'd be the only person whos told me to not have a UTH.

[JoshSloane]

Ditch all of it and get a CHE, or even multiple CHEs. Bulbs dry the air out, and UTHs are unnecessary. The whole goal of heating is to get the reptiles core body temp to around 82-83 degrees. People clutch to the idea of a UTH because it is just commonplace and works, yet doesnt mean that is necessary. We are now finding that heat from RHPs and CHEs is tolerated much better than from other heating devices, and actually is shown to have therapeutic benefits. You can fine tune your CHE with a dimmer, or thermostat to achieve any temperatures you want. Personally I would just find the best combo of CHEs, or a RHP that can keep your temperature at about 84 degrees and thats it.

[Jon14]

From what I've heard, but CHE and bulbs dry out the air. UTH and RHP seem to have no effect on humidity. For newer owners I have heard it is easier to have the gradient as opposed to a constant temperature. In my opinion stick with the gradient.

Sent from my SM-G900R6 using Tapatalk

[JoshSloane]

CHEs are essentially a RHP in bulb form. They do not dry out the air. I use CHEs in my tortoise enclosure and I maintain 80%+ humidity.

It is always interesting when I hear people advise newbies to use a gradient. Is it easier to maintain and measure one temperature or two?

Please by all means, everyone do what you think is best. If you find my advice to be rubbish then dont take it.

[Rikoku]

CHEs are essentially a RHP in bulb form. They do not dry out the air. I use CHEs in my tortoise enclosure and I maintain 80%+ humidity.

It is always interesting when I hear people advise newbies to use a gradient. Is it easier to maintain and measure one temperature or two?

Please by all means, everyone do what you think is best. If you find my advice to be rubbish then dont take it.

First time I run into someone mentioning this, In this case would you want the monitor the ambient temperature or would you still be concerned with substrate surface temp?

[JoshSloane]

First time I run into someone mentioning this, In this case would you want the monitor the ambient temperature or would you still be concerned with substrate surface temp?

You dont run into this often because most people still love to hold on to their cherished UTHs. There are two ways of doing this. If you are still concerned about maintaining a gradient, then you would be taking temp measurements on top of the substrate. If you are like me, and disregard gradients, then you would take the temperature of the ambient air at snake height.

You must keep in mind though that using ambient heat only requires a well insulated enclosure that holds heat exceptionally well, or the use of multiple heating elements to maintain uniform temps.