Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finally finished my viv it took me 3 months to plan, get supplies, find time to do it but im done. It looks great. But i have a few questions. Is it alright if the ambient temp in the viv is 79 with the light on? If not, how can i make it lower? The light i have for it is a 15W fluorescent aquarium bulb. The viv has a false bottom setup with a running water fountain. How high should humidity be? I have been spraying it twice a day and i can only get it up to about 75%? Is that high enough?
Thanks for the help
Jon

I noticed today that the piece of ghost wood i got from black jungle has a mold type substance growing on it.. It looks like little white dots with stringy like hairs coming from it. I took it out of the tank for now. is it ok to leave it in the tank like it is or throw it out?
thanks
Jon

Mold happens Mold is normal in newer set ups. It is part of the biological prosses. It should go away in a few days, but may happen sevaral times over the next few weeks. Its harmless to your frogs. So I wouldn't worry about it. Oh and btw if you try to get rid of it (ie bleach or other cleaners) it will just come back. So just let it do its thing and it will go away. and as a random bit of info if you use substrate from the great outdoors sometimes you can get all sorts of crazy fugi growing like mushrooms and stuff...it's kind of cool.
As for some of your other Q's: Humidity: What type of lid are you useing? A glass top will keep humidity in a lot better than a screen will. There are a lot of diffrent opions on glass or screen tops. I use a screen top that is partly covered with plastic.(lighting over the uncovered part.) Then at night I cover it fully. One thing that you can to to raise humidity and lower tepms is to hook up a fogger to your waterfall. Foggers create a fine cool mist, and the fog looks cool to. But foggers are pricey. A cheap one will run about $40-$50.
Well I hope this has been helpful
-Scott

i use a glass lid cut to size for a top. i will start spraying a cool mist and see what happens. the humidity level is fine. the meters just do up any higher but there is lots of condensation on the walls so the humidity is fine
thanks

Mold has never been a problem in my experience. I agree with all of the above advice, but would like to add that you can also consider using the Tropicaire humidifier, which is cheap (around $15.00) and works like the oxygen humidifiers in a hospital. The air just bubbles through an external water bottle then enters the vivarium through a "wand." It uses an aquarium type air pump and tubing.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

Wow thanks for telling me about the tropicaire humidifer. That will save me tons of money for future set ups.

79 seems pretty darn hot. I would try raising your light fixture up (I had to do that) to drop the temp. Are you seeing mist/fog on your glass? That is how I measure my humidity. If mist/fog, then mine is good.

>>I finally finished my viv it took me 3 months to plan, get supplies, find time to do it but im done. It looks great. But i have a few questions. Is it alright if the ambient temp in the viv is 79 with the light on? If not, how can i make it lower? The light i have for it is a 15W fluorescent aquarium bulb. The viv has a false bottom setup with a running water fountain. How high should humidity be? I have been spraying it twice a day and i can only get it up to about 75%? Is that high enough?
>>Thanks for the help
>>Jon
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phflame

Im having problems getting the temperature at night below 75-77. Does anyone have any idea how i could do this? I just want to be able to acquire the right temps and humidity(achieved now) before i get some leucs in about 6 weeks. The only problem im haveing now is being able to lower the temp.

Don't bother artificially lowering the temperature in the leuc tank at night. The leucs won't care. As long as the ambient temperatures are bewteen 65 (or even 50 as the lowest) and 80 (try to keep it below 80 F. during the day), don't sweat the difference. Don't bother trying to control the frog tank temperatures separately from your normal house temperatues that you are comfortable in. I have been keeping dart frogs in a log school house built in 1882 in SE Idaho for seven years, keeping the indoor temperatures up in winter with a recently installed electrical heating system, plus the old wood stove when the power goes out, and in summer, when the temps rarely go above 80, open my frog tanks, put wet terry cloth towels across the tops with some ice and blow a fan acros it to cool down the tanks. But as long as I am comfortable in shirt sleeves, winter or summer, so are the dart frogs in their tanks. Consider keeping them at the same temperatures as "people without fur or sweat glands."
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus