# How do you all keep you tank humidity up?



## HARLEY-XLH666 (Nov 30, 2007)

When I woke up this morning my tanks were at 48% humidity. My tanks are: 1 Rose hair, 1 Stripeknee, and 1 emp scorpion. 
I am running 2 humidifiers in this room and one of them being one of those old air king WHOLE HOUSE humidifiers. The air king is less than 10 feet from the tanks and the smaller one is basically right in front but to the side.  Basically there is a humidifier on both sides of the tanks and humidity still goes down to 48% over night and when I get home from work its like that too. The humidifiers are on MAX setting 24/7. I also misted them all before going to bed last night night. 
48% may be ok for the rose hair but certainly not a.seemani or the scorpion. Anyone know what I can do other than getting more humidifiers??? The substrate is 100% shultz peat moss. I don't want to use that vermiculate stuff (yet) till I know more about it because I have heard of some spiders getting sick from it or it is carcinogenic or something like that.

Reactions: Dislike 1


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## Paramite (Nov 30, 2007)

I don't know anything about scorpions, but you REALLY don't need to worry about humidity with your A. seemanni. There are only few number of tarantula species that actually require high humidity. IF you start keeping Xenesthis, Theraphosa or something similiar, best way is to simply pour water in the substrate. Humidity meters are useless with Ts. They just make you keep things too wet. Even T. blondi doesn't require 90% humidity like some caresheets say.


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## problemchildx (Nov 30, 2007)

My seemani is on bone dry substrate after I found mold growing on a piece of driftwood. It's gone now, but I kept the coco fiber moist after reading a care sheet saying they like it moderately humid. With a wide shallow water dish, he is doing fine. And as long as you have a water dish the rosea should be fine.
But to answer your question, I keep the humidity up in my rainforest species by pouring water into the substrate like Para mentioned, and mist lightly about once a week. If you need to keep humidity up with a pokie or avic or something, some sphagnum moss can be used to help out. The stuff stays wet for like a week  It's just annoying to deal with IMO

You could probably find good results with a search in the scorp forum, as they need good humidity.


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## Paramite (Nov 30, 2007)

problemchildx said:


> If you need to keep humidity up with a pokie or avic or something, some sphagnum moss can be used to help out. The stuff stays wet for like a week  It's just annoying to deal with IMO
> .


You don't need constant humidity boost with arboreals. Think about it, they live in trees. It's dry until it rains...

Misting is useless with terrestrials, IMO. Moist substrate makes much more sense to me. If the T is too dry, it will probably hang around the waterdish all the time. So far my A. genic and X. immanis (don't have either anymore) have been the only ones.


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## problemchildx (Nov 30, 2007)

I forgot to mention, I do wait for the enclosure to dry out. The ambient humidity in my T room is 43% right now.. So it usually takes a week to do it.


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## LimaMikeSquared (Nov 30, 2007)

Just like above, but I find it a bit of a juggle depending how warm the room is , what the tank is like, and how much heat I have them on ( I'm in the UK ). For example, I never spray my Blondie tank. She is 6" and I bought the tank at the BTS show for her and it's all the right dimensions but has no ventilation grill. She has a water bowl and a very old heatmat that is not too hot. The condensation that runs off the sides of the tank keeps the substrate at the right dampness. If I spray the tank it all gets too wet even for a Blondie, she then gets unhappy and starts to try to find a new hide away. Keeping the tanks correct for their individual occupants is quite a big part of T keeping I think.


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## Fenrir (Nov 30, 2007)

House humidity over 60% ftw ;P Took me a month to dry out substrate for a background cause it was more humid outside than inside :wall: . Fans will rob you of humidity in a heart beat make sure your ceiling fan is off. That Ziploc sticky plastic is amazing for covering tanks if you need to. You could always look into specializing w/ desert species if u start having deaths b/c of low humidity. A water bowl and misting every 1-3 days should be fine though.


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## Fran (Nov 30, 2007)

Paramite said:


> I don't know anything about scorpions, but you REALLY don't need to worry about humidity with your A. seemanni. There are only few number of tarantula species that actually require high humidity. IF you start keeping Xenesthis, Theraphosa or something similiar, best way is to simply pour water in the substrate. Humidity meters are useless with Ts. They just make you keep things too wet. Even T. blondi doesn't require 90% humidity like some caresheets say.


In the rainforest of Venezuela, where the T blondi lives (mainly) the averagre temperature is 30-32C  and 90% of humidity during the day, and 80% at night.

