Doors in the front or glass top above?

[JSG]

Hi Folks,
I have read and read about viv builders and have looked at quite a few commercially available vivs.
Now however i feel more confused than ever. I loved John's viv pics at another thread and there were others too, but here goes my questions:
1. I've looked at the Exo Terra Vivs with front doors; with these not being able to seal 100%, would one not loose a heck of a lot of the humidity?
2. I've seen another viv with a little channel running just below the magnetized door on the inside of the tank to prevent misting on the front...would this channel still be necessary with the double door vivs?
3. Should one go ahead and purchase an Exo Terra viv with the 2 front doors, how would one go about modifying it to accompany the channel and the lights and mister nozzles?
4. I'm a bit of a useless handyman (my wife actually changes the plugs in the house) so I would greatly appreciate your inputs here as I need to know as much as possible about vivs before I even attempt any building or before I get my frogs.

[bshmerlie]

1. If you are using the Exo Terra you don't lose enough humidity to be a factor. I put a piece of glass over a small portion. Of the screen top to keep some in. If you're using it for darts get two pieces of glass to fill in the entire top. Some remove the screen completely and just get one piece of glass and silicone it in.
2. The Exo Terra has a built in channel below the doors to allow air to come in to prevent fogging. Some glue a screen over it to prevent fruit flies from escaping.
3. You can purchase an ExoTerra light canopy for the lights. The Exo Terras also have little holes at the back edge where cords and tubes can come in at the top.
4. If you need a larger entry hole you could puncture a hole in the screen top. Or take out the screen put a piece of glass in its place and have a hole drilled in it to allow access for a mister. Zoo med also makes a tank very similar to the Exo Terra except the it has one solid door in front instead of two.

[Leefrogs]

I have all old vivs (1990) or fish tank. But the new vivs all come all with an open topped with just a screen. You have to get glass to cover to keep humidity up.
As far as building your own viv, it's hard to get doors to open like the exoterra. Someone here did magnets. Otherwise for a frount opening viv, u can buy 10 and 20 gallon conversion kits. Fishtanks here are like 10 or 20 bucks and then stand them up to convert. The kits are 10 to 40 dollars. And fish tanks have that black support for the door, making assembly much easier.

U can do acrylic vivs, they have acrylic hinges making it much easier. I suggest having the pros cut it and it looks better. Down side of that is acrylic ages, fogs, and cannot be cleaned with bleach water or viegar water. Also fogs with UVB/UVA rays.

If u make a sliding door unit, u have to get a glass glazer to smooth edges so glass will slide easily.

[VicSkimmr]

For a first viv I would go with an exo terra or do a vert kit like the ones John did in his writeup. What kind of frog do you want to get? That will play a large part about how to design their enclosure and help you decide which one would suit you best.

[JSG]

Thanks Leefrogs!
Hmm the cheapest tanks I could find here are all well over R 500-00 a piece. Now divide that by 7 and you know what they cost in $! LOL, and as I said I'm a useless handyman. I quite like the idea of the Exo Terra vivs. But now, the more I study, the more I have questions as I'm sure you have noticed from the posts I've been adding here.
With the Exo Terra having a screen at the top; no sweat, can have glass cut to close the gap. But now I'm worried about keeping the humidity up and still allow in enough air in order to keep the plants happy. I'm thinking of plants like broms and orchids. This seems at present as if one needs to decide; either keep frogs, or, keep plants? As it seems as if one would not be able to have these plants live in a viv for darts on a permanent basis....