Water source evaporation and subsequent flooding, high humidity

[PrincessLizardbeams]

Hi folks, this is my first post here.

Thirteen months ago, I had some kinfolk traveling from out of state to stay with me for an event less far from here than where they usually are, all nice and planned in advance. About a week before Visit Time, they let me know that since I was adopting a hermit crab from my brother and his sons they'd just be bringing the little beastie along. Surprise! That was the first I'd heard of the deal. I was cranky, but Uncle Me had a reputation from way back for adopting almost any old rescue or about-to-be-abandoned being, although it had been awhile and our household had through time dwindled to me, my human life partner, the cats, and the octogenarian turtle and we had a decent equilibrium going between us five. Hermit crabs were a new one, but we sprang into action. My partner did his thing searching online and found me a bibliography, including these boards. (Thank you all.) I did follow-up research. We had a fair number of vacant terraria sitting on shelves, I knew the crabs would be coming in something less than we could do for them, and we repurposed the largest to make a crabitat in no time flat (thank you all for great info). We found a similarly solo companion for the newcomer (his prior had passed before the hand-off), and predictably I fell for "the crabbos" in less than the second week.

It's been a successful first year. They've both had two to three molts or at least extended subterranean sojourns, they get along, they make use of the shells we've acquired and periodically swap their duds even when not sizing-up. We got through Winter 1 (which was a nailbiter for temp, even with them sharing the room configured for the turtle's temperature needs).

However, I am baffled by an issue. While I've had temperature anxiety as above, humidity in the crabitat has been great. It hovers 85-95%. Whenever I fill the water dishes, they evaporate almost immediately. Both salt and fresh dishes are about 1.25" deep (the crabbos are PP's and seem to confirm all that y'all have written about their species being content not to submerge), the crabitat lighting is timed LED that emits minimal heat. I change their food and fill their water, and within less than a day the water dishes are empty. They aren't leaking. I've pulled them out for tests. In situ, I see water droplets between the size of peas and garbanzo beans hanging from the crabitat lid arranged in the shape of the dishes directly over said dishes. Then the moisture flows around and the substrate gets soggy. I've taken to two management strategies. First, I use the moss pit as a safety valve. Whenever I suspect it's gotten too wet, I pull out the saturated sphagnum and replace it with dry (dry out the old, "rinse", repeat). Sometimes it has gotten very wet to the point of an inch of standing water at the lower strata before the dry moss sops it up. Second, I pile spare shells in the water dishes, apertures up, and fill them instead since they seem to hold the water for a longer time and the crabbos are content to use them as reservoirs, except when they dump one out to put it on. I've monitored: in those situations, I have arranged the shells such that when they tip 'em out, it's into the dish, not the sand.

Hydrodynamics are really not my thing. Any insights on why in a high humidity environment without point source heat to trigger evaporation the water sources would just evaporate out and then precipitate into my problem?

It seems a little extravagant, considering the number of tanks I've got around from prior inhabitants gone to their respective vivaria in the sky, but I intend to get a bigger, broader, deeper terrarium to make into crabitat 2.0 and I definitely do not want to perpetuate this situation. Safe tunnels without flood risk for all!

Thanks in advance.

[Jlmills525]

is there anything IN the pools that is used for the crabs to climb in or out (i know you said they don't submerge, I just didn't know if there was any type of "ladder") material that bridges a pool can 'wick' the water out into the substrate

[JoeHermits]

Condensation is common in tanks where the room is a lower temperature than the tank, but it’s weird that it’s all accumulated directly above the water dishes. How warm is the tank? High temperatures would increase the rate of evaporation regardless of how concentrated it is on the water.


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