Drip Wall help

[Hilizanne]

Hello--I am turning my current tank (30 wide, 24 tall, 18 inches deep, older tank) into a dart frog enclosure. I have had my 2 red-eyed tree frogs in the tank and have difficulty keeping the humidity above 55%, which I realize is a problem. (I also only have 50% of the screened top covered). I am interested in a creative vivarium and a drip wall to help with the humidity. Can someone point me to helpful thread or article on this? I don't know how to do it! I am not really interested in a full-blown water feature as the frogs don't really need it-- I simply want to keep my plants alive and grow moss and happy frogs.

I currently have a hydroball false bottom but can/will add egg-crate to increase the depth.

Also, if I clean the tank completely and exchange the dirt how long should I wait before adding frogs? I do have a cork background in place that I can try to remove. My other frogs are alive at 2 years.

Thanks

[DigitalPunk]

Hey Hillizabbe! Welcome to the forum (unless I have welcomed you before than lets pretend I didn't do it twice lol).

Drip walls in a Red.. I will leave the technical aspects of building the drip wall to others who have done it. I know the concept and think I could set one up, but I don't want to send you down the wrong path.

I have a couple questions for you that might help pin point why your humidity stays so low.

1. How are you heating the tank
2. What type of lights are you using?
3. You said you have 50% of the top covered. So that should be good


As far as the wait time between cleaning a tank and adding frogs... Tech if their are no fumes form Silicone or glue or Paint than you can add frogs whenever you like. The standard guideline/answer is 30 days. This gives your plants time to get good and established before frogs start testing how much trampling and weight they can take

[Hilizanne]

I am heating the tank with a UVA/UVB bulb only during the summer and during the winter an additional under the tank heater because the tank is too close to a window and gets too cold. The temperature is almost always 74-76 degrees.

I also have have the cork background siliconed in place...do you think I can add spray foam in addition to it or do I have to remove it? I really want more areas on the background for planting.

This is is a pic

Of the tank 1 year ago--I have the waterfall out of there now. The moss has died of course because of the low humidity.

[DigitalPunk]

UVB and UVA bulbs (among others) dry the air out rapidly.


If you ditched the UVA/UVB bulb and went with a LED light that puts off 6500k light your live plants will love it. LED lights do not put off any heat and will not dry the air out.

Instead of using a light bulb and heating mat to heat the tank look into use a Ceramic Heat Emitter. They produce not light and do not dry the air out as fast as other heat sources. Ceramic Heat Emitters use radiant heat which is Awesome for Vivariums.

You can buy them and domes for them on Amazon or at most pet stores. I have always found Amazon to have the best prices.


I have tried several methods to heat tanks and short of heating the room the tank is in the best option I have found is a CHE.

Paul

[DigitalPunk]

Why are you looking to apply foam to the tank?

[Frogfeet123]

I know I suggest these to everyone, but exo terra tree fern panels. If you want more background on the other sides and something you can grow things off of, these will also aid in that. They hold moisture, and have the drip wall effect. It will also look good with the cork background. Here's a pic of mine, I don't have any live plants so they are bare:

I really love them, I got mine at petland(Canada) I believe they are more easily found in the US and you can order them off of amazon as well. Hope his helps!


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[Frogfeet123]

UVB and UVA bulbs (among others) dry the air out rapidly.


If you ditched the UVA/UVB bulb and went with a LED light that puts off 6500k light your live plants will love it. LED lights do not put off any heat and will not dry the air out.

Instead of using a light bulb and heating mat to heat the tank look into use a Ceramic Heat Emitter. They produce not light and do not dry the air out as fast as other heat sources. Ceramic Heat Emitters use radiant heat which is Awesome for Vivariums.

You can buy them and domes for them on Amazon or at most pet stores. I have always found Amazon to have the best prices.


I have tried several methods to heat tanks and short of heating the room the tank is in the best option I have found is a CHE.

Paul

Interesting you suggest a ceramic heat emitter, I've heard the opposite! I also have a python, and when I was looking at heating options everyone warned me that ceramic heat emitters are the worst for drying out the air. Not saying your wrong or anything, I've never used them so I couldn't say! A heat mat probably wouldn't do much with a thick layer of substrate. I use uvb bulbs, never had a problem.


