Misting with Cold Air Humidifier (round two)

[broderp]

Thanks to this: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/misting-with-cold-air-humidifier.156010/ I am asking that thread be locked and to restate my original question. Thank you for any advise.

ORIGINAL QUESTION
Will it work? I'm building up a new terrarium and am incorporating a lot of live plants.

Drinking opportunity for my Cham aside, can a humidifier be used effectively in place of misting? Misting is great for the plants but can the same be accomplished with a humidifier?

My goal here is to kill two birds with one stone,

• maintain a varying humidity for a Cham,
• help with watering the plants

I don't have a lot of space to do both and I don't have a mister. I'm trying to keep my setup simple.


NEW INFO
I believe that using a cold air humidifier as a sole source for watering plants is NOT going to work as the amount of humidification required will basically turn the terrarium onto a large foggy cloud. This can not be healthy for any Cham. Thank you to the forum member in the previous thread for this information.

So I'd like to rephrase the question and ask how do you maintain a healthy humidity thru misting?

• I understand the goal is to provide a way to let your Cham drink as the water on the plants sill stimulate the drinking behavior.
• I also know that you want the enclosure to completely dry between misting.

Since I have never had live plants, and my new setup most live plants, providing misting to keep them alive seems like a huge amount of waters, I'm envisioning the humidity shooting up to 80% or more for several hours. Is this not bad for our friends in there? What am I missing? Does this issue only affect those of us in glass terrariums a the humidity levels are significantly higher and easier to maintain?

 

[Decadancin]

I don't think the humidity needs to stay that high for live plants in most enclosures. Misting for say 3 or 4 minutes at a time a few times a day has been sufficient to keep my plants alive and allow for proper hydration in my case. I would set things up so your plants do not get saturated in the roots if possible.

 

[broderp]

I don't think the humidity needs to stay that high for live plants in most enclosures. Misting for say 3 or 4 minutes at a time a few times a day has been sufficient to keep my plants alive and allow for proper hydration in my case. I would set things up so your plants do not get saturated in the roots if possible.

That's good news I think. (Thanks for the response as well) Are you just misting the leaves? Or to you have misting nozzles down near the base of any plants as well to wet the soil?

 

[Decadancin]

I have dual misting nozzles in the enclosure on both sides. This allows good pent ration down into the plants without saturating. I still have to water the plants once in a while in the winter months, but not often.

 

[Virgil1972]

I have to water my plants once and a while also. I use water from my turtle tank for the plants and they seem to like it a lot.

 

[JacksJill]

I have a single misting nozzle in the front corner of my 18x18x36. I mist 4 times a day 2 short and 2 longer sessions. I haven't watered my plants for a month.

 

[broderp]

Thanks guys! Looks like I can do pretty well on mostly misting a few times a day. The misting should be enough to allow the water to penetrate or drip down into the roots and soil.

I was concerned that I would need to have nozzles right at the soil as well as at the leaves. That would be a lot of nozzles as I have about 4-5 plants to mist.

 

[Andee]

Are you doing bioactive? The thing is, most plants don't get misted a continuous amount (which is you go for an automatic mist king system) it will be continuous during the misting sessions and it gets soaked. Since you said you have glass... right? I would imagine you could easily get away with doing 3-4, 3 minute mistings a day. Then if your plants look like they need it just add a little water. I have never had much issue with my plants needing water, it depends on the lighting I have provided.

 

[broderp]

Are you doing bioactive? The thing is, most plants don't get misted a continuous amount (which is you go for an automatic mist king system) it will be continuous during the misting sessions and it gets soaked. Since you said you have glass... right? I would imagine you could easily get away with doing 3-4, 3 minute mistings a day. Then if your plants look like they need it just add a little water. I have never had much issue with my plants needing water, it depends on the lighting I have provided.

I will have to say no to the bioactive, considering I do not even know what it is.

Yes, I have a fairly large (18D X 24W x 36T) Exo-Terra terrarium.

I'm hoping from what I have learned and read on the forum, your estimate for misting would be about right. (3-4 mistings/ 2-3 minutes )

 

[tenchijin]

Back when I was breeding panthers about 15 years ago, I had a large terrarium for the hatchlings that was heavily planted and had a glass front and a screen top. I had recently begun experimenting with ultrasonic humidifiers and had the mist piped around through various hoses to multiple cages. One line went right into that cage. Every morning, that cage was a SOLID MASS OF FOG. It was great! LOL. I loved going into the room each morning, it was like walking into a tropical mountain forest. However it did not substitute for a dripping system for the reasons you've discovered.

 

[Andee]

The reasons I decide to mist so much less in a glass terrarium is because they hold humidity so much better and they also hold the droplets longer.