29 Gallon Viv with humidity problems! Help!

[m1helmethead]

Hello everyone,

Ok as the title says I have a 29 Gal. Viv it is setup as follows:

False bottom: The false bottom has about 2 inchs of hydroton except in the middle which has a water pond. The hydroton is covered with eggcrate/mesh and on top of the mesh I have another 2inchs of FoxFarm Happy Frog soil.

Background:
Cork bark.

Lighting:
I have a dual florescent which gos the length of the cage and a small incandescent which sits over the pond in the middle.

Heat: 150watt heat bulb which also sits over the pond in the middle.

Misting system: Rainmaker which sprays for a minute every 6 hours.
I also have a towel over the top of the cage to trap the heat and moisture.

Normal cage temp 75-85 degrees. Normal humidity 30%-40%.
How do I raise the humidity? This is making me schizo! lol

Thanks,
Jerry

[acpart]

I am not an expert at this, but my desert tanks run about 50% humidity, so I'm wondering if your humidity measuring device is accurate. It sounds as if you have tons of humidity inducing features. My crestie's planted viv which is in an exoterra and gets misted once daily is usually 80% humid. If the device is working, the only other thing I can think of is to lay a piece of plexiglass across all or most of the top. I'm assuming that the sides of your tank are glass and not screen.

Aliza

[m1helmethead]

Yes the sides are glass would placement of the device be a possibility? It currently sits about half way down the tank on the back wall.

[Green Ghost]

Originally Posted by m1helmethead

Yes the sides are glass would placement of the device be a possibility? It currently sits about half way down the tank on the back wall.

Sounds right... I actually have my sensor at the top in my setups.

I read your post but I'm still unclear: is your incandescent fixture inside the tank? or outside (but you meant it sits over the water area) ? I had a hard time picturing that because you said the fluorescent fixture went the length of the tank......

You should try turning off that 150 watt light. I only use fluorescent fixtures above my setups because I find that the heat from the incandescent lights is not needed by my frogs and it just dries the tank out. Besides that the heat can burn the frogs if they jump on it by accident.

Why not try covering the top of the with plexiglass? (as Aliza mentioned)

[m1helmethead]

The incandescent sits on top the screen over the water. I will also try the plexi but I don't see how thats going to be any better then the towel I have over top it now and how do I get my mist nozzles into the tank if its covered with plexi?

[chibisan]

I'm new at this, but I would think that the towel isn't helping anything. I mean think of it, a towel dries you off, it's not going to keep humidity in. The plexi will prevent the water from evaporating out of the tank. And I would think you wouldn't have to cover the whole thing in acrylic. You could leave a small section open for the screen. And you could always lift off the acrylic to spray into the tank...

[m1helmethead]

One other concern I had about the plexi is that I think I read that it blocks part of the light spectrum wouldn't this be bad for the frogs and the live plants?

[Devil_Boy]

Ill give my 2 cents

I have about a 300gal tank and it (so far) seems to be between 70 - 85 with just two 150watt bulbs(and flourecents but there pretty irrelevant to heat). But i had the same problem only with heat and humidity. I had screened sides and a screen top, i used the shrink wrap stuff for your windows for the side screens so you can still see through them and amazingly that got my tank temps up to about 75-80 and it raised my humidity and kept it around 30% which was an improvment. So i had my heat now i had to figure out humidity, which like what was said the heat lamps dry out the tank.

So i took some old cermamic tiles i had and broke them in pieces and layered them around all the heat lamps on the top screen and amazingly it raised and stabled the humidity around 50% and on top of that i reach a scorching 85-90 so after i mist (waiting for new nozzles so i do it the old fashion way) my tank maintains about 70-80% for atleast 5 hours with both heat lamps on.


So im wondering if a 150watt is maybe too much? Also all your decor like wood and plants and soil hold moisture. Just putting my plants in can raise my humidity 20%.

I also move my humidity meter around constantly cause whats 50% in one place (for instance under the heat lamp) could be 90% down in the lower parts of the tank. I had my heat lamp over the pond to and i never noticed an increase in humidity in the tank, but i fill my sump with 2gallons a day easily. so i moved that.

Try to remove your heat lamp put your towel or a piece of wood over whats left of the screen up top, mist your tank, see what your tank gets to in humidity, also get a digital humidity thing with min/max helps alot cause its almost instant readings.

Sorry for the long post hope it helps.

[Green Ghost]

Originally Posted by m1helmethead

One other concern I had about the plexi is that I think I read that it blocks part of the light spectrum wouldn't this be bad for the frogs and the live plants?

I have a combination of fluorescent and metal halide above my vivs and the top is a sliding glass cover. I think the plants are growing out of control .... I don't see plastic or glass affecting plant growth and your frogs don't need a special part of the spectrum.

[zaroba]

i think plexi blocks uvb, which many plants use (but can live without) and many reptiles need for Vitamin D3 production. as i understand it, dart frogs don't actually require uvb. in the wild, many species don't get any uvb due to living under trees etc.

m1helmethead, if your tank has any openings, it would cause air exchange and cause the humidity to leave. simply put, to increase humidity, you need to block any screens. a towel wont work well, its not air or water proof.

as for the differences between acpart's and m1helmethead's humidity levels, thats easy. not everybody lives in exactly the same climate. some people live in dryer areas then others. living in a dryer area (like nevada) will result in it being harder to maintain humidity then for somebody living in a humid area (like florida)