Post
by DragonsFly » Sat Feb 13, 2016 3:15 pm
Yes, moving water is definitely the best way to increase humidity in the tank. It also has the benefit of bringing fresh air constantly into the tank, while simultaneously warming and humidifying that air. It also keeps your water fresher, constantly aerating the water. Since all you need for bubble pools is the smallest air pump, some tubing, and a splitter (if you're going to make one pool a bubble pool, you might as well do both at once, I figure), it is definitely the cheapest and most effective humidity solution for most set-ups.
By the way, humidity "in excess of 90%" is not a bad thing. I know when I first started, I read the recommendation to "keep the humidity at 80%" and got all frantic when it was--as it most often was!--different from that. It does need to be over 75%, because less than that for any length of time will start to suffocate the crabs. But higher than that is fine (remember that, in the wild, it rains sometimes and then the humidity is 100%!). If your temperature varies from day to night, the humidity will vary, too. As temps drop, humidity rises; and vice-versa. So, my 90g is often down to the mid-to-high 70's for temperature in the morning, with humidity in the 90's (high 90's in some parts of the tank), then, as the day lamps come on and the air temp in the tank rises into the 80's or 90's (in the hottest areas), the humidity will naturally vary down into the low 80's to high 70's percentages. As long as the dryest reading in the tank is around 75%, I'm happy. If I spot any gauges reading less than that, I check to see if the substrate needs re-moistening, or re-adjust the timers on the pumps to have the water moving more. "Aiming for 80 and 80" is a general rule of thumb because it is easy to remember, but don't get stuck thinking that temp and humidity must always be precisely there; the crabs are a little tougher than that (thank goodness), and of course, nature doesn't have constant temp and humidity.
Oh--timers are great to have, too; you can get them fairly cheap at any hardware store. They allow you to set your lighting for day and night, and to cycle your air pump on or off, in half-hour increments, for the bubble pools to be on more or less, to fine-tune the humidity levels. So, while not absolutely necessary for the basic "bubble pool" set-up, if you can spring for a timer, it really helps.
--{}: Dragons Fly Farm --{}:
Resident PP's:"Major Tom" & "Billie Jean"
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
― G.K. Chesterton
They were uber active, though. They had a party in there last night!! 
