# how many times a day should i use the ultrasonic humidfier



## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

just did the target special on the humidifier. i was just curious if anyone knew who many times a day I should be using the fogger and how long it shoud run for each time.


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## fleshatomb (Jan 24, 2007)

In a stickey post around here somewhere there was a poll with this same question. 

I remember from that poll,,, i mist way way way more then others. I mist 6 times a day (two of those being at night, 3 minutes each time).


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

what size tank are you using?... im fogging 3 different tanks at once i have set up some tubing that goes to three different tanks from the humidifier. 2 of the tanks im attempting to breed, Azureus and Blue Sips, is this not a good idea for the breeders, also could you try to send me a link to that sticky, i couldnt find it although i didnt look very hard


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## fleshatomb (Jan 24, 2007)

im using,, i think 30 gallon hex. maybe a little smaller then that. and a 10 gallon vert. but i have both humdifiers hooked up to the same timer. 

umm. as for breeder tanks and such, im nto sure about that. if thats the case, you may want to set up another humidifer on a seperate timer?

i did a small search for that thread, couldnt find it, but im about to head for work, when i get back if someone else hasnt found it, ill search for it. i think the avg vote was 2 times a day for 1 minute each time?


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

yeah i just found a couple threads about it, couple people were using it quite often, like 10 minutes in the morning 3 minutes in the after noon, and then 10 minutes again at night, so im still gonna mist once or twice a day, i don't have a misting system or anything just the big pressurized hand sprayers from lowes/hd. so i think im thinking ill fog in this schedule morn - 6 minutes, Day - 3 minutes, Night - 6 minutes see how that keeps my tank, i mean right now my day time temp is ranging from 74-78 degrees night time 68-72 degrees and humidity is 99% all day and night so i think the breeders should be ok. do you agree?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Actually, there is no answer to this question...every tank is different.
Get an electronic humidity gauge, or better yet, a temp/humidity logging device, and find out how often and how long you need to run the humidifier to maintain humidity >80%


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## fleshatomb (Jan 24, 2007)

geeze im dumb, it was in the sticky in this forum.

http://www.dendroboard.com/general-disc ... 12062.html

ill agree with dancing with frogs. Like i said also, i think i mist too much, (3 minutes every 3 hours, day and night). Plus ill hand spray every other day, or every day, or not for a week. jsut depends on what i feel like. 

i recently tested my 10 gallon vert, I didn't think the humidty was any where near high enough cause i had the cover o nthe vent removed for a few weeks. glass wasn't condisated at all. I put in my acurite temp/humidty guage from lowes and it was saying the was 'High' humidity after having 20 minutes or so to acclimate to the tank. i think it only says 'high' after it reaches 90%+

but too much misting could rot plants too.. and it could also vary where you live as well. 

hope this helped some


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## Rich Frye (Nov 25, 2007)

Running a humidifier is not the same thing as running a mister. One is 'fog' and one is much heavier mist to varying degrees. The mist will wash away fecal matter and top off tad deposit sites also add to water that has evaporated. Fog will not.
An ultrasonic fog maker is really not needed, but can produce a nice look. The amount of humidity can be easily adjusted by the amount of ventilation you have. If you put water into an airproof , waterproof box and seal it tight you will get 100% relative humidity. Start opening the box (via vents) and that relative humidity goes down. Open the box until you get the humidity you like.
Most of my vivs have little ventilation and are only hand misted about 3 times a week total. Many of my vivs are never really misted except to clean fecal matter.

Rich


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

yea i know that they are nothing alike, misting and fogging, i do both, and my temp and humidity seem to be right where i want them, day temp 75 degrees and night time temp 68 degrees with 99% humidity all the time, i have air tight vivs with 90% glass lids and 10% plexi taped down with a hole drilled out so i dont even have to open the tanks to run the fogger. i just do the fogging because it think it looks pretty cool, and i figure its only going to add moisture in the air for the frogs to be happy


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Actually, the one tank I had an ultrasonic humidifier plumbed to, the humidity built up so fast that it condensed on everything inside the tank, and kept a small pond full, and could easily keep everything in the tank too wet if I ran it too long or too often...and this was a phelsuma tank with the top being 2/3 screen, 1/3 glass, with a 70 watt halide over it.


