Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got two D. auratus in a 10 gal tank, and now that winter has arrived, we won't be heating our house to extremes...today, the temp only got to about 74 in the tank (after getting down to 63 in the tank overnight) and one of the frogs seemed a bit down, preferring to hide than to come out and play. The substrate in the bottom of the tank consists of aquarium gravel, overlaid with sphagnum, overlaid with sheet moss. The frogs often like getting in a spot in the corner at night below the sheet moss where they are sitting on the gravel/sphagnum layer. So, with this in mind, I need a method of gently heating my tank so that I don't end up with boiled frogs while they're sleeping, or frog jerky from an overhead heater that dries out the tank too much.

What do you folks do for tank heating when you need to get your tank a bit warmer than the room.

---Prem

If you want, you can attach an undertank reptile pad/heater to the side of the tank. This will help raise the temps a little, but don't expect much more than a 5-6 degree rise.
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Randy

What kind of lighting fixture do you have? Alot of people reccomend fluorescent, and i will get some when i get some more cash, but for right now, i have hoods with 15W Incandescent bulbs on my 10 gallons-- It's worked really well for me so far, with the temps usually staying between 78 and 80. I have had a little over 30 eggs in the past 2 weeks, so i know that they're not uncomfortable. This might help you in the winter, and unless you keep your house at 70 or below in the summer, you might want to use fluorescent then.

Just some 2 cents for ya
Best of Luck!!

Kasey Lawrence

2.4 Hawiian Auratus plus a ton of tads and eggs
0.0.2 Leucomelas

If for some reason it gets to hot for the little buggers,(if you go with the incand.) you could just open a window. Now I know that goes against everything my mom raised me on-- we're not heating the outside, but hey, it's my frogs we're talkin about here! haha!!

I use a submersable aquarium heater in the water under my false bottom.
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0.0.5 Blue Dendrobates Auratus
3.2.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Hymenochirus boettgeri)
2.2.0 Asian Floating Frogs (Occidozyga Lima)
1.1.0 White's Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)

Room temp is the best way, do you really let your house get down to 63 at night? I keep my house at 72 in the winter so my tanks stay about 70 and up. From what others have said 67-68 is about as low as you want it to go, for long periods of time. Do you have the tank in a small room you may be able to put a small space heater in? Other than that I would guess that a heat mat would be your best bet.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators