Specific Humidity for Halmahera bluey

[bonnibel]

Hello, I am wondering the humidity patterns in Indonesia, specifically Halmahera! I have a halmeheran blue tongue skink and need to set up his misting system for an accurate simulation of his native environment.

I am mainly wondering: What is the % at night? Does it get more humid in the morning? What is the % in the afternoon? Does it tend to get dryer in the afternoon? Does it get more humid before nightfall?

I am using a mistking set up if that helps you know what I'm looking for. My main problem before when I really tried for the higher humidity was the tank ended up just plain soggy almost. I am hoping a new substrate mix will fix the substrate getting so wet on the surface but I feel like I should also be somewhat letting it dry out during the day because of that. I only have 9 misting presets available so I am trying to get a good idea of when they should be and how long.

[mb606587]

So just monitoring weather data in that area, humidity levels tend to reach 90% and higher overnight. During the day, it commonly drops to between 70% - 80%.

[mb606587]

As for substrate, I use a blend that works well for me. Head to the hardware store and pick up small bags of organic top soil, peatmoss, coco coir, and play sand. I use a blend of one part each in equal portions. Then I liberally add sphagnum moss.

[bonnibel]

As for substrate, I use a blend that works well for me. Head to the hardware store and pick up small bags of organic top soil, peatmoss, coco coir, and play sand. I use a blend of one part each in equal portions. Then I liberally add sphagnum moss.

Thank you for your tips once again!! Currently I am using a blend of forest floor (cypress mulch I believe) and eco earth with moss on top in areas that tend to dry out more. Should I maybe add a drainage layer? I'm going to install the two new hygrometers for both sides of his tank now and record the humidity whenever I can. How long is too long for the misting system to spray though? I really appreciate your help though!! Now I just have to figure out how the heck to get 9 programmed settings to balance this out (with misting but the system is a *checkerboard to figure out lol)

[mb606587]

I don't know much about drainage layers or bioactive enclosures so hopefully somebody else will comment or go to youtube. As for how long to run your misting system, thats going to be trial and error but it needs to be run intermittently. Alot of people end up hooking their misters to humidistats to regulate the humidity for them. Those who run greenhouses where the humidity needs to be exact use these. Inkbird makes a pretty affordable model.

[kayla990]

Just pitching in about the drainage layer for bioactive setups - luckily drainage layers are not needed!

For the slightly expanded reason - there's new information going around that drainage layers aren't as beneficial as we thought. It can retain the water on top of the drainage, causing damage to plants long term (and makes it more difficult to dry out substrate in natural cycles). I don't use a drainage layer in any of our tanks since hearing about it, and the springtails etc are still breeding like mad. Slowly phasing it out of plant pots too!

Agree the misting will be trial and error along with your setup (airflow, if you're using radiators in the room which reduces ambient room humidity, ventilation holes, if you have covered up some of the holes, lights/UVB etc). To give a rough idea of how we manage our Halmahera - we have a fogger on a timer set on two hours on, two off. Big water dishes, most of the ventilation holes are being covered up. The substrate is sprayed once per two days with a pressurized garden spray (or if it looks dry or gets under 75% humidity). When spraying - we mix the substrate by hand to make sure the water reaches all the areas and gets 'healthy' soil rotation to avoid mold.

At night, there is a natural increase of humidity.

Goodluck!

[bonnibel]

Just pitching in about the drainage layer for bioactive setups - luckily drainage layers are not needed!

For the slightly expanded reason - there's new information going around that drainage layers aren't as beneficial as we thought. It can retain the water on top of the drainage, causing damage to plants long term (and makes it more difficult to dry out substrate in natural cycles). I don't use a drainage layer in any of our tanks since hearing about it, and the springtails etc are still breeding like mad. Slowly phasing it out of plant pots too!

Agree the misting will be trial and error along with your setup (airflow, if you're using radiators in the room which reduces ambient room humidity, ventilation holes, if you have covered up some of the holes, lights/UVB etc). To give a rough idea of how we manage our Halmahera - we have a fogger on a timer set on two hours on, two off. Big water dishes, most of the ventilation holes are being covered up. The substrate is sprayed once per two days with a pressurized garden spray (or if it looks dry or gets under 75% humidity). When spraying - we mix the substrate by hand to make sure the water reaches all the areas and gets 'healthy' soil rotation to avoid mold.

At night, there is a natural increase of humidity.

Goodluck!

Thank you so much for all the info!! I'll ditch the drainage idea in that case and upgrade the substrate mixture instead! I've gotten it up to 80%+ at night but during the day it easily falls to 50% within an hour of the mister. I have it set for a minute or so about two hours apart, I'm imagining I can run it for way longer though? My main concern is him breathing in straight up mist, he normally sneezes after it mists and he's out so I wouldn't want to spike up an RI or anything. I also will probably have to readjust misting schedule when his new enclosure that's a foot longer gets here. The only problem is the double misting nozzle doesn't quite reach the cold side from the hot side and there are only wire holes on the corners. I'm going to cut some longer tubing and experiment with placement soon.

[kayla990]

Awesome - hope you'll find a good routine that works! Agree that in general, misters don't keep humidity high during the day - we had the same experience of the humidity dropping not long after it was used, even when it was on for 40-50 seconds. Hopefully the new substrate mix will keep it in higher ranges though

I wouldn't worry about them breathing in the mist - you can also provide hiding areas to give him the choice to avoid it if needed. Our guy has also chosen to sit directly under the fogger (and also sneezes to clear out his nose), so don't think it's that much of a bother to them. As long as the sneezing isn't too frequent (or if they sneeze shortly after the misting or digging) I wouldn't be concerned about RI if there's no additional breathing noises.

If after the experiments the humidity drops during the day.. you can try cover up more ventilation holes (we use a towel on the top of the tank), use a large (but shallow) water dish on the hot side of the tank for evaporation; and/or could use a higher ratio of sphagnum moss in the substrate.