humidity stays low and substrate soaking wet no matter what I do
Well, the humidity in my room is 30% at most, sometimes drops below that, which I didn't even know before getting my first snake (boa imperator). I've had him for about half a year, and I swear I'm fighting one problem after another and it just won't stop.
For context I have a 120cm wooden enclosure, I use coco chips mixed with sphagnum moss for substrate and there are two live plants in the enclosure. I have a misting system installed which sprays water every hour for 40 seconds, and two light bulbs - one with light (50W), that's the day light, and for night heating I have a infrared lightbulb (50W) that doesn't produce light. The temperature has stayed around 27°C since I've sealed up the top ventilation mesh with aluminium tape.
Now the main problem, the humidity. Right now it stays around 50%, sometimes even 60%. I am aware that it should always be at least 60%, I just can't keep it that high without the substrate getting soaking wet like it is now.
I also feel like unfortunately the boa might have an RI. He doesn't act weird at all (yet), but sometimes I can hear a very faint popping sound. I was hoping that since it seemed minor, it would get fixed if I made the enclosure have higher humidity.
Unfortunately, I've picked him up today after a few days of not being home (because of school), and some parts of his belly look like this (see the photos). It's looked similar before, and always disappeared after shedding, so I assumed it was just staining from wet coco husk, but this time it looks even dirtier than before. Which theoretically could be because I've never had the misting system set this intensively. I used to mist for 30 seconds every 3 hours before but the humidity kept disappearing. So there's a chance it's not scale rot, I guess.
So, I'm feeling incredibly ashamed of myself. I've loved snakes since I was a child, I fell in love with boas and really wanted one my whole life, I read so much on various forums and watched reptile content for an actual decade before getting that boa, and yet I just can't seem to do anything right. I know what the temperature and humidity should be, I know how to achieve that IN THEORY, but in practice it just doesn't seem to work??
And now there's a chance my boa has both scale rot and a respiratory infection :(( I always thought I could give my snake a good life but why does nothing seem to work 😭
The only thing I can think of now is order a new, bigger, pvc tank, then add different heating (an overhead heat panel) and hope that it keeps humidity in better than wood. But it's going to take a few months before the pvc enclosure arrives, I live in Europe so pvc enclosures are practically impossible to find here, they have to be commissioned.
Until then I could theoretically keep him in a big plastic tub (he's about a meter long now), and use paper towels as substrate, in case it's not just coco husk staining, but I'm not sure how to set up a plastic tub enclosure to be honest.
I don't know, I feel terrible, any advice would be appreciated :(
(the humidity is near 80% in the pic since his night lamp hasn't turned on yet)