Active humidity control

[broderp]

I know some people Mist and other also use a fogger to keep humidity up, but how do you get rid of excessive humidity? Has anyone tried "active" de-humidification?

In an enclosure or terrarium, I wonder how something like the below would work in maintaining a lower humidity (or at least keep the humidity within the safe zone) for a Cham.

I am considering this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZWYNG3C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2869E9NXGD6WI

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KWKONAG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N

Or even this:
https://www.amazon.com/Improved-Eva...8&qid=1494161377&sr=1-9&keywords=dehumidifier

I've looked at a lot of options and for right now the below are not on the table at this point:

• New enclosure
• Drilling holes in my glass terrarium
• Going to fake plants

I'm wondering if the small dehumidifiers can be used to pull the moisture out of the air faster than the fans I currently use. This will allow me to increase my misting for my Cham to at least 3 minutes, 4 times a day. Up from the varied schedule I currently have do to the humidity and standing water. I'm hoping if they work well I can remove one or both of the fans as well.

Any thoughts?

 

[broderp]

Alrighty then.... The tribe has spoken. No one cares about active humidity controls. I'll work it out from scratch myself.

 

[JacksJill]

Sorry, it's just not the problem I deal with. I struggle with the opposite problem especially outdoors.
The only people I know using glass enclosures use them for raising neonates that they then move into screen later.
Maybe you should sub out some live plants for plastic and see if that helps at all.
I'm sure you will find a solution.

 

[broderp]

Sorry, it's just not the problem I deal with. I struggle with the opposite problem especially outdoors.
The only people I know using glass enclosures use them for raising neonates that they then move into screen later.
Maybe you should sub out some live plants for plastic and see if that helps at all.
I'm sure you will find a solution.

Yeah, I must be the only person on the forum who has the problem I do. I wasn't expecting someone to have a solution but was hoping for some discussion or theory to see if any of it could eliminate some wasted time and money when I test out humidifies. I had plastic plants, and it does fix the issue, but real plants I feel are better for my cham. I like the challenge, but not at the expense of my cham's health. Thanks for looking.

 

[Crashbandit05]

Idk if this would be a solution for you, but we deal with mold and high humidity here in western NC so we have 'damp-rid' bags that get hung up in each closet and room. We also have a huge de-humidifier (mini fridge size) that pulls a ton of moisture from the air but also puts out a lot of heat.

 

[broderp]

Idk if this would be a solution for you, but we deal with mold and high humidity here in western NC so we have 'damp-rid' bags that get hung up in each closet and room. We also have a huge de-humidifier (mini fridge size) that pulls a ton of moisture from the air but also puts out a lot of heat.

Never heard of a damp-rid bag. I'll after look into that. I have thought of pluming in a PVC pipe down the back of his enclosure (bought a 4 ft section of black PVC for this already) and having it draw air and humidity out via a fan to an external room size humidifier. If just seemed like a fairly awkward process to plum it to a humidifier and keep it all sealed up. This is why I was planning on trying something small inside first to see if that makes mode sense.

 

[KRuehle]

Not sure about what fans you're using. Consider fans with higher volume of air moving through them? Something else to consider is the fact that fans pulling air out of, or pushing ambient air into the cage are relying on the ambient (outside) air to be less humid than the inside air. Do you run the AC or heat in your house? If not, consider just a regular dehumidifier to place in your room near the enclosure. Also curious, are your fans pulling air out, or pushing in? If your fans are moving enough air, and the air in your room is lower humidity, you should be fine.

 

[broderp]

Not sure about what fans you're using. Consider fans with higher volume of air moving through them? Something else to consider is the fact that fans pulling air out of, or pushing ambient air into the cage are relying on the ambient (outside) air to be less humid than the inside air. Do you run the AC or heat in your house? If not, consider just a regular dehumidifier to place in your room near the enclosure. Also curious, are your fans pulling air out, or pushing in? If your fans are moving enough air, and the air in your room is lower humidity, you should be fine.

The room Humidity is between 53% and 60%. This tells me the issue is in the terrarium and with the live plants holding moisture. I have a pretty high volume 12V (120mm) fan in the bottom blowing air from above straight in the bottom of the enclosure. I do run it at 9VDC, with reduces the airflow and noise level but it seems to work well enough to dry the glass floor of the water drops that don't get caught by the plastic trays I place on the bottom.

I have not yet started the AC as the weather is not that hot yet. That may help some at least during the winter.

As far as fans and air direction go, this is what I found worked the best. The bottom fan as described above and the top fan sucking warm air out.

I DID NOT try having the top fan suck in the out side air, I may see how this affects things this weekend. Thanks for the comment.