# How to fix oversaturated substrate



## mayhewwet (Jul 9, 2020)

Hey guys, 

I have a tegu with Terra Firma dirt from thebiodude as his substrate, mixed with cypress mulch. His humidity is within the range after lots of tweaking, so I don't want to reduce the amount or frequency of how often his misting system runs. 

However, there is a lot of water starting to build up with his dirt. It's basically mud at this point, and I see puddles of water in the corners of the tank. I'm worried about oversaturating and having these stagnant pools of water. 

Any suggestions for how to fix this oversaturation? Do I just have to scoop out the water periodically? 

Any substrates I can add to soak up this water? I've tried ecoEarth, but that just soaked up the water and got mixed up to add to the mud. 

Thanks!


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## rantology (Jul 10, 2020)

There is an issue of water in -> water out and ventilation. You may have too much ventilation thus ,not being able to keep the humidity high without overly frequent mistings. Its hard to say with no pics / description of the full setup though. If the tank is smaller, you can try rotating out substrate - take out the soggy over saturated substrate and replace it with fresh - let the soggy substrate dry outside the enclosure. You will need to address the ventilation / how well the enclosure holds humidity or it will keep happening though. 

Alternatively, you may also consider a humidifier to supplement the misting system - they help increase humidity with less overall water soaking into the substrate.


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## mayhewwet (Jul 10, 2020)

rantology said:


> There is an issue of water in -> water out and ventilation. You may have too much ventilation thus ,not being able to keep the humidity high without overly frequent mistings. Its hard to say with no pics / description of the full setup though. If the tank is smaller, you can try rotating out substrate - take out the soggy over saturated substrate and replace it with fresh - let the soggy substrate dry outside the enclosure. You will need to address the ventilation / how well the enclosure holds humidity or it will keep happening though.
> 
> Alternatively, you may also consider a humidifier to supplement the misting system - they help increase humidity with less overall water soaking into the substrate.



Thank you so much. I'll look into trying these things.


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## AlphaAlpha (Jul 10, 2020)

Yes I'd also say too much ventilation, not holding in the humidity.


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## Dylan koch (Jul 15, 2020)

I have this issue but because my red tegus constantly spill their bowl for attention because they know I come change it and interact with them when I do. So I change their substrate almost weekly but I just use this mix at home depot it 10$ for a huge bake of peat and spagnum moss mix its natural and looks like first and when wet and mixed looks exactly like dirt and is super absorbent. And usually dries very fast under the lamp side


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