Solving Problems with Condensation

One problem that many people have with their vivariums is condensation on the front panel, especially during the colder parts of the year. Some people solve this by installing computer fans inside the vivarium. But this requires DIY skills in terms of electrical wiring and also getting the wires through the glass top of the vivarium. It also means that you have to somehow enclose the fan so that animals don’t have access to it, and, hopefully, find a place to put it that it isn’t too much of an eyesore.

For someone like me, who is not very handy, that all seemed rather daunting. especially after buying two sets of fans, only to find that both sets were, apparently, the “wrong size”. Then a vivarium friend with many years of experience, Cory Nudelman, mentioned using aquarium air pumps for air circulation in vivariums. Genius! I could manage that!

I got an adjustable air pump on Amazon. The first one I got was not adjustable, and worse, it was way too noisy. That one went back, and I ended up with this one. This pump was not the least expensive, but the expense was well worth it to me, both in flexibility and in terms of quiet operation. I also bough airline tubing and enough airline connectors to build myself a manifold which gently blows air through the screen vent of my vivarium onto the front window, and enough suction cups to hold it all in place. The circle on the end was simply to close the loop and prevent air loss. A stopper would work as well, but I didn’t have one, and this was free.

The tubing runs around behind and into the back of my stand, and the pump sit nicely beside my MistKing reservoir and pump.

It took a bit of fiddling to find the right amount of inflow to keep the front window clear of condensation without drying out my mosses, and I had to watch things quite carefully during that period. I found that a very low flow of air, tuning just for the hours my light were on is really all I needed. The last step to be done is the as soon as the film arrives, I will use black window cling film to cover the piece of glass in front of the manifold, just so it doesn’t show. There is nothing to see there other than the leca drainage layer anyway.

This has worked so well, I intend to install a similar system in the big Exo Terra vivarium I am building this winter. In that tank, because its vent system is different on the Exo Terras, I will install the manifold along the top, blowing down over the front glass rather than up. But I am quite sure that I will be able to accomplish the same result, a nice clear viewing panel.