Vivarium heating help
Hello all,
This is my first post here, and I have a few questions about heating my vivarium. First off, the vivarium in question is an Exoterra 18" x 18" x 12" (aka small low) enclosure, and houses my lone pet Franz, a tomato frog. I have been playing around with my vivarium trying to get things just right (from what I have heard, 80% humidity and 85 degrees Fahrenheit), and things have been difficult to say the least. So far, this is what the tank looks like:
I ended up installing a Mistking basic kit to provide humidity, and swapped out the screen top for one fashioned out of an acrylic pane from Home Depot. I wish that I had taken the time to make one out of glass, because the acrylic does warp under the heat. Thankfully, it does not seem to be warping enough that it will not still maintain the humidity.
The room the tank is in is around 72 degrees normally, which from what I have read is not ideal for tomato frogs. My initial scheme was to purchase a Zoomed lamp stand and hang the lights above the tank, which which increase the spread of the light while decreasing intensity and delivering roughly the same amount of heat to the tank. You can see the dual dome fixture at the top of the picture: one of the bulbs is a red CFL found at Home Depot, and the other is a Zoomed 75 W daylight basking lamp. Indeed, the bulb does its job of delivering heat to the system.
With the light, the temperature hovers around 81 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity is about 87%. The humidity is a bit high for my tastes, especially because of the fogging it creates on the sides of the tank. Otherwise, the conditions are fine. The problem, however, is that the light seems to be scorching my plants. The acrylic gets quite hot over the plants, and I suspect this is causing the scorching as the plants are so close to the top thanks to the 12" tank height. I have tried attaching a heat pad to the side of the tank and just using a CFL for light, but it does not change the overall temperature of the tank, plus my frog just burrows himself into the substrate right next to the pad, making it hard for me to enjoy him.
Any ideas on how I might be able to remedy this? I have thought about making an open-top glass box and setting it on the inside rim of the top of the tank to increase the overall height and the distance of the lamp from the plants, but I'm not sure. Also, I cannot seem to post the pictures in the post text area itself, and they are attached to the post instead.
I'm really kind of stuck here, and I would really appreciate any advice so I may around making more, expensive mistakes.
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