[Wallace Grover]

My vents on my 20H verts are about an inch or so, but I just cannot keep the humidity off. I will have to cover them pretty soon if I cannot find another solution. I was thinking a humidifier may help though. Currently room humidity is pretty dry at 18-21% and was wondering if a cool-air humdifier placed next to the tanks might help? As of right now after a very through misting I struggle to even reach 53%...

If this won't work, how bad is it to cover the vents without in-tank fans for circulation? I'm afraid my plants will rot and whatever I decide to get will just get sickly...

 

[Wallace Grover]

Make that 60%, my humidity gauge apparently was slow to go up or it took time for the moisture to get into the air...

 

[Pumilo]

Is there condensation on your glass? If so, that means more like 80% or higher. Humidity gauges are notoriously inaccurate. I have never used one in any of my vivs. I go by looks and feel.

 

[Owl-man]

I have screen vents in all my tanks (4) and find that with the AC on I need to keep the vents mostly covered leaving only a small area uncovered. This keeps most of the moisture in, but does allow for a little air circulation.

 

[Wallace Grover]

Is there condensation on your glass? If so, that means more like 80% or higher. Humidity gauges are notoriously inaccurate. I have never used one in any of my vivs. I go by looks and feel.

Hmmm, you know when I was spraying with my one gallon pump-sprayer there was ALWAYS moisture on the glass. Now I notice that a lot of the times there is not. Maybe I need to go back to the pump sprayer?

Only reason I stopped using it is because my false bottom filled up very quickly...


BTW Pumilio, my orange ispods you sent are doing great. Seeing little babies running around already. Unfortunately I think the dwarf whites went wrong somewhere, I don't see ANY. Must have started them in too big of a container...

 

[Pumilo]

You can also do as Owl-man suggested and experiment with partially covering them.

 

[Spaff]

I'm using an ultrasonic humidifier in a homemade 20H vert to keep the humidity up inside. I don't have frogs in this tank. It's only a terrarium that houses Angraecoid and Pleurothallid species. I replaced the original fog emitter nozzle with PVC and attached 1/4" or 1/2" clear tubing to it, then simply attached this to my screen vent.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Unless I'm mistaken, ultrasonic humidifiers don't normally have that much of a lasting effect. The mist they produce tends to settle down out of the air rather quickly. I could be wrong though, but that sounds really really familiar.

I agree with the experimenting idea. Cover one tank half way, one all the way, and leave one be. See how that changes things for you. Depending on the plants, it may or may not be a big deal to have things all covered up.

 

[Spaff]

I have mine running as long as the lights are on, so there is a continuous "fog". I'm not using one that is meant for herps though. I have a "human grade" one that is like other humidifiers used for people who have colds, etc. When I ran it with the vent totally covered, I had condensation all over the tank, so I uncovered it because there was too much moisture.

I do think just covering part of the vent should be experimented with before you spend the money on a humidifier though.

 

[Wallace Grover]

Well, condensation is covering every single surface of the glass when I covered the vent yet the humidity gauge is reading 52%

 

[Spaff]

What kind of humidity gauge are you using? Many of the ones designed for tanks (exoterra, zoo med, etc) do not work very well.

 

[Wallace Grover]

The digital exo-terra hygro thermo one...

 

[mordoria]

those gauges are unreliable. I had one that broke and told me my temps were at 92 degrees.
If there is condensation on the glass then you should be humid enough.

 

[Wallace Grover]

Ok, just wanted to make absolutely sure. Thanks everyone!