HCA: Hermit Crab Association

After getting two bad batches of Kritterz analog gauges, I decided to try one of the digitals. The only one they have is the Flukers one, so I gave it a shot.At first, I thought it was totally broken. It would read 57% which was about right for the house, and then I'd touch it and it would jump to the 70's. I put it in the fridge and it stayed in the upper 60s. I put it in a container with some boiling water and it was in the 50s. It just seems backwards.But then I got thinking. Maybe it's actually just MORE accurate and responsive to temperature than the analog gauges we're used too. When temperature goes up, relative humidity drops because the air can hold more moisture. So just because you put it in with boiling water doesn't mean the relative humidity will increase if the air temp has also increased so it can hold more water. And if the gauge is moist, when you put it in the fridge, the temperature drops so the relative humidity increases, and it should go way up, at least until the water all dissippates.So before returning it, I decided to put it in the tank and see what happens. At first it actually read a bit lower than what I was expecting, but then I realized that's just because the temp was at 80 for the daytime, so the relative humidity probably did drop to the upper 60's. At night when the temp drops, it rose to the 70's again. I've been watching it, and it actually seems to be very accurate. I've since added more water to increase the relative humidity.It's got min/max functions, so I can see the day/night variations. Temp goes from about 76 to 81, and humidity goes from about 79 to 71.I remember reading previous threads talk about how innaccurate digital gauages they'd tried were. Think it might be that the gauges were actually very accurate, just different than what we were used to with unresponsive analog gauges.

I was just looking at one a couple of days ago debating about getting one. Question: At what height should your meters be? Ground level, Up top, or somewhere in the middle? I know the readings will vary depending on the location.

If you don't have multiple levels, so crabs can't get up high, then something lower to the substrate is better, since that's a more accurate representation of the atmosphere the crabs predominently experience.Also, if you use an UTH and don't have heat lights, the heat won't transfer to the air very much, so the temp will read a lot lower as you raise the gauge.However, if the crabs can reach the gauge, they will likely destroy it. Rip it off the wall and drag it into the water bowl or something. So I always have to put mine far enough up out of reach.Mine is located about half way up the side of the tank. Since I have levels going all the way up, it's fair to represent all the places they can be. And as long as the middle humidity reads well, it's pretty gauranteed the humditiy will be even higher closer to moist substrate or the water pools.With overhead lighting keeping the air warm, it will actually get warmer the farther up it goes.Youre individual tank will decide where to place it. These are just some info to help make your decision.