[CavanC]

Having lots of trouble keeping the humidity high in my goldens viv. its got coco husk substrate and a UTH with a 75 watt bulb during the day and a 55 red for night time. i have a exo terra glass viv and i covered the top vents with thin plexi glass that i cut to keep the humidity and heat up. how can i keep the humidity up without having live plants (too much work at this point) and without spraying 15 times a day (mold will grow)

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[Skwerel]

if you are willing to go through a bit of work, get a timer and an ultrasonic humidifier, plus a five gallon bucket. You can drill a hole in the lid to the bucket, and use that as your reservoir- simply run aquarium hose from the hole into your tank, and mess with the timer settings until you get good humidity consistently. You should only need to fill the reservoir every couple of weeks for an exo terra.

*I didn't even think to add that... I live in an area where we commonly have hot, dry winds scouring the valley, and an average of 7 inches of rain per year.*

[BlakeDeffenbaugh]

What is your humidity at? They do not need 90% humidity. 50%-60% is just fine. From what it sounds your trying to make more of a rain chamber, to much humidity can potentially cause respiratory problems.

You do not need live plants just spray the tank and the bedding good once a day or so and that should be fine unless you live in the desert. I've never seen mold grow on coco fiber or even peatmoss. Dont cover up the whole top they do need air flow, lack of air flow grows mold faster because the air is stagnant.

[cliff_f]

Originally Posted by CavanC

Having lots of trouble keeping the humidity high in my goldens viv. its got coco husk substrate and a UTH with a 75 watt bulb during the day and a 55 red for night time. i have a exo terra glass viv and i covered the top vents with thin plexi glass that i cut to keep the humidity and heat up. how can i keep the humidity up without having live plants (too much work at this point) and without spraying 15 times a day (mold will grow)

??????????????

Man you are just over thinking and worrying to much. Just mist them once or twice a day. The humidity will shoot up to 90% when you mist and then it will drop way down and that is fine it will not hurt them at all. If you keep the tank at 90% humidity all the time you might as well get rid of the gecko and get a frog.

[PassPort]

my tropicals get sprayed once a day, sometimes just everyother day and they breed like crazy for me.

[CavanC]

yeah i guess i am a little paranoid, i just read all the things that people say can go wrong with geckos and especially goldens (being hardER to care for) so i just over analyze a lot of things. i think that it is a little bit the fault of all the care sheets making something that happens .099% of the time sound like if you do or dont do THIS then THIS will happen.

[GlennSC]

I also have an Exo-Terra for my Tokays, I found that using the coco husk fiber works really well for humidity in conjunction with moss and once or twice daily misting to keep the substrate from drying. It seems like the Zoo Med Eco Earth takes longer to dry out if you forget to mist then the Exo soil for some reason. Using that in conjunction with moss keeps my humidity at a constant 60-65% without having to cover parts of the top. I had n Exo-Terra waterfall in the enclosure as well but even with the small model my humidity was way too high, even without misting. Unless the light was always on the humidity was at a constant 90+ %. So if moss in conjunction with a damp substrate doesnt work for you perhaps one of those waterfalls might do the trick. I have to warn you that the Exo ones seem to plagued with problems, unless the flow was set to max the little pump that comes with it had a hard time pumping the water. Make sure you check it every few days and top it off. The shallow reservoir drys out and burns out the pump.

[CavanC]

the original post said that i needed a way to keep the humidity up without live plants, because they were more work. i cant have something that is going to be more work than even the plants!! all these crazy pump things are a little too intense for me. im just a new guy who wants to make damn sure that he is giving his gecko the best possible life in captivity as possible

[GlennSC]

Have you considered a fogger? That can be less work if you put one in a water dish and just top it off now and then. Exo makes one that will work in an inch of water.

[gbhil]

Drainage area under the substrate + small heat pad on tank bottom = worry free humidity, without covering the tank and blocking air flow.