Humidifier gone wild

[cheesealicious]

So I recently built a new enclosure for my garden snail, Hugo. Complete with coconut fiber bedding, and on top of that a layer of moss that specializes in trapping moisture. I bought a reptile fogger that also doubles as a mister. The temp was 68°F and the humidity read about 80% but it seems like it was actually 100%. I noticed just three days after keeping the humidifier on medium-low that Hugo was clinging to the top of the tank when normally he loves climbing on his moss vine, turns out the bottom of the tank (just past the coconut layer but not touching the moss layer) had become flooded. Im not sure how to go about fixing this because I do want the moisture to be kept in, but also I don't want the tank to be flooded again.

For now I'm letting Hugo rest in his travel case with some food and wetting it with a spray bottle (which he hates), while I let the tank dry overnight. Probably going to replace the coconut fiber bedding since it'll probably be mildewy, but im hoping the moss can be salvaged since it wasn't touched by the flooding. If anything else I'll just keep the humidifier on the lowest setting possible

[witchpig]

A good way to prevent a buildup of water in the coco fibre is to use a false bottom, or drainage layer. This can be about an inch or two of expanded clay balls or gravel covered with window screen mesh underneath the coco fibre. It allows water to pass through the coco fibre and leaves it moist but not soggy.

If you want more info on this technique, (which is used a lot in the reptile hobby) I would check out Serpadesign on youtube. He's a terrarium builder and he has a playlist with tutorials on all sorts of terrarium techniques. On a side note, his videos are very relaxing and beautiful, I love watching them.

[Liguus]

You just have to play with the setting until you get it to pump out the vapor so it's just enough to keep it moist, but not enough to flood the terrarium. Live plants help a lot since they will use the water in the substrate, but of course in that case you need to buy lights for the plants.

In my opinion, and in my experience, you can still regulate a humidifier/fogger to a perfectly acceptable level, as the plants are more of a side benefit than a necessary step to prevent flooding.

Often I will turn my dial to the lowest setting, and it works well enough to not flood anything. Of course the lid you have will make a big difference. If its a more open terrarium like an ExoTerra the airflow will help dry out the humidity from the soil. You may think this is counter productive (not having any kind of lid to keep humidity trapped), but the added air circulation is a big benefit for snails, and since the fogger is running anyways you don't need to worry about humidity loss. That's how I like to run my terrariums if I use a fogger. It stays on all night circulating through the tank along with the air flow coming in from the big top screen and side screen, and then it stays off for a large portion of the day for the tank to dry out a bit and for the plants to take up some water one the light are on, and while the snails wouldn't normally be active anyways.