Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have been trying to set up a humidifier in one of my enclosures that needs 60-100% humidity(for Prehensile Tailed Skinks). I was thinking about going with a habba mister, but many people said they were junk. I have a couple of ideas to make a humidifier.
1) Take a warm mist humidifier(or some other household humidifier) and fit some PVC tubing into it. I would then have the PVC tubing go up the heighth of the enclosres, then fit an elbow joint to the end and have a length of tubing go across the width of the cage. I would drill holes in the tube running the width of the enclosre to allow the humidity to escape. I would hook it up to some sort of timer(though I don't know what kind) to have the humidifier torn on every once in a while. Does anyone know of a good timer that would work for this, like a sprinkler timer or someting? Does this idea have any problems in it? Does anyone know if this could keep the humidity high enough?

2)I would get a pond pump or a similar pump and submerge it into a bucket of water. I would then have tubing run up the highght of the cage and then across the width. I would then fit mister noosles along the width of the tubing every few inches or so. I would hook it to some sort of timer to come on every once in a while. I am unsure if I can find a pump that has enough PSI to pump water 5-6 feet. I also have the problem of the timer.

I am not sure if either idea would work, but they both seem like good ideas to me. If either of them have problems, please tell me what they are. THank you very much for the help, Josh

I do have experience with prehensile tailed skinks but I can't say I have any idea as to what size water droplet they benefit from. My perception is that they need the humidity more than "rain". With any species requiring high humidity there is always a tradeoff between water droplet size and the amount of water you have to pump into the cage to achieve the appropriate humidity.

For some species larger water droplets are desirable, but it means a dramatic increase in the amount of water that needs to be used. This can lead to problems with water build up.

But for species that only require high humidity, the smaller droplets are beneficial because less total water is needed to acheive high humidity. The downfall to this type of system is that the evaporative cooling effects are greater so the system will lower the temps. in the terrarium.

Now with all that said, I think a smaller droplet size is desirable for Corucia. I recommend buying an ultrasonic home humidifier and hooking up PVC or aquarium tubing to the outlet ports.

You will need to run reverse osmosis, distilled, or RO/DI water in such a humidfier or it will stop working very quickly.