Natural inhibitors of larva growth in vapor water.

[mikeh]

Id like to add a water tray suspended from the ceiling in a chamber for evaporation to keep things more humid. There will be a water proof heat cable inside the bottom of the tray to aid the evaporation and gently heat the chamber. Tort will have no access to the tray.

My question is what can I use as natural inhibitor of insect larva growth and algae growth in the tray for vapors to be safe. I would like to make it maintenance free, just add water.

The water proof cable runs at around 100-110F. There will be about 2" of water. My guess is water will reach about 95-100F, not enough to make the water inhabitable. Would acidity of peat moss submerged in the water do anything?
If not could I use salt as I read certain concentration kill insect larva? Salt doesn't evaporate with water so it should be safe???
Any input or other suggestions for natural inhibitors would be appreciated.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Interesting...I'll be curious to see the answers.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Salt will change the evaporation rate, make it less, so that might be counter productive. Any organic matter, peat, will not inhibit aquatic larvae, it may even increase that chance. Algae will only grow if there is light, so maybe try using an opaque container. I have used mosquito dunks/bits indoors and they have worked well. Maintenence "free" is a fantasy, low maintenece, could be, you will need to service (clean) probably, about every few months. Unless you use reverse osmosis water or distilled water, natural minerals in water will build up and reduce the evaporation rate, just like the salt will.

Overall all an interesting idea but hot humid ceiling air will not effect the tortoises for reduced pyramiding. The humidity needs to be at tortoise level. Maybe a muffin fan blowing across the water, so the air circulates, will increase the whole enclosure RH? but warm humib air will stay high.

The ultra sonic humidifiers with distilled water work well, for an alternate consideration.

Will

 

[mikeh]

Thanks for the help Will. Cleaning the tray once every few month is fine with me. I am trying to minimize the overall maintenance of the set up.
I realize the warm humid air will stay high up. There will be a heat cable running half way down the adjacent wall, this should create a mild convection affect to move the humid air around the enclosure at night.
What I didn't mention is that I am toying with the idea of creating a night time dew effect. Warmer humid air working itsway down onto cooler rocks and grass would condense on, hoping even torts shell. I have been successful in creating a morning due, but that only lasts about half an hour to an hour. I do have a computer fan circulating the air during the day but I don't want to use it at night as it would diminish this effect.

 

[Saleama]

I would think that the evaporation rate would be fast enough, at 110, that there would not be an issue if you cleaned the tray monthly. I have a tray that my box turtles swim in and I clean it weekly. So far I have only had an issue once with mosquito larvae while I was out of town and the people who I had baby sitting did not clean it like they were supposed to. They just added more water. I wonder if you used distilled water if it would help at all? Also, like Will uggested, a fan will keep smaller insects from being able to land and lay eggs without either getting trapped or blown away.