Now, it is true that maybe it is not the same in the wild that in a small enclosure...But still.


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## dianedfisher (Nov 30, 2007)

*Clay pot with moss*

I soak a terra cotta (clay) pot for 24 hours in warm water and fill it with sphagnum peat moss and put it into herp and spider enclosures that lack humidity.  Usually a weekly remoistening of the moss is sufficient, but if it's exceedingly dry you may need to soak the moss in warm water more often.  the clay pots are available in various sizes, but the key to longevity of the moisture is soaking them before use.  That applies to potting plants as well.  Di


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## Mushroom Spore (Nov 30, 2007)

Take the rosehair out of that room and don't EVER mist it again. 

Like the other person said, humidity % is about useless with the majority of tarantula species, but G. rosea is one of those that will be absolutely miserable at all times if you keep this up. They are DESERT tarantulas. Water bowl only.

The seemani will be fine so long as it has a water bowl, it doesn't need fancy expensive humidifiers either.


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## GailC (Nov 30, 2007)

When I had A. seemanni I would wet down the substrate once a week or so and let it dry out between, never had any problems. With the emps, you need to keep theri substrate damp at all times and mist every evening.


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## Stan Schultz (Nov 30, 2007)

HARLEY-XLH666 said:


> When I woke up this morning my tanks were at 48% humidity. My tanks are: 1 Rose hair, 1 Stripeknee, and 1 emp scorpion.  ...


Oh, goody! I get to run through some of my favorite rants here!

First, visit http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=108863 and pay particular attention to the comments about humidity and humidity gauges.

Roses are desert animals and don't require a high humidity. Visit www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html. If your home gets too dry during winter (to the point of electrocuting yourself on doorknobs after walking across a carpet in your socks), you can cover the cage top with plastic food wrap. Evaporation from the water dish will be more than adequate to maintain reasonable humidity.

Stripeknees (_Aphonopelma seemanni_, aka Costa Rican zebra) do best with only a slightly elevated humidity. It should be kept in a cage with a water dish and with the top covered with a sheet of plastic food wrap. This will elevate the humidity and retard ventilating it into the room. Keep the substrate dry to avoid mite infestations. If you think the humidity still isn't high enough, use a larger water dish or install a second one.

Emperor scorpions are deep rainforest creatures and do best with a high humidity. Yours should be kept in a cage with a large water dish and with the top covered with a sheet of plastic food wrap, like the Zebra, to also raise the humidity. You may keep the substrate in the scorpion's cage slightly damp, as well, but be ever watchful of mite infestations.



> ... I don't want to use that vermiculate stuff (yet) till I know more about it because I have heard of some spiders getting sick from it or it is carcinogenic or something like that. ...


There was a scare some years ago because some foreign sources of vermiculite were found to have very low amounts of asbestos in them. Apparently, our North American sources were okay. But, as soon as that story hit the media, vermiculite sales took a nose dive and our North American suppliers closed down. Now, we're left mainly with the foreign sources, but I'm given to understand that they've cleaned up their act and vermiculite is now considered more or less safe.

I've never heard of tarantulas getting sick from vermiculite (although it's certainly possible), but I do know that most tarantulas don't like it when they're first put on it. Among other things, it's too fluffy and unstable.

The most important characteristic of vermiculite is that it's a heat treated mineral, therefore is nearly perfectly sterile, and doesn't support bacterial, fungal or mite infestations until you start adding dead cricket parts.


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## Stan Schultz (Nov 30, 2007)

Fran said:


> In the rainforest of Venezuela, where the T blondi lives (mainly) the averagre temperature is 30-32C  and 90% of humidity during the day, and 80% at night. ...


Are you sure about this? I'm given to understand that as the temperature falls overnight, the humidity rises and by morning there are commonly heavy fogs permeating the rainforest. It goes down as the air temperature rises during the day and the fog dissipates.

Don't confuse your tarantulas!


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## Paramite (Nov 30, 2007)

Fran said:


> In the rainforest of Venezuela, where the T blondi lives (mainly) the averagre temperature is 30-32C  and 90% of humidity during the day, and 80% at night.
> 
> Now, it is true that maybe it is not the same in the wild that in a small enclosure...But still.


The problem is that it's pretty much impossible to keep 90% humidity and same time try to avoid molt and mites. Yes, they do live in those conditions in the wild but that doesn't necessarily mean they REQUIRE them. Actually it doesn't make a lot of sense to me at all.


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