A. Genic Terrarium Construction

[Oreo]

Noctua fans are great. I'm curious to hear your findings on your T's behavior. Are you considering running the fan in cycles, where it doesn't run at times? At its current fan speed, can you feel the air moving? It'd be interesting to see how controlled ventilation and humidity affect growth and activity. I imagine that would require a number of younger specimens.

 

[alexf]

The fan comes with two adapters which allow to run at 1800, 1300 and 800 RPM. I was initially planning to get a fan controller but so far I was running 24x7 with the 1300 RPM adapter. The second duty of the fan is to pull the humid air from under the false bottom and humidify the enclosure so my plan so far is to run it 24x7 especially considering I have not observed any negative effects so far.

There is a very faint air movement out of the ventilation tower @1300RPM. You can't feel it with your hand but you can with a wet finger or if you stick your head down there ;-) Now that the top of the burrow got some webbing going on I see the web is constantly waving in response to the air movement so it's definitely there. At full speed (1800RPM) there is a noticeable wind blowing out and so far I've avoided running in this mode since I don't see a need.

 

[viper69]

The second duty of the fan is to pull the humid air from under the false bottom and humidify the enclosure so my plan so far is to run it 24x7 especially considering I have not observed any negative effects so far.

Now that the top of the burrow got some webbing going on I see the web is constantly waving in response to the air movement so it's definitely there. At full speed (1800RPM) there is a noticeable wind blowing out and so far I've avoided running in this mode since I don't see a need.

I think the build itself is great . It's always nice when a T uses the pre-made burrow/hide we make for them , because so often they don't!!

2 things


1. Is the fan serving as self-humidification by spreading moisture through the tower, I think so based on what I read. I think I'm a little lost on this point haha

2. The top of the burrow has web, that is good I think. BUT you observed constantly waving web due to air movement. At this point, you can leave it, and do your best to observe over time if your T is bothered by that air currents. I can't speculate one way or the other if this will be an issue for the T as they are sensitive to movement.

If you see it always favoring one region w/out air currents (assuming there's a region of the tank that doesn't have any), that MAY indicate it is bothered, but w/out shutting down the fan, you won't know for "sure".

You'll have to observe long periods of time to some degree I think.

I think so far it's quite good !! Keep us posted!!

 

[alexf]

Without the fan the air under the false bottom will always be more moist because there is a layer of substrate in between. Because the fan draws the air from under the false bottom it both moves the air around and helps to spread moisture.

 

[viper69]

Without the fan the air under the false bottom will always be more moist because there is a layer of substrate in between. Because the fan draws the air from under the false bottom it both moves the air around and helps to spread moisture.

so is more moisture coming through the tower then, as opposed to rising up through the sub? That's what I'm getting at.

 

[alexf]

Yes, the fan facilitates the process by providing active air exchange.

 

[pyro fiend]

i personally love this idea. i been tossing around an idea of doing something like this but kept doubting myself because of fan movements disrupting the T. then again 3 of my 4 T's like dry sub [sadface] but once my albos old enough im def stealing this idea if it works in the long run!

 

[alexf]

Stay tuned, I'm now building a sightly tweaked version in the second Exo

In the meantime here is some night viewing picture:

 

[viper69]

That looks nice. Have you been measuring the humidity, how stable has it been? Any changes? That night shot looks great! A tweaked version, that has me CURIOUS!!! Please post it back in this thread to keep track of easily Your builds definitely are inspiring.

 

[alexf]

Here is the current state. Both canopies have arrived so I can close the thing up and start getting some humidity measurements. I'm also testing the daytime lighting -- the T isn't exactly happy about that but she has a good dark place to hide.

with the lights on that's basically as far as she comes out (which I think very closely resembles how T sit in the wild during daytime so I think I'm fine with that for now):

snapped a picture when she came out in response to a cricket wandering nearby (I never tong feed but instead let the cricket free roam and let the T hunt) -- she looks absolutely stunning under the daylight lights:

 

[viper69]

I never tongue feed...

I never use my tongue to feed them either! Nice canopies from what I can tell from. The "ground" looks very cool. Someone else is using blue LEDs from night viewing, and white LEDs for daytime. I can't wait to see your new build.

 

[alexf]

ahaha.... fixed!