From too little humidity to entirely too much

[Snagrio]

I've had my year-old BP in a glass tank enclosure since I got him, and as you can imagine I've had issues maintaining humidity.

Well as a stopgap until his permanent AP enclosure gets here in however many months from now, I've set up a plastic tub enclosure yesterday. Temperatures are all set correctly (90 degree warm side with a gradual gradient from 80 in the middle to mid 70's on the other end), but the humidity is absurd. There's two thermometer/hydrometers in there and the latter has been "maxed out" (they stop counting numbers and just say HH when the humidity goes beyond 99%) for close to 24 hours now. This would be great if this was for a baby Brazilian rainbow boa but alas I only have a BP. The substrate is coconut Reptichip and I ended up using slightly more than what was needed, plus it's freshly hydrated so it's still trapping moisture and such, but the problem is it's just too much and if it doesn't go down soon I'm worried about scale rot. Though I should preface this by saying he's not in the tub yet, I've set everything up so his old setup can still run while I test the new one to ensure everything's stable and safe over several days before moving him.

So question is, what should I do? First thing I can think of is adding more air holes on the lid of the tub (there's currently just a row along the sides). Could also just leave the lid off but that obviously won't be a long-term solution for when I clean it out and add new substrate since he'll be living in it by then.

[jmcrook]

I hydrate my coconut husk substrate in a separate tub, enough for multiple enclosures, and then toss/mix it a couple times a day until it reaches my desired moisture content. Generally good within a week. You will guaranteed have entirely too much humidity if you hydrate it and then put it immediately into the enclosure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Snagrio]

I hydrate my coconut husk substrate in a separate tub, enough for multiple enclosures, and then toss/mix it a couple times a day until it reaches my desired moisture content. Generally good within a week. You will guaranteed have entirely too much humidity if you hydrate it and then put it immediately into the enclosure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I see, that would certainly solve the issue for future substrate replacement. This is also my first time using coconut chips so my water measurements were rather off which exacerbated the issue (switching from coconut fiber because of how messy working with it is, almost like potting soil).

I guess for now I can simply leave the lid off for a time and let the CHE do its thing and zap some of the unneeded moisture out.

[Snagrio]

I've recognized the core issue. I clearly added way, WAY too much water when I was hydrating the Reptichip. Not enough for water to pool at the bottom of the tub, but just taking and squeeze any given isolated chunk produces several drops of water. Yeesh...

Probably will have to leave it be to dry out for several days at this rate.

[Snagrio]

He's finally been moved to the tub, except I made a blunder (though I think it was unavoidable). Washed all his belongings that would be moved to the tub (water bowl, decor, ect.) and the humidity I had been waiting patiently to go down for over a week at a nice 60-70% now shot right back up to 100%.

I just have to cross my fingers that it dehumidifies in a decent amount of time, because I've already moved everything plus unplugged the original enclosure's heating and I don't want to stress him out further with a bunch of back and forth.