New humidifier....lol

[Tortus]

I call it Smokey.

I have the mist facing the hot end where it's the driest, but do you think this will negatively affect the lights? I could always aim it somewhere else or take the head off and let the mist rise up slowly.

About 10 minutes after I put it in, the humidity went from 60% to 75% on the medium setting, which is high for daytime humidity in my set-up. It's never been that high with the lights on. I probably won't need it at night since the humidity always raises to around 80%.

 

[ascott]

Is that a penguin?

I think that as long as the lights dont get wet you should be ok....

 

[Tortus]

Is that a penguin?

I think that as long as the lights dont get wet you should be ok....

Yeah. It's one of the Crane animal humidifiers, but they didn't have a tortoise shape. The mist comes out of the penguin's beak.

I figured it would evaporate before making any kind of condensation on the lights as long as they're on. I'm not sure if it will corrode the fixtures over time.

 

[Tortus]

I have a feeling the penguin is acting like a scarecrow. You can see the tort looking at it in the first pic, and now it pretty much stays in the covered part of the enclosure.

I guess that's good since it's more humid there (there's sometimes condensation on the walls), but I hope it's getting enough UBV. I guess it knows where to go when it has to. I find it interesting watching tortoise behavior adapt with the most subtle changes.

 

[TortoiseBoy1999]

Love the penguin

 

[Tortus]

Me too! It's kind of funny looking which is why I lol'd. You can swivel the head to make it go in different directions.

But it really does work good. No big drops, just a super-fine mist. I would have gotten the elephant one but Amazon didn't have them in stock.

As you can see my main goal during the first year is just to get it growing correctly. No one can even see my tort unless they pull back the blanket and search for it in the enclosure. After it gets bigger I'll construct something larger that matches the rest of the house. I'd consider this more of a "nursery".

 

[TortoiseBoy1999]

Me too! It's kind of funny looking which is why I lol'd. You can swivel the head to make it go in different directions.

But it really does work good. No big drops, just a super-fine mist. I would have gotten the elephant one but Amazon didn't have them in stock.

As you can see my main goal during the first year is just to get it growing correctly. No one can even see my tort unless they pull back the blanket and search for it in the enclosure. After it gets bigger I'll construct something larger that matches the rest of the house. I'd consider this more of a "nursery".

I had the Elephant one once for my room when I got my asthma. We ended up returning it though because we have hard wood floors and it was making them soaking wet But it misted really well! I never wanted to return it, I wanted to keep it It was so cute

 

[Tortus]

You can adjust the output with the knob. I'm not exactly sure how they work. Sometimes it looks like it's putting out lots of mist, and other times I can't see anything on the same setting.

It's recommended to use distilled or purified water since tap water can be "hard" with lots of minerals that will affect how it works. I can get purified water from a machine outside the grocery store for like 30 cents a gallon. Think I'll try that next time.

 

[Yellow Turtle]

Oh you get similar humidifier with what I have, except mine is duck shape. It is pretty effective in increasing humidity

Adjusting the knob does indeed regulate the mist output, and you really need to use distilled water. Prolong use of tap water will build some whitish scales on everything that the mist touch, which I'm not really sure is good for the torts' respiratory organs or not.
I actually just give up using mine, since I don't have access to distilled water all time, so I end up carpeting all the enclosure, giving more plants and pouring a lot of water on the carpet. It increases the humidity pretty much the same as the misters.

 

[Tortus]

Oh you get similar humidifier with what I have, except mine is duck shape. It is pretty effective in increasing humidity

Adjusting the knob does indeed regulate the mist output, and you really need to use distilled water. Prolong use of tap water will build some whitish scales on everything that the mist touch, which I'm not really sure is good for the torts' respiratory organs or not.
I actually just give up using mine, since I don't have access to distilled water all time, so I end up carpeting all the enclosure, giving more plants and pouring a lot of water on the carpet. It increases the humidity pretty much the same as the misters.

Yeah Crane makes a bunch of animal shapes. But no tortoise!

So far I've had it running on medium only while the lights are on for 3 days, and it's still not empty. I figure it has at least 2 more days of water left at this rate of use. The humidity has not dropped below 70%. And that reading is coming from the center of the enclosure. I'm sure the covered end where it spends a lot of time is much more humid...need to get a couple more hygrometers.

I have a 5 gallon jug with a tap that I'll fill with purified water from the grocery store and it'll cost less than 2 bucks since it's only .30 a gallon from the vending machine. The company recommends distilled or purified water and that's probably the cheapest method.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Love the name smokey! Haha