Sorry--another humidity question

[digcolnagos]

Things were fine during the summer, but now that fall is here, handling humidity isn't nearly so easy. When it plummeted to 39 percent (as measured with an Acu-Rite), I got an aquarium pump for a 30-60 gallon and built a humidifier with a one gallon Gatorade bottle as per instructions on this site and others. That was a couple days ago. Still at 40 percent this morning. Not helping, I'm sure, that I recently put a CHE above the tank to keep the temps right. So I just got a fogger-style humidifier at LPS--he's just started his second shed (since I got him at the beginning of August--his belly started turning pink last night) and I found him soaking in his water dish this afternoon, which isn't good, I think. He's never soaked before. I'm using an Astroturf type substrate and would like to continue with it since it's so convenient and easy. I've got almost the entire top of the 20-gallon long covered with reflective chrome duct tape on bottom and opaque on top, as per the sticky that's so far been a huge help.Just enough open for the CHE.

Soooo...my question is this:

Does anyone have experience with these fogger humidifiers with BP's? I'm thinking I'm going to install it, then remove tape from the tank top as needed until I get the right combo of heat/humidity. Any advice at all would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[kavmon]

don't have any knowledge with the foggers for reptile use. i personally wouldn't want that much moisture being pumped into a tank. bacteria,mold,etc could be far worse than low humidity.


are you using a thermostat with the che? they get real hot! the high heat of the che might be robbing the moisture out of the air.

you can do a search here or check out the caresheet. flexwatt or heat mats made for reptiles are good alternatives to lights and che's.


vaughn

[JLC]

I can't speak about the fogger, although I've never heard a good report about using them in a BP's cage. But I did want to address a couple of things...


First...you may find it necessary to compromise somewhere in your setup. Either switch from glass to a plastic tub....or change substrates to something that will more easily fascilitate humidity levels, such as the shredded cocunut husks. Granted, it may seem more a pain in the neck....but isn't constantly struggling with humidity a pain in the neck as well?

Another thing you may consider is getting a second UTH to help keep a proper temp gradient and ditching the CHE.

The last thing I want to mention is that you say you have tape on the inside of the lid. This needs to come off immediately. Tape is extremely dangerous to snakes. All it takes is one itty bitty loose corner...the snake finds it with his nose when he's poking around and he works more tape off...and before you know it, you've got a snake totally wrapped up in duct-tape and maybe trapped against the roof of his own home. If I have misread what you meant and you don't have any tape on the inside of his home, then at least maybe that'll serve as a notice to someone else who may have.

[digcolnagos]

Tape is installed exactly as instructed in sticky on glass tank setup at the top of this forum. Which is to say, duct tape taped to duct tape isn't going to come off. I've already got two UTH's going, as well as the CHE--this is Illinois and winters get cold. CHE went up when the two UTH's weren't sufficient. Both are on thermostats--the cool side is on an on/off system, the warm side that includes CHE and Cobra mat is on a proportional. If necessary, I'll add a space heater outside the tank (maybe even kill the CHE and use space heater instead) I suspect the real problem, once winter begins in earnest, is going to be humidity. Air in these parts gets bone dry, enough that static-electricity shocks are an indoors constant. I'll go with the coconut substrate if necessary, but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with the fogger/humidifier. It is made for reptiles.

[digcolnagos]

I stand corrected: The sticky says use foil, not tape. My bad. I'll get it out of there. Meantime, the fogger looks way cool, like dry ice enveloping the stage at a heavy-metal show, but is too much for a 20-gallon long. For one thing, the pool needs to be really big, and even then it splashes onto the tank bottom. Both the bad and the good news is that it gets the humidity up RIGHT NOW, so much so that I doubt you'd need little, if anything, covering the screen top to trap humidity. I was up to 70 percent within five minutes. I'm sure it would also go through a ton of water. Oh well. The only way I can see it working would be in conjunction with a humidistat (they're available for around $30) and in a 40 or 55 gallon tank. On the plus side, it didn't seem to vibrate very much, so I think a fogger and a snake could co-exist. I might try it again, but only after getting a bigger tank and a humidistat that I suspect would have the thing on for a minute or so at a time periodically throughout the day.