Continually boiling water

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:11 pm

Hi. I live in Arizona. It's dry to begin with, but in winter... it's "dry" dry.If you're completely un-self-conscious like me, you don't notice the symptoms associated with low humidity. However when you read about them, then you go wild, trying to fix the air.Symptoms:http://articles.mercola.com/si...-healt ... aspxAnyway, I've been continuously boiling water (just heating, actually) for a few days at the lowest setting. I managed to survive and Azazul is ecstatic about all this. I mean if she wasn't orange and ten legged, I might mistake her for a monkey.

Tongue Flicker · Post by **Tongue Flicker** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:06 am

Living in high humidity countries, i've never actually imagined what being 'dry' meant during winter in the US haha

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:16 am

Boiling water in the kitchen raises humidity in the crabitat by about 7 points.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:04 am

Being from Central Georgia we typically have muggy weather seven months of the year starting in March and ending in October due to the way our local air currents move we tend to get a lot of tropical air coming from the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico which keeps our humidity levels in the high eighties and up for most of the year.The winter months are our dry months with extremely low humidity readings.I've thought about buying a room humidifier when I can get the money because I suffer with dry eyes year round from allergies and I know that low humidity only exacerbates the situation.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:23 pm

I have a small hot water vaporizer I run about every other day. For some reason I set off sprarks like the 4th of the July, no one else does. I have a shocking personality..

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:53 am

LAURIE:I assume you mean that when the air is very dry, it causes static electricity to build up when you walk. That makes a spark when you touch something. This is a disturbing phenomena when a cat comes over and nuzzles me. They get zapped pretty hard. Fortunately they have a pretty good sense of whether someone hurt them on purpose or not. Hopefully I never zap my crab. CRABBER85:I don't always notice the cause and effect of some things. Then sometimes I read an article and I realize things. for instance... When the air is dry, it dries out mucous membranes in the nose... And that probably makes the whole systemdown to the lungs less efficient at removing dust/particulate matter... therefore it makes us more vulnerable to contracting airborne organisms that we inhale. The human species is extremely adaptable... But that doesn't mean we function optimally in extreme environments. This polar vortex for instance. If it freezes the water in the air, it precipitates into ice on the ground and is no longer available for us to breath. It causes a sudden drop in humidity outdoors. The walls of our homes help keep humidity inside, but it isn't a perfect barrier. It's like a membrane... and the humidity is drawn from a high amount (inside) to a lower amount (outside). So it lowers the house humidity and from there, draws it out of the crabitat from there. I watch for that.Every area in the world presents a different problem in this respect. In Arizona, we didn't get any polar vortex. Winter storms pass over us too. Only once in a while some of that cold air wanders down here and freezes all the citrus fruits during the span of a few hours. But we are nowhere near large bodies of water. So it's a tricky environment to keep at the right temperature and humidity for crabs. And people too, I'm beginning to realize. We are not taking care of ourselves the way we should; These humidity factors for instance, don't cause pain when they're all wrong. But if they make us ill, or stressed in a subtle way, it could slowly be wearing us down.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:56 am

By the way, I've ruined th pot that I boil water in. Calcium build up.I have a friend who uses a humidifier and the same thing happens.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:45 pm

Now I've got a real humidifier. The stove will soon be impractical and it's not that safe anyway.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:26 am

quote:Originally posted by Keg:Every area in the world presents a different problem in this respect. This is a little off topic but kinda funny that you wrote that seems how I was explaining it to my daughter this weekend.For some reason we were talking about tornadoes and all the sudden she asks if we have ever had a tornado where we live. So I tell her no not at our house as long as we've been there anyway. So she says good I'm glad we don't live in an area where tornados are I would have to pack up and move very fast to somewhere else. I don't know why anyone would live where there are tornados on purpose. Here is the funny part. We DO live in part of what's considered Tornado Alley and have several tornados close to us every year. I start laughing a little and explained this situation to her saying we live here cuz we want too (also we were born here and its expensive to move)and if we moved it would only be something else we had to worry about such as drought/heat, hurricanes, blizzards, monsoons ect.... so she seemed at little more content and at ease afterwards. Of course this was after giving me a sly smile and asking if she could take/drive the truck presumably to leave/move. She is only 11 yrs. old. @laurie In my house I'm usually the one getting shocked all the time.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:02 pm

The cold water humidifier I got is a bit loud. The crab likes it though because I think it lowers the temperature a degree or so due to evaporation. The crab turns toward it as if to maximize the effect. I'd say it raises the humidity about 5-7 degrees.It's going to help this summer though, I know it. I have to run the air conditioner to keep the temperature within a survivable range, but it lowers the humidity. The humidifier will help both problems.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:46 am

Further report: I'm using a Honeywelll room humidifier that costs under $40. I got it at Ace Hardware. It puts about four bottles of spring water in the air over a 12 hour period on the "low" setting.The crab loves it. She's found a new favorite spot to maximize the effects of the spray. She would prefer I leave it on all the time.Arizona is a particularly unfortunate place for a crab to live from a humidity/heat standpoint.Here's the dilemma: If I put a cover on the tank, it raises the tank temperature by at least a degree or two. Outdoors temperature is over 100 for a whole month sometimes. It is a struggle to keep the temperature within a survivable range using the air conditioner. If anyone knows a way to cool a tank, please le me know.Air conditioning is expensive. I wouldn't normally attempt to keep temperatures at such a "comfortable" level because the conditioner struggles and it's going to burn out someday. It will cost $2000 when it does, and possibly as much as $10k if they have to replace the heater to match it.Anyway, without a top, there's not much to keep the humidity level up in the tank. It does stay in there if the tank temperature is the same as room temperature. But if the tank gets warmer than the room, then the air rises out and takes humidity with it. This is a constant problem since I have to run the air conditioner to keep temperatures down to 80 in the room.My crab has been surviving in these less than ideal conditions for about 11-12 years now. She has to make a choice between positioning herself in the temperature gradient, which gets cooler near the top of the tank, or positioning herself in the humidity gradient which gets more humid near the bottom of the tank. She will usually find the heat more distressing than suffocation, so she climbs up on a branch. Occasionally she loses consciousness and falls off the branch. I guess due to low humidity. I think this is improving with the humidifier.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:29 am

@Keg, when a hermitcrab becomes dehydrated internally and when the shell water dries out the crab actually starts to stiffen up and suffocate at the same time so loosing grip and falling from a perch is not at all uncommon with severely dehydrated hermits.Have you ever thought of running a window mounted single room air-conditioner for the room that the hermitcrab enclosure is in?That would help reduce the need to run your house ac and would save some ware and tare on it.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:51 pm

We live in part of the tornado alley to. So far everyone of them has missed us by a town or two or it just fizzled out. We now get flooded out from the Iowa side, all our creeks on the Illinois side flood so we get stranded.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:51 pm

@Crabber85 Good idea. I should have a window A/C as a backup anyway. A/C units always break in the summer and Z won't survive the wait for the repairman.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon May 12, 2014 11:32 pm

It's been 4 months since I got the humidifier. It stopped making humidity today. The filter is stiff, dry and clogged. I hear this is common. So now to go back to the store and find out how much this costs to run. It was very nice while it lasted.