Different Heating bulbs

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Wed May 25, 2011 1:37 am

I just changed my 75w infrared bulb for a 50w ceramic heating bulb.

the 75w was taking away humidity but heating really well.the 50w is holding humidity but not hot enough.

Is infrared just a bad choice and I should have just got a 75w ceramic heat light?

This stuff is seriously confusing me.

Post by **wodesorel** » Wed May 25, 2011 12:01 pm

Humidity and heat are linked. When temperature raises the relative humidity goes down, and when the temperature gets colder the relative humidity goes up. The relative humidity (which is what the gauges measure) doesn't actually tell you how much moisture is in your tank total - it tells you how much moisture is in the air at a certain temperature.

So, the reason why your humidity got better with the 50W ceramic is probably not because you switched to ceramic but because it's staying cooler than the 75W. You need to find a way to get more moisture into the tank that can be evaporated into the air to raise the RH.

How moist is your substrate? Sometimes just adding a bit more water can get the RH up to where it needs to be. Have you tried adding a large moss pit? Small ones won't have much effect but a large one with lots of surface area will. (Mine is close to 11 by 16 inches.) If you can find cocofiber bedding, mixing it into the sand or creating a cocofiber pit (just like a moss pit) can also help to raise the humidity. The reason why cocofiber and moss work so well is that they naturally want to be dry, so they release moisture into the air more easily than straight sand. How well-sealed is the lid of the tank? Some air flow is necessary, but too much and all the humidity from the tank will evaporate into the much dryer house.

tnt4eva · Post by **tnt4eva** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:11 pm

Ditto to what wodesorrel said. The very first thing I do when my humidity isn't as it should be is check the substrate. 9 times out of 10, it's the substrate that's the problem and it's dried out too much. I've got an old milk bottle with pin holes in it that I put water in and shake over the sand to wet it.

It tends to happen more in winter, I think because the air is so dry.

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Wed May 25, 2011 7:08 pm

I cant put my finger thru the sand and the hole remains. So technically the sand is wet enough.

The tank is bigger but the pools are the same size, not much evaporates from them.

This is taking so much money of trial and error

Winter is the worst time for me to try and set this up

I don't think its taking too bad a toll on the crabs tho.

tnt4eva · Post by **tnt4eva** » Wed May 25, 2011 8:28 pm

As long as the sand isn't pooling water at the bottom you could try wetting it more. The sand can be moist enough to hold a burrow and still be too dry to keep the humidity up.

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Wed May 25, 2011 8:50 pm

Alrighty, I'll moisten it up tonight.

Also, should I get a higher watt ceramic bulb if i am using it outside the tank. Its warm about 4 cm from the bulb but not at the bottom of the tank.

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Thu May 26, 2011 2:28 am

So I bit the bullet and bought a thermostat for the 75w inferred bulb.

The left side of the tank reads 24c/ 75% the middle reads 27c / 75% and the right side only has a thermometer and reads 22c

I "rained" 1.5 litres into the sand and its still not pooling. I think it could stand to take some more to get the humidity up more.

I really want this set up to be long term, my son really loves these crabs.

Post by **wodesorel** » Thu May 26, 2011 4:08 am

It can take a while to get the swing of things so that the tank runs pretty much on it's own, so don't loose hope.

You have to figure out what works best in your tank though, so don't be afraid to experiment!

My 135 gallon PP tank is very low-tech, but is self-regulating as long as I add about 1.5 gallons of water to the substrate every 5 days. (Well, at least over the winter, we'll see what happens now that it's humid outside again.) It took a few months to figure out that was all I needed to do, and that it wasn't going to flood the tank. The 30 gallon E tank I never have to add water to, but I have to change their water dishes more often since they evaporate faster. Each set-up has it's own kinks, though generally the basic rules of sealing up, adding moss or EE, and keeping the heat steady will keep the humidity up to where it needs to be.

tnt4eva · Post by **tnt4eva** » Thu May 26, 2011 4:33 am

It's OK...as wodesorel said, it can take a while for things to stabilise. If I change things in my tank - i.e. lighting, heating, the cover etc, it takes several days to a week before the temperature and humidity even back out to normal. I can't remember what size your tank is, but it took around 3 days for the substrate in my 120gallon to warm up properly when I added the ceramic heater and until it did that, the temperature wasn't optimal, not to mention that the humidity wouldn't cooperate. As long as your temps and humidity aren't doing anything horribly drastic, it's probably stressing you out more than it is the crabs

In the wild, they don't have a nice person to keep making sure the temperature is just so, that the humidity is perfect and that it only rains when it has to. Out there, they have to tough out Mother Nature. So they are sort of spoiled with us

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Thu May 26, 2011 5:54 am

Thanks guys, you set my mind at ease.

Its good ATM and the 3 crabs I can see are happy.

Mama Crabs · Post by **Mama Crabs** » Thu May 26, 2011 11:53 am

I have also been told by the owners of the Hermit Crab Patch that the crabs carry shell water so they can regulate their humidity themselves, they said it’s like the crabs have their own humidifier in their shell and when they need to adjust it they will go down tot he water dishes.

I have noticed that if they are startled their shell water splashes out, it makes me laugh, it's like they went pee.

I laugh with the comment made earlier in the post that we are probably stressing ourselves out more than the crabs with our climate control, that is so true in my case, my crabs looked very relaxed in the tank, it's me that is all stressed out!!

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Thu May 26, 2011 6:39 pm

My light went boom

CrabbyMom33 · Post by **CrabbyMom33** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:02 pm

Did it maybe get water on it while it was hot?

mrs-rx · Post by **mrs-rx** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:26 pm

It may have, I had just misted after the humidity dropped thru the night. Jumped in the shower and hubby came in and said it went pop and turned off.

I now have a 50w in there since I dont have time to get another one

Post by **wodesorel** » Thu May 26, 2011 11:06 pm

I'm betting it was water splashing or condensation that caused it to break as well. I had a number of smaller bulbs explode on me before I learned to turn them off and move them out of the way while spraying. (I don't even spray anymore, I just pour to make it easier.) You were actually really lucky - the last two times I had one go I had to remove most of the substrate because all that was left was glass dust!