Humidity 103%

[Plasmoc]

Since discovering I have an outbreak of springtails I’ve been keeping my tank lid completely covered in plastic. Humidity is steady at 103% per calibrated accurite hygrometer. Water is literally dripping down the inside walls of the tank.

I assume this high humidity long term will cause other problems like mold or blooms. So far it’s ok, but I’m very allergic to mold.

Should I try mixing in dry substrate or something else? I added dry moss yesterday but it hasn’t helped at all.




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[Xenocrab]

Watch for flooding! I've have an accumulated amount of water at the bottom of my tank before. It's not fun to deal with. As for mold and blooms, I haven't had that yet

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[Plasmoc]

Good call, what does flooding look like? Luckily all my crabs are up and accounted for


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[Xenocrab]

It looks like the bottom of your tank is mud! If you dig your hand to the bottom, the substrate will be muddy/ soggy & dripping. It's a pain to deal with, but 100% necessary for the health of your crabbies. I had to remove more than half of my substrate and put in dry ee to soak it up. Some of the sand is still muddy, but I'm dealing with it. Humidity that is too high isn't always a good thing!

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[odelayheehoo]

I haven't ever heard of an acurite reading over 99, the display wasn't built to do that, at least mine wasn't.

[Xenocrab]

Mine doesn't either. 99 is Max on mine. Got it at Lowe's

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[Plasmoc]

Ok I just checked and the substrate is still sandcastle consistency, so no flooding (yet). Phew!

To clarify about the accurite, when I calibrated it with the salt test in the sticky I discovered it reads 4 degrees low, so instead of 75% humidity after 8+ hours calibrating it it read 71%. It’s currently reading 99%so I was just adding 4% which is kinda dumb of me lol. It’s 100% I guess because can humidity really be over 100%?


I wiped down the sides & lid and added more leaves to soak up some water hopefully


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[Motörcrab]

Here's easy way to check for water build up at the bottom of the tank. Take something thin, like a butter knife, and slide it down along the front glass of your tank. Be sure you can see the blade as you goes to the bottom of the tank. You can wiggle the knife toward and away from the glass to make a little wider of a hole. If you have any type of flooding the hole will partially fill with water in a few 30 seconds. Be sure you aren't going to disturb any crabs that may be down molting when you check.

[Plasmoc]

Great idea thanks! I will try this tomorrow, that’s much easier than digging around as I did tonight. I didn’t want to disturb much so only checked 3 spots. I’ll check a few more tomorrow.


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[wodesorel]

At 100% (and gauges get wonky at the upper limits so it's probably not exact) it means the air is as supersaturated as possible and it's fog or rain. You're at real risk of floods at high readings, as moisture wants to sink to the lowest possible level.

[Plasmoc]

How do I lower the humidity? Remove the substrate and mix it with dry substrate? It seems sandcastle consistency already. I’m not sure where all the moisture is coming from.... I had low humidity issues before covering the tank fully and I’m not adding anything wet (except refilling water dishes) or misting the tank.

I’ve tried to let it air out for 20-30 min the last 2 days which has no affect.


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[wodesorel]

Venting it again will drop it back down to normal levels. You may need to go back and forth with covering and uncovering until it starts to even out. That should be pretty quick and not affect any molters.

So long as you are certain your sub was mixed to the right moisture level and you haven't been adding any water in, it should be okay to leave covered and will probably work itself out in a month or two. I overwet my sand a bit when I set up my 29, so I left gaps in the covering on the lid and waited it out. It was too foggy to see anything for almost 8 weeks, but it did eventually reach a happy stability.

[Plasmoc]

How high can springtails climb / jump? The main reason I hesitate to keep the lid open for long is I worry they’ll get out and then find the nearby kitchen (has low plants, damp sink, etc).

They are still really tiny... maybe 1/6th a hemp seed.


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[Plasmoc]

Oh and I’m sure my substrate was good consistency before, if anything it had small patches that were a smidge too dry. Before 100% covering the tank I had the opposite problem of humidity being in the 63-75 % range despite misting (I have a prior post asking to to raise & stabilize the humidity and it was suggested to get a solid lid). I haven’t missed in over a week, all I did was add a solid lid. Normally I wouldn’t worry about airing out the tank but I *really* don’t want any possibility of these springtails getting out if the tank


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[Plasmoc]

Wanted to update- it’s been 2 weeks and the humidity is still 99%+. The substrate is still sandcastle consistency, but now 2 crabs are down. I’ve been monitoring for flooding using that knife trick and so far there’s still no flooding.

The only moisture added to the tank is via replenishing the water bowls.

I’ve been trying to do mostly dry foods too, not sure if that makes a difference.

I saw on another thread that adding a dry block of EE could help absorb some of the water. Will this make the existing substrate too dry? I don’t want the crabs under to get hurt.



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