Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any word on if the fogger? Is it a good purchase or not? How easy is the setup? Is it dangerous for the reptiles? I know at least one person was thinking about getting one but not sure if he did.

Shaon94

It took me some time to finally get it all set up, and I still haven't made up my mind. I've not run right out to buy another, though, I can tell you that. This is the model that's linked from THE anole care sheet.

Here's the skinny so far:
1. Does not *appear* to be a shock hazard to the reptiles, and no warnings of such in the instructions. If you have anything that LIVES in the water, it may be a problem, as the water is warmed by the unit (maybe to 78* - guesstimate).

2. There's no hi/low or on/off setting. It's either plugged in or it isn't. I put mine on a timer with multiple settings - it's currently on twice a day for about 1.5 hours at a time. It *does* have an automatic shut-off if the water level gets too low, which is nice.

3. It requires a HUGE amount of water - I ended up getting a big pyrex batter bowl (about 8 cups capacity) to keep the thing supplied with enough water. Most of the water is lost to splashing rather than fog production, so a big wide bowl is best (to catch the splash), and it must be about 2-3 inches deep to work. If you don't have a fairly large cage, it's pretty awkward. Mine's in a 29g tall.

4. I'm fishing cricket corpses out of the bowl every day. The crickets for the lizard go in a feeding bowl, but some invariably jump out before she eats them. These appear to be magnetically drawn to the water, or else they are seriously suicidal.

5. The humidity is up, but it isn't regular - I was kind of hoping for a slight rise in humidity all the time. What I have is an extreme increase and a slow decrease. The high goes all the way up to 95% in the BASKING area (just determined this today), then drops to 50% or so (normal for my house) in the off times. Next attempt is going to be shorter run times more often to try to even it out.

6. You must use bottled, distilled water, otherwise you get gross buildup on the unit, causing more frequent replacements of the parts. And as I mentioned, it uses a lot of water.

7. I still need to mist the cage for drinking water - I put some fake fern over the bowl to try to keep crickets/substrate out and the water in. This kind of works, but it also limits the buildup of droplets on the walls, etc., for drinking.

Opinion so far: it's not bad if you keep frogs or something. Unfortunately, I don't, so I'm going to have to figure out how to make this work. For my other anole cage, I think I'm going to try a mister. I'll keep you posted if I can get it to work out right.
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Torey
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras
0.0.1 Mystery Oto
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Excellent Review!

I am thinking about going with a humidifier now when I get my upgrade tank sometime in November. The mister and fogger both seem to just have to many drawbacks. It sounds like you would have to have a pretty big area of water for the fogger to work and I just can not see using up that much space. This sounds great if you have Dart Frogs baslisk or water dragons though due to the fact there will already be a nice size pond of water in the tank.

Good luck on trying the mister! I played with it to the point I think I finaly have it doing what I need to do. Putting in live plants help a lot but make sure it is a plant that does not mind getting soaked if the spray is going to be near it.

Shaon94

It seemed to do better today with more frequent, shorter bursts, but still isn't fabulous. I like the humidifier idea except I don't know how to close off the tank enough for it to raise the humidity - my lights are outside the tank on a screen top, and I don't want to seal out the heat or UVB.

As a side note, for anyone who might be interested in using a fogger in a dart frog, basilisk, or water dragon cage, I would suggest positioning it inside an area that's screened off (with nice large mesh) to keep the animals from tangling in the coil. I don't worry with Leeloo, since she's not a swimmer. The water needs to stay clean, too, so poo in the water will cause problems.

You mentioned that live plants helped with the mister - because of soaking up the excess water? Or something else? I have fake and live plants currently.
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Torey
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras
0.0.1 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

I am not sure why the live plant helps with the humidity to tell you the truth. What I do know is that before I put the live plant in I was getting my humidity levels but they would drop off rapidly after the mister sprayed. Once I put the plant in the humidity levels dropped off slower and the water that got on the plants would bead 2x longer than they would on the plastic plants. I have my mister set for every 3 hours for 30 seconds and the humidity level averages around 60-65 percent on the humid cool side. (Of course you would need to test with your setup to see what works best) Another thing that helps is any portion of your screen that not being used by the UVB or heat lamp can be coverd up with something so that humidity does not go out of that area.(you may already do this but I just started and am finding it helps a good deal)

Well, the final decision is in - I found mold in the substrate yesterday with only using the fogger for a week. It's out. I'll have to try something else. Anyone want to buy a slightly used fogger?

(that's a joke, for all you moderators out there!)
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Torey
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Uromastyx Maliensis (Tank and Turtle)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras (Frank and Jesse)
0.0.1 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)