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

the tanks all house tincs, blue sips and azureus to specify and i know that they love the high humidity, but yea i know what you mean about it keeping everything wet in the tank, the ground floor is loaded with moss, and ive got one plant doing fine on the ground floor all the rest of the plants are mounted on wood or on the cork bark background(broms) they are all doing well so i think I will be ok running the fogger how i am 3 times a day


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

IMO- humidity THAT high is unnecessary and you're inviting rot for those broms.


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

well i guess we'll see what happens. isnt that what this hobby is about trial and error? and humidity that "HIGH" is not unnecessary when your trying to get them to breed. but anyways this is getting out of hand tanks look good plants look GREAT, moss doing GREAT so im going to keep doing what im doing until/if something goes wrong


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

> isnt that what this hobby is about trial and error?


Sure. Experimentation will always have its place. Keep an eye on those broms- I learned the hard way a couple of times


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

It's a lot about trial and error and this forum exists to help keepers learn from other keepers' trials and errors and not having to make the same mistakes themselves...

Remember that one of the key bits about misting is that it is supposed to be a way to rinse detritus from the plants into the substrate where it can break down... foggers and most misting systems are not set up to do this. If you go in and mist by hand and clean the tank, you can totally get away with just a fogger if it keeps your humidity up enough and you have the actual fogger in a place the frogs can't get to (as it can shock and kill them). Depending on the tank, the fogger (just like a misting system) may keep the humidity really high, or you might not be able to run it enough to keep it high... depends on your air flow. 

Most PDFs don't need the 90%+ humidity levels, and it keeps them in a constant breeding cycle. This problem has been discussed in other threads. There are only a few that prefer the really high... the colombian species mainly (D./O. lehmani, D./O. histrionicus, D. trucatus, P. terribilis, P. bicolor) and in their cases I've seen misting AND foggers both used (in an effort to keep the plants happy/not rotting air movement is used and fogging was added to keep the humidity in the air high without adding too much water to the tank).


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

well for one there will be no shocking since my fogger is external, i dont have a misting sytem, i hand mist, now im a bit confused about the humidity levels, all the information i was getting about breeding tincs said 90+% all glass top for breeding, mist twice a day to imitate the wet season, 

the fogger does not run long i tried it for 10 minutes last night in the tank and the tank was full of fog, 5 minutes later the fog was settled and condensation in the tank, to my knowledge this is not a problem for breeding, but i thought 10 minutes was a bit much so im going try just running it for 4 minutes today

if you think that this humidity is to high, id like to know what you think it should be at for tincs, i can simply drill more holes in the plexi to let air escape.


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

pics of the tank and frogs


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

IMO i dont think that the tanks look all that wet, i posted the pics to see if yal' thought it was too wet. let me know what you think.


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## ofblong (Sep 11, 2008)

I know this is an old thread but you never got your question answered. Plus I would like to say that the local store (ok its an hour and a half away) said they use the ultrasonic humidifier for 5 minutes every hour. Then again they have one humidifier for like 6 aquariums. I was thinking the same thing as you. run the humidifier 3x/day for 5 minutes each time. Then hand mist once a week to clean detritus. I did drill the bottom of my tank so that any bad stuff that gets washed down to the Leca will go down the drain into a 10g tank I have sitting underneath (I had no use for the tank otherwise lol). I was under the impression that allowing the water to drain (ok there will be 1/8" of water left in the leca due to the bulkhead height) would keep the sphag from breaking down as quickly allowing me to not have to change it out as much.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Sphagnum, when used with leaf litter and a properly draining soil mix, should not break down for several years. 
You never want to keep the whole viv sopping wet, all the time, for extended periods of time. I have a 30g cube with CR G&B auratus, and I'm planning to mist twice a day - once in the morning, once at night, for about 10-15 minutes each time. Gives a nice 'drying out' period, where the humidity should dip down to 70-80% or so. If the tank was not vented, I wouldn't use an ultrasonic humidifier.


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## IN2DEEP (Aug 7, 2007)

My frogs all hide from the fog or displayed erratic behavior. You should have seen how I reacted when I came home for lunch (which I don't do often) just in time to watch my humidifier malfunction and start filling the room with smoke! (Wal-Mart wasn't selling that humidifier anymore and I didn't save the reciept, so I took it apart. It had many melted wires.) It was complete nightmare and totally avoidable since I remember the frogs' seller saying the frogs were used to lower humidity, around 60%. I just thought the fog looked cooler to me.


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