Humidity

[mustangcowgirl]

So I guess I have a curious question… I have multiple humidity monitors in my tortoises enclosure. The humidity monitor that is just mounted to the wall with no probe keeps saying the humidity is too low. But then I have a monitor that has a probe attached to it and have that stuck in the substrate and it is showing that the humidity is in range. Which one do I believe? Is it as important to have high humidity on top too or is the high humidity in the substrate what is best?

 

[mojo_1]

I put all sensors at top of shell height. The substrate will show a higher humidity if the probe is in it because it has moisture in it. At shell height, you get a real humidity that is created from the heat of your heat panel or ceramic.Heat emitter.

 

[mustangcowgirl]

The humidity level inside the substrate remains the same for the most part. Every now and then it does drop some. But the humidity seems to drop all the time on the one that is without the probe. I’ve tried a mister and that just ended up getting it absolutely too wet for us for some reason and water would even be sitting underneath the substrate. So we switched to us just spraying it down on a regular basis which worked fine, but now that it’s winter we are back to struggling with the humidity levels. I’ll move the mounted one down a little more. Maybe I just have it too high. Thank you for your input and time.

 

[mojo_1]

The humidity level inside the substrate remains the same for the most part. Every now and then it does drop some. But the humidity seems to drop all the time on the one that is without the probe. I’ve tried a mister and that just ended up getting it absolutely too wet for us for some reason and water would even be sitting underneath the substrate. So we switched to us just spraying it down on a regular basis which worked fine, but now that it’s winter we are back to struggling with the humidity levels. I’ll move the mounted one down a little more. Maybe I just have it too high. Thank you for your input and time.

Misters are bad for the tortoise. Can you please explain and show pictures of everything with your enclosure. So we can get your problem worked out. Below is a picture of my redfoots enclosure

 

[mustangcowgirl]

While I would love to show pictures my camera on my phone isn’t working and I’m too cheap to go buy a new phone. But I will try to describe it the best way I can. We bought two of the larger galvanized flowerbeds and attached them to each other. Then we lined that with 4 mil plastic sheeting. We then covered it with two wooden framed plexiglass pieces. That we hinged to the galvanized flowerbeds. We have holes in the plexiglass glass for the uvb lighting and heat emitters. At this point I think we just need to cover up the corners better. Maybe there’s too much air flow there so we will try that see if it makes a difference.

 

[mojo_1]

While I would love to show pictures my camera on my phone isn’t working and I’m too cheap to go buy a new phone. But I will try to describe it the best way I can. We bought two of the larger galvanized flowerbeds and attached them to each other. Then we lined that with 4 mil plastic sheeting. We then covered it with two wooden framed plexiglass pieces. That we hinged to the galvanized flowerbeds. We have holes in the plexiglass glass for the uvb lighting and heat emitters. At this point I think we just need to cover up the corners better. Maybe there’s too much air flow there so we will try that see if it makes a difference.

The holes for the heat emitters it also acting like a chimney pulling the heat and humidity out.

 

[mustangcowgirl]

The holes for the heat emitters it also acting like a chimney pulling the heat and humidity out.

We have the holes sealed off at the fixtures.

 

[mustangcowgirl]

I put all sensors at top of shell height. The substrate will show a higher humidity if the probe is in it because it has moisture in it. At shell height, you get a real humidity that is created from the heat of your heat panel or ceramic.Heat emitter.View attachment 397226

May I ask what kind of devices these are. I find it intriguing that you have something that can give you that much information and I’m assuming straight to your phone? That’s awesome. I didn’t even know something like that existed for reptile enclosures. May have to look into that.

 

[mojo_1]

Temperature/humidity sensors are SensorPush in combination with the SensorPush G1 WiFi gateway.
I also have spyder robotics herpstat 6 controllers which if you add it when you buy them can monitor humidity as well. But these 2 controllers run my 4 heat panels 2 led lights and 1 Uvb light. I thoroughly enjoy that everything is controlled by these. It makes it so easy once you get the temperature set on the controllers which was determined by using the temperature, humidity sensors and a handheld temp gun.
This thing has worked flawlessly, since I've put mojo in it. You can see the small fluctuation, it has in temperature and humidity throughout the day.

 

[ATHiker17]

Misters are bad for the tortoise. Can you please explain and show pictures of everything with your enclosure. So we can get your problem worked out. Below is a picture of my redfoots enclosureView attachment 397233

Did you create that backdrop? I really like the way it looks.

 

[mojo_1]

Did you create that backdrop? I really like the way it looks.

Yes i did, it's not recommended to use fake plants in tortoise enclosures because they can eat them. But Mojo knows it's not food because he's had fake plants from day one. So he doesn't mess with it. I had to make it look good because it takes up a whole corner of the living room.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

We have the holes sealed off at the fixtures.

I wouldn’t suggest blocking those holes for fire safety reasons, it’s why I try and talk people out of cutting sections of their covers for the lights, having them mounted on top of the cover naturally creates that effect, ideally you do want all heating and lighting inside the chamber itself to properly maintain the humidity. It does sound like there’s potentially too much air exchange happening somewhere, hopefully tweaks to those corners will help, how deep is your substrate roughly would you say?

 

[mustangcowgirl]

I wouldn’t suggest blocking those holes for fire safety reasons, it’s why I try and talk people out of cutting sections of their covers for the lights, having them mounted on top of the cover naturally creates that effect, ideally you do want all heating and lighting inside the chamber itself to properly maintain the humidity. It does sound like there’s potentially too much air exchange happening somewhere, hopefully tweaks to those corners will help, how deep is your substrate roughly would you say?

The substrate is probably about 3-4 inches deep. I know it’s deep enough that it can be burrowed into and my tortoise does that a lot. Doesn’t necessarily bury entirely but pretty well. The lights and heating elements are sealed off with materials designed for that specific purpose. It’s just what worked best for our set up it allows the heat and light to be inside the enclosure and the fixtures are on top. Yeah this weekend I’m going to try to close off those corners a little better. I didn’t realize just how much airflow there probably actually was at those connection points, so I think that will be my first major project before I get too worried about a whole new design.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

The substrate is probably about 3-4 inches deep. I know it’s deep enough that it can be burrowed into and my tortoise does that a lot. Doesn’t necessarily bury entirely but pretty well. The lights and heating elements are sealed off with materials designed for that specific purpose. It’s just what worked best for our set up it allows the heat and light to be inside the enclosure and the fixtures are on top. Yeah this weekend I’m going to try to close off those corners a little better. I didn’t realize just how much airflow there probably actually was at those connection points, so I think that will be my first major project before I get too worried about a whole new design.

Sounds like a planI’d actually suggest making the substrate at least 6 inches if you can, this will definitely help your levels, 3-4 is a bit too thin to create ample humidity in a larger closed set up