Sick frog or not? - Rico

[jasonm96]

Cory, I've found the 2-1 thermo-hygrometer to be bad when using a heat source. When you're using it to measure the temperature of the heater, you'll probably get a bad humidity reading due to the drying effect of the heater. I try putting hygrometers in the middle of the tank, away from the heater but also away from the water dish, to give a ambient humidity reading, as obviously under the heat source will be dryer and the water dish side will be more humid. Nowadays I tend not to bother with hygrometers, though. I find they work for a week or so and then fail.

Thermostats aren't always necessary with light sources as you can just adjust the wattage to get the required temperature, heat mats/pads on the other hand heat up to about the same temperature no matter how high the wattage, it's just more power to heat a larger area, so a thermostat must be used to regulate it, as you can't do it yourself.

[RicoThePacman]

Cory, I've found the 2-1 thermo-hygrometer to be bad when using a heat source. When you're using it to measure the temperature of the heater, you'll probably get a bad humidity reading due to the drying effect of the heater. I try putting hygrometers in the middle of the tank, away from the heater but also away from the water dish, to give a ambient humidity reading, as obviously under the heat source will be dryer and the water dish side will be more humid. Nowadays I tend not to bother with hygrometers, though. I find they work for a week or so and then fail.

Thermostats aren't always necessary with light sources as you can just adjust the wattage to get the required temperature, heat mats/pads on the other hand heat up to about the same temperature no matter how high the wattage, it's just more power to heat a larger area, so a thermostat must be used to regulate it, as you can't do it yourself.

I have a heat mat, and a heat lamp.

The ground probe displays 93F while the air temp is displayed at 70-75F.

I've always had so much sh*t of a hassle with heating. I really have no idea why.

By the way, do the thermostats adjust the wattage running to the heat mat to make it proper tempature? And you have a reader so it knows when its suppost to adjust, right?

[jasonm96]

You won't need both, unless you use the heat mat for at night. It's best to either heat one way or the other though so the frog can learn to escape the heat, it might get confused if it's coming in two directions. Heat mats will do this, they'll warm the ground up, mostly the bottom glass but not do much to the ambient. When using a heat mat pay attention to the bottom glass temperature, where the frog will burrow down to and keep it no higher than 85F max. Unstated heat mats will get too high and the frog may burn itself, though I've never seen any evidence on this happening but if you place the thermometer and thermostat probe under the substrate directly on the mat, there will be no chance of harming the frog.

Yeah, they'll adjust the power supplied or turn it off when it reaches the temp set to and back on when it cools down. It's like a dimmer switch but safer as it may prevent failures if a heat mat were to overheat. Unfortunately some manufactures don't emphasise the importance of this piece of equipment but I'd never use a heat mat without one and yes it has a probe and you can adjust the temp on the thermostat.

[monster]

Im just seeing this now and do agree that putting the gauge in the middle is probably the best place to get an ambient reading. But if hes misting both sides of the tank the warm end will have higher humidity due to warm air holds more moisture. Even if the water bowl is on the cool side if its not being warmed enough to evaporate and go into the air its not going to make much of difference. I put my water bowls right in the middle of the enclosure, it doesn't get to hot but warms enough to help with humidity.

[jasonm96]

It gives a higher humidity for a while but the hygrometer itself gets dried out from the heat source and then says it's a lot less humid than the rest of the tank, meaning you could mist too much. With horned frogs all but the cornuta are very hardy with humidity and seem to do fine with temporary increases rather than constant high humidity, as after all they're not tropical but sub-tropical (accept from the cornuta). I don't use a hygrometer on mine, never will, just keep the substrate moist.

[monster]

I don't use them either to be honest, and now I understand what you were trying to say. Yes I agree that the constant heat and it getting wet from misting and stuff does make them a bit unaccurate and its very easy to over mist or even under mist .I thought you were saying that cold air will be more humid and hold more moisture then warm. I have all of mine hooked up to a hydrotherm so it keeps everything in check, there the zoo med ones. And I actually bought a really good humidifier for the frog room that you can set a desired setting and it will keep it there, I keep the frog room at 50%. So again yes I agree that they are more of a headache for some then anything else, but for some one that doesn't have as much experience as You and I that can tell by eye if its to humid or not they should try to have some kind of gauge to give them an idea of what it is.

[jasonm96]

I like the look of those hygrotherms but I can't get them in the UK, they won't fit the plugs and can't use an adapter for them either. In a way they're more dangerous than nothing for beginners as they'll pay more attention the hygrometer than the tank itself and if the hygrometer is wrong then they might mist too much or not enough. As a rule, I keep most phibs moist but not wet and I usually mist tropical animals daily and sub-tropicals every other day but I guess it will depend on what heat source your using but if it looks dry then just mist but don't soak the tank.