Need help with humidity control

[trailblazer295]

I've heard good thing about eco earth humidity wise but heard it's dusty and more prone to molding.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by trailblazer295

I've heard good thing about eco earth humidity wise but heard it's dusty and more prone to molding.

Yeah, if you keep it dry it does get dusty. I keep my bedding damp, so it's only dusty for a couple of days before I dampen it again.

As far as mold, it really depends on the set up. I hasn't molded at all in any of my overhead set ups, but I has molded when I've tried using it in my flex watt set ups. The only bad thing is the EcoEarth causes an insane amount of condensation in the upper T12 in my stack that's housing my ball python, but I've just switched half the bedding to aspen and that's really helped. But I haven't seen any mold in my EcoEarth since I stopped using it in my belly heat set ups.

[trailblazer295]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

Yeah, if you keep it dry it does get dusty. I keep my bedding damp, so it's only dusty for a couple of days before I dampen it again.

As far as mold, it really depends on the set up. I hasn't molded at all in any of my overhead set ups, but I has molded when I've tried using it in my flex watt set ups. The only bad thing is the EcoEarth causes an insane amount of condensation in the upper T12 in my stack that's housing my ball python, but I've just switched half the bedding to aspen and that's really helped. But I haven't seen any mold in my EcoEarth since I stopped using it in my belly heat set ups.

Interesting, both my PVC cages I've turned off the UTH and stick strictly with pro products RHPs. I had mold with cocohusk bricks one spring because I couldn't dry it out despite my best efforts so been sort of paranoid ever since.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by trailblazer295

Interesting, both my PVC cages I've turned off the UTH and stick strictly with pro products RHPs. I had mold with cocohusk bricks one spring because I couldn't dry it out despite my best efforts so been sort of paranoid ever since.

I mean, maybe I'm not seeing mold because I switched out the bedding in the top one before it could mold? The other half has no mold, and he's been in there for like a month now, at least. In my tub set ups, it took like 2 months before it ever started molding, so maybe I just didn't let it sit long enough.

River's bedding dries out after about 2 weeks, so no mold there yet. Bud's bedding, the one in the top enclosure, just didn't dry out at all with all the condensation. I changed the bedding fairly quickly when I saw changing temps in the enclosures wasn't helping (as in bringing down the temps on the lower half - setting the RHPs at a lower temp so the bottom half would fall under 80F and less heat would travel up out of the bottom enclosure).

[trailblazer295]

I had mold in about 2 weeks, even with the door open and a fan running couldn't dry it out enough. But those are bricks soaked in water. The humidity kept going to 90%. Over all in happy with cyrpess it is a bit more work in winter to keep it high enough but summer is easy.

I have been debating trying eco earth

[dannybgoode]

Orchid bark is another option. I use it for my boa and it works very well. Retains humidity without mold issues.

A little pricey but worth it imo, particularly if you only have one snake to consider. Looks nice too.