- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,172
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
So I see the chamber concept keeps popping up, over and over again.
My interpretation of it is here with pictures and explanation. I use them as a 'grow-out' husbandry technique. I have contemplated putting windows in the side, but then again, if I keep that humidity up, the window will always have condensation, so for me it was a 'why bother' end result, I did not put windows in.
When I worked at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, all the exhibit animals were kept in chambers with an active airflow, which ran through a small HVAC system, pretty much designed to each animals niche in the wild. Costs a great deal of money, but they all had windows.
This idea of airflow was cause for concern when I was first reading about it from the writing of DeanS and Tom et al here on TFO, but some conversation lead me to realize they open them up and they 'air out' everyday.
This first image is the chamber closed. It is 54 gallon Rubbermaid tote ($19.95) at Home Depot, less a few times a year when on sale.
Not much to look at, but very functional and inexpensive.
This is one with the five ever bigger leopards in it.
And this one with the very small Manouria emy phayeri.
What the two chamber have in common,
Small orchid bark substrate (about 1 cubic foot, $2.00 worth).
Plastic plant tray (about $2.00) filled with gravel and oyster shell ($1.00 total).
A piece of slate or tile for food ($3.00).
Another small plastic box ($4.00) also filled with orchid bark, for the super high humidity even when the top is open.
A half length of stucco wire frame ($2.50) to mount the lighting on.
One or two 22.5 inch T5 HO fixtures ($23.00 each), when I use two of these fixture one has a ZooMed 5.0 T5 HO tube (($13.00 when bought in case lots) and one BlueMax or standard grow tube with high blue component of the light ( Blue Max $3.00 each in case lots, or free 'plant light' with the fixture). One small aluminum reflector ($7.95 at Home Depot) and a 50 watt or 75 Watt infrared heat bulb (about $5.00 when bought in case lots and free shipping).
In the Manouria chamber you will see their soaking pan on top of the smaller super humidity chamber, so the temp is good, and it is open water for higher humidity, put back clean everyday so to be ready tomorrow. The leopards are now too big, so their soak water is just room temp, prepared the day before.
Upon close scrutiny of the images you will see that the humidity is so high the water is condensed on the chamber wall. But that is not really an indication of 100% RH, it is a sweat like a glass of water with ice at a picnic, it is just water coming out of the air, as the outside air temperature is different than inside. The inside of the inner box also sweats, but not it's outside.
The heat lamp is directed to the plastic plant tray, so that there is a dark surface to absorb heat and create humidity in the whole chamber. The little black specs are activated carbon like what is used for aquarium filters to help keep it "sweet" inside.
The leopards destroy plants in less than a few days, so for now they do not have one, the Manouria like to sit with one of the growing runners on their back, when they sit out.
All of them spend most of their time in the inner box, where the humidity is about 85 to 95% RH. The area outside that inner chamber really only stays at about 65 to 70% RH. The lower end temp is 79 to 80 F, while right under the bull's eye of the heat lamp gets to about 105 to 110 F.
The temp inside the inner box stays in the upper 80'sF, that is why the red infra red heat lamp is angled towards it.
Over all each chamber costs under $100.00 even if with two T5 HO fixtures.
The overall point of the post is to show a low cost highly controllable chamber. The temperature gauge is a ZooMed with probe for about $7.00. I have found for probe thermometers, they work well and are not so expensive. It is placed so it dangles about three inches from the infra red lamp's bullseye. I use another thermometer as far away as possible inside to get the cool end temp. That is a $1.99 Acurite from WalMart. The Acurite that holds a high/low for 24 hours fail in these chambers, I think because of the humidity.
The reason I have these set up this way is for quick and easy maintenance. Like I said, these are for grow-out, then sale. My academic agriculture background is lurking with these set-ups.
Will
My interpretation of it is here with pictures and explanation. I use them as a 'grow-out' husbandry technique. I have contemplated putting windows in the side, but then again, if I keep that humidity up, the window will always have condensation, so for me it was a 'why bother' end result, I did not put windows in.
When I worked at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, all the exhibit animals were kept in chambers with an active airflow, which ran through a small HVAC system, pretty much designed to each animals niche in the wild. Costs a great deal of money, but they all had windows.
This idea of airflow was cause for concern when I was first reading about it from the writing of DeanS and Tom et al here on TFO, but some conversation lead me to realize they open them up and they 'air out' everyday.
This first image is the chamber closed. It is 54 gallon Rubbermaid tote ($19.95) at Home Depot, less a few times a year when on sale.
Not much to look at, but very functional and inexpensive.
This is one with the five ever bigger leopards in it.
And this one with the very small Manouria emy phayeri.
What the two chamber have in common,
Small orchid bark substrate (about 1 cubic foot, $2.00 worth).
Plastic plant tray (about $2.00) filled with gravel and oyster shell ($1.00 total).
A piece of slate or tile for food ($3.00).
Another small plastic box ($4.00) also filled with orchid bark, for the super high humidity even when the top is open.
A half length of stucco wire frame ($2.50) to mount the lighting on.
One or two 22.5 inch T5 HO fixtures ($23.00 each), when I use two of these fixture one has a ZooMed 5.0 T5 HO tube (($13.00 when bought in case lots) and one BlueMax or standard grow tube with high blue component of the light ( Blue Max $3.00 each in case lots, or free 'plant light' with the fixture). One small aluminum reflector ($7.95 at Home Depot) and a 50 watt or 75 Watt infrared heat bulb (about $5.00 when bought in case lots and free shipping).
In the Manouria chamber you will see their soaking pan on top of the smaller super humidity chamber, so the temp is good, and it is open water for higher humidity, put back clean everyday so to be ready tomorrow. The leopards are now too big, so their soak water is just room temp, prepared the day before.
Upon close scrutiny of the images you will see that the humidity is so high the water is condensed on the chamber wall. But that is not really an indication of 100% RH, it is a sweat like a glass of water with ice at a picnic, it is just water coming out of the air, as the outside air temperature is different than inside. The inside of the inner box also sweats, but not it's outside.
The heat lamp is directed to the plastic plant tray, so that there is a dark surface to absorb heat and create humidity in the whole chamber. The little black specs are activated carbon like what is used for aquarium filters to help keep it "sweet" inside.
The leopards destroy plants in less than a few days, so for now they do not have one, the Manouria like to sit with one of the growing runners on their back, when they sit out.
All of them spend most of their time in the inner box, where the humidity is about 85 to 95% RH. The area outside that inner chamber really only stays at about 65 to 70% RH. The lower end temp is 79 to 80 F, while right under the bull's eye of the heat lamp gets to about 105 to 110 F.
The temp inside the inner box stays in the upper 80'sF, that is why the red infra red heat lamp is angled towards it.
Over all each chamber costs under $100.00 even if with two T5 HO fixtures.
The overall point of the post is to show a low cost highly controllable chamber. The temperature gauge is a ZooMed with probe for about $7.00. I have found for probe thermometers, they work well and are not so expensive. It is placed so it dangles about three inches from the infra red lamp's bullseye. I use another thermometer as far away as possible inside to get the cool end temp. That is a $1.99 Acurite from WalMart. The Acurite that holds a high/low for 24 hours fail in these chambers, I think because of the humidity.
The reason I have these set up this way is for quick and easy maintenance. Like I said, these are for grow-out, then sale. My academic agriculture background is lurking with these set-ups.
Will
Last edited by a moderator: