HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Well, inspired by Cwaweeks I decided to go ahead and make myself and the crabbies a humidifier, as I have been struggling to keep humidity up (If I don't mist regulaly it can drop to as low as 40% )

You will need:
1. Bottle/Jar with a sealed lid
2. Sponges
3. Airstone
4. Aquarium Tubing (mine is 5mm not sure in inches sorry)
5. Aquarium Pump (mine had 2 air outlets so I decided to have 2 tubes going in blowing bubbles)
6. Dechlor Water

Method:
So first of all I got the jar from kitchen with a screw on lid and gave it a good wash.

Then took the lid off and drilled the holes for aquarium tubing to go through (making sure they were a firm fit)

Cleaned the sponges and airstone, Filled the jar with dechlor water and chucked the sponges in.

Then pushed the 3 pieces of aquarium tubing through the the lid and put the airstone on the first tube and submerged it, nothing on the second tube and submerged it, and the third tube sitting in the jar not submerged at all (taking the humidity into the crabitat).

Here is a pic My humidity has already gone up by 15% in about 15-20 mins

[Admin Edit: The original link no longer works, but you can see an image of a working humidifier here: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=26260&start=150#p782135 ]

HTH anyone with humidity problems (hopefully it wasn't to confusing )

Edited by Christa to make a Sticky

now the question I have is, does this seem to work better than having an airstone in a large water dish in the crabitat?

Bundy that came out to be amazing! Good job on it... [smilie=hail.gif]

Yeah, nice job!! [smilie=claps.gif] Yours even looks better than mine. I have mine in a gatorade bottle, so it looks like I am misting with gatorade! Hope it works as well for you as it does for me. I have to have mine on a timer to only run 1 hour on, 4-5 hours off to prevent too much humidity. Good Luck! and glad I inspired somebody! Credit is not mine since I got the idea from someone else on HCA.

Hurray!!

Im always glad to see someone making home solutions to products that would cost you an arm and a leg in a pet store. Especially when they are such a simple design as this.

So congratulations! well done

Ok, why the sponges? Can you do it without them?

Thanks guys, and my guess is the sponges just add to humidity?

And when I woke up this morning humidity is at 75 im soooo happy!

About how much would the parts cost? Preferably in USD lol.

Bottle $1
Sponges $1
Airstone $0.50
Aquarium tubing: around $1 a meter
Pump: ranging from $5-$30 (mine cost $14 because it has 2 outlets)

But I had all of that just in my bedroom (I have 9 aquariums - not all in use at the moment though but I have heeps of gear)

^^ Australian Dollars
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So say if you got a cheap pump it might cost $6-8 US or around there... (not sure if my AUS-US money conversion was correct and the items might be more/less expensive in the US

Ah, not too bad. Lol I had no idea what an airstone was untill just now. Thought it was something else kinda expensive.

Okay, I made one of these humidifiers, but without the sponge. How much water should there be in the bottle? I don't feel anything coming out the end. Should there be some air flow? My humidity is sitting at about 55 and I can't get it up. I spritz water but because my room is hot it just dries up so quickly. Should I have a sponge in there? I saw that someone made one without a sponge and it works.
Help!

I have a question. The tube without a airstone going into the tank is it connected to the air pump or does it just set at the top of the jar going out of the jar and into the tank? Also does it work better then a bubbler pool? My humididity was down to 60% this morning but the tank was warm.

Mine works without a sponge, and I have the bottle filled about 3/4. I can just barely feel the air flow, but I can see the water in the tube.
The tube that goes in the tat is in the bottle, but not in the water. I don't know anything about a bubbler pool, so I can't compare.

The tube that goes in the tat is in the bottle, but not in the water.

Thank you I would have stuck the tube in the water. Im going to make one.

U need 2 Tubes...1 Goes into the "Jug" attached with an Air Stone....The 2nd Tube Comes Out of the top of the Jug...Do Not Put this Tube Into the Water...It goes into the Air Space Above the Water....As Air goes into the Airstone...It creates bubbles of air which rise and Come to the Surface and is Humidified....You are taking this Humidified air out and into the Crabitat....Air is Forced out of the Jug as air is Pumped into the Airstone...Hope this Helped