Hello all,
To start off, I am all new to dart frog keeping, though I've kept a few other less complicated herps in my lifetime. About a month ago I decided I want to keep a couple and got to building a vivarium. I planned on getting a Dendrobate Leucomelas and if he fared well after a month or so, I would get him a friend. I hear these guys were hardier and able to withstand a wider range of temperature/temps, and living in Chicago (where it gets very hot and very cold) I wanted a frog that wasn't going to die when my apartment got a little above 80 degrees for a few days.
After getting everything setup, I got my leuc and introduced him. He seems happy enough, though he still hides when I lean down to watch him. However, I am concerned about a couple things with my setup.
-The temp is at 80 degrees essentially all the time in the aquarium, I've never seen it get below that (despite having my AC set to low as 65). I am afraid that if this curren heat-wave we are experiencing gets any worse, the temp could go up too high for the frog to withstand.
- Secondly, despite misting 2, sometimes 3 times day, and with an active waterfall, I still can't get my humidity above 60-70%. It could gets as low as 50 when I missed spraying (before I had the frog and was letting the aquarium "run" for a few days beforehand).
These readings have been the same whether the thermo/hydrometer is on top or on the bottom. I have also tested the hydro/thermomete by sticking it by my AC or putting it outside in the sweltering heat, and it does read seemingly accurate.
I really want to cool off my tank, at least 5 or 10 degrees, but at the same time I want to get the humidity higher, at least to 75-80%. Its a paradox! I feel like my tank would be more stable and I'd feel more comfortable leaving my frog for a day or so if I knew the tank could sustain its humidity and not overheat. I work weekdays and am usually gone 7:30 to 7:30, and I sometimes stay at my girlfriends house over the weekend, so I can't be fidgeting with the tank every few hours to keep humid or cooled, it needs to be somewhat self sufficient, at least for a day occasionally.
Here is my setup:
The tank is a 12 x 12 x 18 ZooMed naturalistic aquarium (the one with the door). Is has about 2-2.5 inches of LECA pellets for the bottom layer (with the water line just under 2-2.5 inches), a screen layer, then 2 inches of pure sphagnum moss. I originally build the tank with cocoanut husk but this was clogging up the pump every day, so I opted out of this substrate in favor of pure moss. There is a small pump that feeds water up into a hole on foam rock background, which the water flows down. It is a mild flow, a bite more than a trickle but not a rush of water by any means. It is very moist in there, no sitting water (except below the moss layer), but still very moist. I have one live plant that I bought at a petstore, I don't know what kind it is because it was simply labeled "vivarium plant" at the pet store, thought I don't think this is relevant to my issue. Also irrelavent, there is a little fake decoration for him to hide in/behind. On top of the tank, I have the lid obviously, with the ZooMed naturalistic lighting hood (just one). I had 2 pieces glass cut to fit into inset on the lid on either side of the light hood, on top of the screen, sealed with tape to the lid. I also had some foam stuck on to either side of the glass on top where it brushes against the lighting hood, to cover the little gap where the glass doesn't touch the good. I have a Reptisun 2.0 tropical bulb for the plants/moss. As far as "sealing" the tank goes to prevent moisture escape, I've taped the front vent below the door, and also tried taping all the cracks on the top of the lid (this taping my lid to the tank), but this hasn't made the humidity rise even a degree. I plan on getting some clear cling vinyl to apply over cracks of the door that I can peel off when its time to feed, maybe this will keep in more humidity?
I really want to cool the tank off first and foremost. I read into putting a small fan on top of thank, but that will just expel my already depleted humidity. I don't understand how the humidity and temp isn't more stable... I can barely see into the tank there is so much condensation on the glass from the humidity and heat inside. How can I get the temp in there more like the room temp outside the tank (75 degrees) and tone the condensation, while keeping or adding more humidity to the environment?
If anyone has any tips or tricks, please share! I've done my research and I can't find any clear answers about cooling my tank. I can't be putting ice in there every day or spraying it on my lunch break, its not practical! I'm sure the frog is fine with conditions in there (as I've read luecs are pretty tolerant to even these conditions) but I'd really like to get things in control better before I purchase another frog.
Thanks for your help in advance!
-Tim
P.S. Oh, and hello everyone! This is a great forum, I did a lot of digging around here when I was building my setup. You guys have already been pretty helpful!![]()