Bioactive humidity issues

Just set up my 120 gallon PVC (Critter Condo) with Terra Firma substrate from the Bio Dude. 5". Even with adding a good amount of water in there (not sopping wet, mind you), the humidity is sitting around 35% on the hot end, 63% on the cool end. Currently 88 degrees on the hot end, 78% on the cool end.

I don’t want to keep dumping water in here, but I’m baffled why it’s so low. All of my other enclosures are bioactive, and I’ve never had these sorts of humidity issues, even with my new caledonians and my tokay gecko.

Any suggestions?

Here’s an Imgur post with the setup: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

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FWIW: I just taped up the bottom two rows of ventilation, and it seems to be helping.

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Mine larger enclosures (ones with more substrate surface area) have always taken a bit to get consistent with humidity. Just keep watering every couple of days and it will balance out. You could also move the water bowl to the warm side to help if needed. What thermometers/hydrometers are you using?

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That’s good to know. Yeah, the water bowl is in the middle at the moment, but you’re right: no harm in moving it over.

As for the t/h, I have two different kinds. I have two of these (Amazon.com), and I also have the t/h combo from the Bio Dude. I’ve had good luck with the Veanics with my other enclosures. I thought about getting some Govees, but they’re clunky and hard to see from the outside of the enclosure. I also don’t use a smartphone, so I can’t utilize the “smart” features.

Currently, the temps are 1:1 (89*), and humidity is within 5% (59/54).

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Better yet, what are the sheds like. The whole point of getting the humidity right is to get good sheds. If you’re getting good sheds, then your humidity is good. At least that’s how I see it.

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I don’t use thermometers or hydrometers anymore, 50 gallons of water (30 of which are heated) in a small room takes care of humidity and temp gun takes care of the rest, but when I did I loved the Govees. They were always super accurate and last a long time. I never used the smart features but the accuracy was well worth it. It was a pain to check in the dark though. It doesn’t sound like you need anymore as 4 should be plenty but I just wanted to add it in case you ever wanted more for whatever reason.

Hope everything is smooth going from here!

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Just moved her in, but I can tell you: can’t be much worse than the humidity levels when I got her!

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Thanks, @logar! Yeah, I might just go with the Govee for more accuracy, to be honest. But I will say after moving the water bowl to the warm side (currently on the hide…she’s sleeping on the cool side today… probably really confused having two hides compared to the one we adopted her with), the humidity levels have been in the high 60s, low 70s (depending on the probe).

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I live where it is super dry so keeping humidity is a battle I know well, and I swear by Govee. Every once ins a while you get a therm/hygro unit that kills batteries, but everything else they’ve got works brilliantly for me. I use their timer plugs for lights in my house as well as the reptile stuff.

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I second what everyone says about the Govees. The smart features are pretty useful too.
Liam from Reptiles and Reaserch has a good tip for keeping humidity levels in this video from 3:11 onwards… hope it helps!

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@athleticshoelace @sofiaborrero Thanks for this! After this post, the humidity levels have definitely settled in. Currently looking at the mid 60s on the warm side, mid 60s for the cool side, and that’s during the day. Gets up higher at night. But I do think I’ll look into the Govees. I like them in my bearded dragon tank, but yeah, I’ll need to find a way to make them work for my BP.

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