I thought I would share how I've created and kept humidity in my plastic underbed storage container. This is for a Redfoot, so it would need some tweaking for other species that require basking lights (or for a redfoot that enjoys a basking light). Special thanks to Redstrike for helping me out with this.
I created a false bottom by using a second underbed storage container and stacking the two. The top container in which my RF lives has holes in the bottom to allow humidity to rise into it. The bottom container has a heat cable completely submerged in water.
I used a $5 soldering iron to melt holes in the false bottom. I just kind of guessed as to the number of holes. If I did this again, I'd probably add more holes to the side with the lights and openings in the top. Maybe it'd help keep the humidity up on that side.
I added fiberglass screen to minimize substrate falling through the holes.
To the true bottom I added a waterproof heat cable (Hydorcable). I made a hole in the wall above the water line for the cord to exit. I also added a couple mesh bags of activated carbon in hopes of keeping the water from going foul. There's really no active movement of the water through the filters, so I doubt they're very helpful.
I put the heat cable on a dimmer. At full power, the temperature was a perfect 82F all throughout the enclosure. Some people would say "hey, good to go". Others would say they don't like heat from below. I put the cables on a dimmer so that its about 78F throughout, and then added the CHE and UVB on one end to create a temperature gradient.
I never mist the enclosure, so thats nice. I've added water once in the last few weeks. But it's not a magical system. If you don't have a lid on the enclosure, the false bottom is useless. On the closed side of my enclosure, its 95-99% humidity. On the side where I've cut a rectangle out for UVB tube and have the CHE -- its about 70% humidity. Another benefit is that since the humidity comes from the bottom, the lower layer of substrate stays moist, but the upper layer of substrate is dry. I hope this will prevent any potential RF shell rot issues.
I hesitated posting this because its not a perfect system -- its a little over-engineered. And, I know some won't like the heat from below. But I've been seeing a lot of people struggling with humidity in sweater boxes, and I figured people could get some ideas and take off with it!
I created a false bottom by using a second underbed storage container and stacking the two. The top container in which my RF lives has holes in the bottom to allow humidity to rise into it. The bottom container has a heat cable completely submerged in water.
I used a $5 soldering iron to melt holes in the false bottom. I just kind of guessed as to the number of holes. If I did this again, I'd probably add more holes to the side with the lights and openings in the top. Maybe it'd help keep the humidity up on that side.
I added fiberglass screen to minimize substrate falling through the holes.
To the true bottom I added a waterproof heat cable (Hydorcable). I made a hole in the wall above the water line for the cord to exit. I also added a couple mesh bags of activated carbon in hopes of keeping the water from going foul. There's really no active movement of the water through the filters, so I doubt they're very helpful.
I put the heat cable on a dimmer. At full power, the temperature was a perfect 82F all throughout the enclosure. Some people would say "hey, good to go". Others would say they don't like heat from below. I put the cables on a dimmer so that its about 78F throughout, and then added the CHE and UVB on one end to create a temperature gradient.
I never mist the enclosure, so thats nice. I've added water once in the last few weeks. But it's not a magical system. If you don't have a lid on the enclosure, the false bottom is useless. On the closed side of my enclosure, its 95-99% humidity. On the side where I've cut a rectangle out for UVB tube and have the CHE -- its about 70% humidity. Another benefit is that since the humidity comes from the bottom, the lower layer of substrate stays moist, but the upper layer of substrate is dry. I hope this will prevent any potential RF shell rot issues.
I hesitated posting this because its not a perfect system -- its a little over-engineered. And, I know some won't like the heat from below. But I've been seeing a lot of people struggling with humidity in sweater boxes, and I figured people could get some ideas and take off with it!