Having trouble keeping humidity up when lights are on

[Auger]

1. Yes the humidifier should be in the enclosure.
2. Put a floor for the enclosure, If you don't put a floor then gravity is pushing all the water thru the shelves and onto whatevers below, thats why your humiditys so low. Leave the top open, if your not going to be running your fans 24/7. Leaving it open will allow some air movement.

[isurus79]

Or even just put a small crack in the top for ventilation. If your conditions are that dry, you really want to preserve as much of that nice moist air in the enclosure as possible. I have a 35gal terrarium with a small crack in the top and the plants love it. They also get a small 12V computer fan to stir the air, but the natural heating from the lights (T5HO) also creates air movement coming from the cool water well at the bottom.

[CrimNI]

Sorry this has taken so long but I have finally finished the enclosure! Enclosing it in plastic helped out a ton, the humidity is easily 60% with the lights on and increases when the lights are off. I may still need to tweak it because of the heat but it's at 84 to 86 consistently throughout the day with the lights on, and about 75 with the lights off. I enclosed the top with plexiglass and the plastic is heavy duty painters taupe. I will say though, that using clear plexiglass did reduce the intensity of the light that was once available, but nothing that was too problematic. Thank you all very much with replies and inputs. I'm so happy to pretty much be done!

[billc]

That's good that you have it figured out. Now you can concentrate on blooming the plants.

Bill