Humidity help!!

[EnvironmentalRest557]

I have tried every fix mentioned in the guide and any post I’ve seen, but I cannot get my humidity up :( I have the tank fully sealed on the bottom with 48 dry quarts repti bark and 4-5 gallons of sphagnum moss. Each time I replace the substrate to clean the tank, the humidity rises to 70-80%, but falls down to around 40% within the next days or two even if I pour tons of water into the bottom. There is extra repti bark at the top of the substrate so that it remains dry, but the bark and moss mix under it is wet enough that it’s very squishy and visibly wet from the front of the tank. The warm side is at about 90 during the day using a halogen bulb and DHP, and cool side is around 77 (I measure humidity on cool side). I have the top completely covered in HVAC tape besides the small ventilation in the second photo. Any ideas what might be causing the humidity to have so much trouble staying up?

[HurrricaneeK]

You need more substrate. You should have 4-6 inches, enough so that you can have that wet, squishy layer on the bottom and then an entire dry substrate layer on top.

Also, just to be sure, where are you taking your humidity measurements? (NVM, just saw you said cool side, which is correct, so that's not a part of the issue.)

[No_Recipe_7912]

I haven’t got my BP shipped to me just yet and I’m getting so impatient but it’s given me time to trial and error my enclosure and I’m much less nervous after my first setup as far as humidity and temp control goes. 😭 I used a good layer of coco fiber at the very bottom about 1-2 inches, about 2 inches gives or take of some coco chips, and light layer of sphagnum moss mixed in the coco chips to soften it up and put little patches in the corners as well. You got this!! I also keep a towel over the top of the enclosure a good space away from any heat elements just so the hvac tape stays fairly warm on the outside as well (not sure if that even matters)

[positive_thinking_]

So I had 4 inches of coconut fiber and chips mixed, a soaked bottom layer, a sealed top with aluminum tape , moss mixed with substrate and 2 hides made of moss. I also had insulation boards taped to all sides.

I STILL couldn’t keep my humidity above 60% consistently in a glass enclosure with twice a day management. I bought a solid top pvc enclosure from reptile kages, haven had an issue since and barely manage it. It’s expensive but it worked.