Cool mist humidifier(fogger)

[jamest0o0]

Hey guys so I use this to supplement the humidity, usually at night or other times i won't be around to mist as much. So i noticed the entire thing gets really slimy fast...i used cleaning vinegar all over it, but it doesn't go away without scrubbing, plus there are lots of spots i cant reach by hand to scrub. I know my water reservoirs for my reef aquarium would get like that and there was never any problems even without cleaning them, but due to chams being sensitive to bacteria and such i wasn't sure how much of a risk this poses to his health? I figure the slime is a bacteria build up? I'd imagine this builds up in our misters and cages as well.

 

[Andee]

Misters have less of a problem with it because fog doesn't dry up quickly inside a tube, and when you get a good Mistking set up or something similar they usually have tubing that helps discourage algae growth. With my misters I do a regular cycle of vingar/water solution through it to clean it well and then rinse everything and cycle just water again before connecting it to the cages, I do this about once every other month. Depending on how often you are running the fogger it may be causing an issue as well. Foggers do best when run for timed sessions of an hour or depending on your species. In my opinion if it's actual like clear/whitish bacteria build up, hyrdogen peroxide would likely clean it better and wouldn't do any harm in the process as long as you aren't using it when fogging for the chameleon.

 

[jamest0o0]

Ahh okay makes sense, the fogger is the ony thing that seems to get slimy. My mister and water reservoirs aren't even like that. Is it harmful? I might just ditch the fogger if so, i just have trouble keeping humidity up at night and the fogger does a great for that and looks pretty cool. I have the mistking, but i'm missing some parts and am just going to set it up with my clearside dragon strand.

Speaking of cleaning and hydrogen peroxide, i read you could spray your entire cage and plants down with the 12% stuff(cham out obvi), then rinse with water and it evaporates and is harmless. Is this right? I'm really due for a full cage cleaning anyway, he has a foam living wall and it's getting a little gross underneath.

Thanks for the response as always!

 

[Andee]

The humidity doesn't need to be up at night what are you trying to hit for an average humidity. Your humidity should only spike to 70-85% during mists, other times it's fine if it's around 40%-60%. It's actually really bad to have it humid all the time whether your fogger has bacteria growth or not. Chameleons need airflow and dry times.

 

[jamest0o0]

Well i only have those cheap analog hygrometers because i have yet to find something with decent reviews worth buying to measure humidity, but they've been reading about 40% average during the day 50-60% after mists and it was like 30% this morning before i misted. It's probably because it's a little colder and our heater is on, even though i shut the vents in his room(still stays warm enough with lights and such). On days it's warm out the humidity is usually solid at 50-60average around 70ish when i mist. I was just concerned with the big drop to 30 at night so i picked up the 30$ humidfier.

 

[Andee]

well the humidity dropping that low at night doesn't matter. How long are your misting sessions? Even with colder temps and my heater running all the time I don't have humidity issues and I am not in a hugely humid place. Those analog hygrometers need to be calibrated before you can trust their read outs. I mist for at least 4 minutes, and often have a 10 minute session in the morning. I use all screen cages. It bumps my humidity to 85%

 

[jamest0o0]

Oh i wasn't aware those needed calibrated? I mist for at least five minutes in the morning, but probably closer to 10. I usually go through the entire mist bottle, takes about a minute or two for my guy to realize it's water time and then he runs out right in front of the spray to get drenched and drink. Then i just keep going until he goes back to bask or until the bottle runs out. Usually about 2 heavy mistings a day and 2-3 more light mists to wet the leaves.

 

[Andee]

If you look it up on Google it will tell you how to do it and see how much yours reads off. They can be anywhere from 2-10% differences

 

[broderp]

Humidity is a hit or miss as far as accuracy goes on many cheap devices.

I designed a controller based around this: (this is not the one I use, but very similar)
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Humi...488811753&sr=8-5&keywords=humidity+controller

I figure if these are good enough for brewing beer, or in many cases used to monitor and maintain humidity for other things like curing wood and incubators it should be good enough for a Cham cage.

The beauty of this is it can control a fogger or other device to either turn on (or off) as needed. A little electrical knowledge is all you need.

Here's my controller using a similar device as well as a temp sensor only version. I kind of went over board, but you can do it way simpler if needed. I use this to completely automate my terrarium, including an auto setting that monitors at night, but does not allow output so that the temps and humidity can drop as needed. The controller reactivates again in the day time when the lights come on.

 

[jamest0o0]

That looks sweet, would that be easy to set up? I'd like to have something to monitor temp and humidity, i'm always worrying about them fluctuating too high or low.