Humidity issues.. PLEASE help :)

[anenglish15]

I live in Washington and we have had Lillie for about 6 months with no humidity control issues, but now I do not know what's going on!

Her high temp is about 105* and low side is about 85*. During the winter, we used to keep her CHE on during the day, on top of her basking light. However, now the weather is warming up so the CHE only comes on at night to keep the tank about 75*. I've noticed now though that this causes the humidity to SKY ROCKET at night. Like 60%-70%. And now during the day, it still is too high... at about 50%. I know this is bad and could cause respiratory infections so I'm trying to fix it ASAP.

There is NO water in her tank. We do not mist her in her tank. We give her a bath daily, but she is well dried before being put back in her tank. The ONLY hint of water is from misting her greens, which we do outside of the cage. The viv is an old entertainment center that we gutted, so it's wood with a big plexiglass door. She does have one of those vents you can buy at Home Depot to go over the floor vents. That is in the back of her tank, towards the top.

Any ideas on what I need to do to improve the humidity? I almost think the thermometer is incorrect, but it makes sense how it's higher at night when the temps are lower. I don't know, I'm so frustrated with this!

 

[CooperDragon]

50% is OK, but not perfect. 70% is high. What happens if you leave the CHE off at night? Do your nighttime temps go below 65?

 

[anenglish15]

It depends on the night. Usually it will not, but I figure better safe than sorry. My humidity seems to raise the lower the temps get. So if I turn off my CHE at night, I'd worry the humidity would jump higher than 70

 

[CooperDragon]

Hmm OK. I'd keep the CHE for now then to keep the humidity down. Can you get a dehumidifier to put near the tank? Are you in Washington State, or DC? I know how awfully humid the DC summers get so that'll be something to fight with. I wonder if anyone else on here from that area has some thoughts based on what they do. I know there are some folks from Georgia on here who would wind up with the same kind of humidity issues. What kind of substrate do you have in the tank? Could you put a small fan near the tank to increase airflow a bit? You could also try charcoal dehumidifiers near the tank (charcoal in a coffee can with the plastic top slit open), but I don't know how effective that would be.

 

[Taterbug]

What are you using to measure humidity and where are you taking the reading? Your first step should be to check your gauge. Hygrometers are more finicky than thermometers and generally less reliable. You can try to calibrate it with salt, I don't have a link but you can google it.

Is your home noticeably humid at night? Your enclosure should be roughly the same humidity as your home, (less with lights on) so if you have a thermostat for your house that monitors humidity you can reference that too. Are you running a/c?

Humidity is directly related to temperature. This is why your humidity is going up at night, the air has the same amount of moisture in it but cool air holds less moisture than warm. Regardless, since you don't have water sources, aside from the change related to the heat lamps your humidity won't be less than your room humidity so you would need to address that. Your best bet may be a room dehumidifier as long as you can close off the room. 50% isn't too bad (again, check under the basking light and the cool side if you can) so you might be ok running the dehumidifier only at night.

You may need to ad more ventilation to your enclosure, adding a vent fan might help. If the vent is up against a wall it won't be very effective, and only having one vent won't give much air movement in the tank.

 

[anenglish15]

I DO use a hygrometer. I was a little worried that was the problem.

I live in Washington state and I'm not sure if it's considered humid here. I mean, it does rain a lot. :lol: And we do not run AC.

Is there such thing as a little vent fan I can put inside the enclosure? I tried having a large fan just in the room, but that didn't help. I think because there's not enough ventilation into the actual cage.

So I should purchase a thermometer that gauges the humidity? Do you have a good recommendation? I'm going to purchase one off Amazon today.

 

[CooperDragon]

You could try mounting a cheap computer fan to the vent to move some air. Something like this maybe http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009OWRMZ6/

 

[anenglish15]

You could try mounting a cheap computer fan to the vent to move some air. Something like this maybe http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009OWRMZ6/

Oh great, I'll try that! As for the thermometer, would something like this be more accurate?
http://www.amazon.com/Olymstore-Portable-Non-contact-Thermometer-Temperature/dp/B00JOBIA76/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1399660220&sr=1-1&keywords=laser+humidity+thermometer

 

[Taterbug]

60-70% humidity starts to get damp or muggy feeling for most people.

That gun looks like it would work, it has a tight tolerance and as long as it stays calibrated it should be fine. I use accurite "weather stations" with both temp/humidty. Digital gauges are usually more reliable and less finicky. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004K8RF10/ref=mp_s_a_1_27?qid=1399661044&sr=8-27&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

As a note a hygrometer measures humidity a thermometer measures temperature.

Cooper linked just the thing I was thinking about hopefully it isn't very loud.

 

[anenglish15]

60-70% humidity starts to get damp or muggy feeling for most people.

That gun looks like it would work, it has a tight tolerance and as long as it stays calibrated it should be fine. I use accurite "weather stations" with both temp/humidty. Digital gauges are usually more reliable and less finicky. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004K8RF10/ref=mp_s_a_1_27?qid=1399661044&sr=8-27&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

As a note a hygrometer measures humidity a thermometer measures temperature.

Cooper linked just the thing I was thinking about hopefully it isn't very loud.

PERFECT. I'm ordering the fan and the weather station thing right now! That'll work for the temperature too. I do have a temp gauge gun thing, but I think it'd be a good idea to have this sitting in the viv so I could see if right off hand. Thank you SO much everyone for your help! It is SO appreciated!

 

[Taterbug]

That's exactly what I do, I have the little stations for ambient temps, but check the basking site with the temp gun. Hopefully your humidity sorts out.

 

[CooperDragon]

Let us know how it goes =)

 

[Tonja]

I live in Colorado where the air is really dry. I have to run humidifiers in my house. I found the humidity was way up in the room my dragons are housed in and there was no humidifier in there. I invested in small dehumidifier for their room and run it and found the humidity in their tanks are now down from 60% to 30%. I do have to empty the humidifier every day and keep it sitting on puppy wee wee pads so it wont overflow while we are out or sleeping. The one I got is perfect for their small bedroom so you may want to take a look and its not terribly expensive compared to others, under 50.00.
http://www.amazon.com/Eva-Dry-Edv-1100-Eva-dry-Electric-Dehumidifier/dp/B000H0ZDD2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1399663468&sr=8-5&keywords=dehumidfiers

 

[anenglish15]

Oh my gosh, turns out my humidity gauge was way off!!! Right now it says 40% and my new humidity/temp stand says 24%. What a relief!

 

[CooperDragon]

That's good to hear! MUCH better levels =)