Looking for heating advice...

[Vix]

Hello everyone

I'm new to the forms and looking for some advice for heating a dart frog tank I'm building.

I have been trying my hand at building a spray foam backround with a small waterfall (more of a trickle) and false bottom. I'm trying to figure out how to help heat the tank and wondered if putting a underwater heater in the water would help.

Thanks

[DartEd]

Hi Vix. I have some questions that will help us in answering you properly. How warm is the room that the tank will be in? How big of a tank are you building? What dart frog strikes your fancy? Are you doing all glass lid or venting the tank? The reason I ask is that if the room you're building average 65 F or better, the regular plant lighting may suffice to increase temps. Lighting increases temps on average 5-10 degrees more. Most darts do great between 68 - 78 degrees depending on which dart you like. The ranges narrow and alter slightly. If that's too much of an increase, you would have to elevate the lighting source a bit to reduce the heat being given off. Let us know.

[Vix]

First thank you for the help

The room I keep my frogs in is a small computer room off the living room. We live in a very old (160 year) house and this is the only room in the home that keeps the tanks away from the outer walls of the home. The room temp is about 20 c in the day 18 c at night, and least drafty. I have started this undertaking with a 18x18x24 exo terra. It comes with the normal screen lid but prepared to have plexy glass cut to cover half the screen to help keep humidity and heat in if I need to.

I am most intrested in getting two dendrobates auratus (I hope I spelt that right lol)

I'll try to add a photo of the tank so far, keep in mind there is still alot of work to do with it lol

As you can see I still have alot of patching and other work to do but I want to figure out this water heater idea first.
Thanks again for the help.

[DartEd]

You are ever so welcome. The good news is I don't think you're going to need a heater. 18-20C is right where you want to be with D. auratus. Once you have lighting setup, your temps will rise approximately to 23C during the day which is right where you want to be during the day. 18 C is perfect night time temps for them. Dart's natural habitat becomes cooler at night so the temp drop is appreciated. If you get your hands on a highland morph, they tolerate lower temps down to just above 16C.

I would however stay away from plexiglass. The heat will warp it within a few weeks. Trust me go with glass. You won't be sorry. I'm sure prices are comparable up north. A glass lid cut for a viv that size usually runs around 10 dollars American. Bring measurements to your local hardware store and they can do it for you in no time. The front of the viv is already vented so you don't have to worry about the glass fogging too much. Go ahead and cover the entire top. The humidity will maintain 80-90% with very little effort especially since I think I see the beginnings of a water feature there.

Some advice, make sure you silicone the heck out of the background by the water feature so the little guys don't climb behind the background or you'll have to tear the whole thing to pieces.