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[DigitalPunk]

Not sure who told you CHE dry the air out the worst, but they are sadly mistaken. They will kill the humidity some, but not as bad as CFL or incandescent bulbs do.

The thing to keep in mind with Humidity is that it is directly related to the heat in a given space. When temperature rises humidity decreases (the opposite is also true). The battle we fight in Vivariums is maintaining the tropical type temps we need and the humidity that goes with it. We need to heat the area as efficiently as possible to conserve as much of the precious humidity will allow.

When I first switched to an LED light and a CHE i was amazed at how well humidity was being maintained in my tanks. I was able to mist less and maintain a higher humidity than I was ever able to get with a light bulb over the tank cooking the humidity out of the air.

[LilyPad]

Agree with Paul. You were very misinformed about CHE's. I have been very impressed by mine and how much easier it is to maintain the humidity. As Paul said, any heat will dry things out, but some types of heat will dry less than others.

[Hilizanne]

UVB and UVA bulbs (among others) dry the air out rapidly.


If you ditched the UVA/UVB bulb and went with a LED light that puts off 6500k light your live plants will love it. LED lights do not put off any heat and will not dry the air out.

Instead of using a light bulb and heating mat to heat the tank look into use a Ceramic Heat Emitter. They produce not light and do not dry the air out as fast as other heat sources. Ceramic Heat Emitters use radiant heat which is Awesome for Vivariums.

You can buy them and domes for them on Amazon or at most pet stores. I have always found Amazon to have the best prices.


I have tried several methods to heat tanks and short of heating the room the tank is in the best option I have found is a CHE.

Paul

thank you, thank you!! This is the type of information I badly need and have not found in any of my 3 books!!!

I will work on that immediately. I am also a big fan of Amazon, except for tank ordering (I ordered 3, each arrived broken).

Does the ceramic heater not provide too much light? I will need it on at night.

Again, thank you.

[Hilizanne]

Why are you looking to apply foam to the tank?

I need depth on the wall--I plan on dart frogs ultimately that could hopefully utilize the space--so I need stair stepped levels so to speak. I am up for suggestions on better ways for this.

[LilyPad]

CHE's have zero light. That's another great benefit to them!

[Hilizanne]

I know I suggest these to everyone, but exo terra tree fern panels. If you want more background on the other sides and something you can grow things off of, these will also aid in that. They hold moisture, and have the drip wall effect. It will also look good with the cork background. Here's a pic of mine, I don't have any live plants so they

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

yes I love the tree fern panels. They are expensive though. I do have them in my reed frog tank. Too expensive for this bigger tank.

[Hilizanne]

Great! No light--I had no idea. I am excited. I know that heater is drying things out.

[LilyPad]

Make sure that you get a dome with a dimmer and a thermostat to use in conjunction with it. I bought all of mine on amazon. You end up putting a little extra money out there but it saves tons in the long run.

[Frogfeet123]

yes I love the tree fern panels. They are expensive though. I do have them in my reed frog tank. Too expensive for this bigger tank.

Yes they are expensive I got 4 packages for 90$!


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[DigitalPunk]

The dome also needs to have a Ceramic base to it in order to use it with a CHE.

Depending on the Dart, some of them won't climb at all. I always recommend selecting the frog you would like to keep and then building a tank to suit them and their needs

[Lija]

Make sure that you get a dome with a dimmer and a thermostat to use in conjunction with it. I bought all of mine on amazon. You end up putting a little extra money out there but it saves tons in the long run.

Agree with Amy and Paul, CHE are way to go. May I suggest my beloved hydrotherm by zoomed one of the best pieces of equipment I have! that thing is about 50$ ( Amazon). It will control temps and humidity for you, all you need to do is to plug your heat source, fogger and never worry about your humidity or temps ever again, including night drop in temps if needs to be.

As for spray foam... Honestly the best is to start from scratch, when you try to fix it most likely you will end up redoing it all eventually

[Hilizanne]

The dome also needs to have a Ceramic base to it in order to use it with a CHE.

Depending on the Dart, some of them won't climb at all. I always recommend selecting the frog you would like to keep and then building a tank to suit them and their needs

I am not sure on the dart yet. I am going with one of the best "beginner" darts, probably from Josh's frogs.

I think ink I will start over on the background. Maybe I can salvage the cork panels for another tank.

[DigitalPunk]

Salvaging cork panels can be done it is a pain sometimes, but worth it to save the cash!