New To PDF's

Leap · #1 (**permalink**) 03-19-2008, 03:10 PM

Good morning!

I've been lurking here for a few days now as I've been working on my first viv. Though it's hard to call it a viv at this point. Here's what's going on, I need as much advice as possible.

I'm using a 20gal tall (but not vert), rock and charcoal for the drainage layer, peat/spag/soil for the substrate. Using a exoterra light fixture with two 24w "tropical" fluorescents on top of a wire mesh top. This is one of my first trouble spots. In order to keep the humidity up, I've had to use a plate of glass over a portion of the tank not under the lights and then saran wrap to cover the rest. I'm worried about losing too much UVB this way, but I don't think a piece of solacryl is an option. Without the saran wrap under the lights, I lose a decent amount of humidity over time. My gauges are away from the lights, but still only about 1.5" away from the very top. I'm thinking this could be too high and that the actual humidity could be higher. Also, I have a humidifier tubed to the top of the tank that I run twice a day for a couple minutes with medium mist. Thoughts? (btw, no water feature and only moss/small plant growing at the moment)

I have a tank heater on the tank but I haven't needed it yet, the temps have a low of 68-70* F at night and a high of 78-80* during the day. No sort of air venting with a fan at this point, I'll work on fabbing that with a speed control later. I run my lights 12/12. From what I've read this should be a safe temp zone for PDF's. I'm not going to get any darts though until I learn as much as I can about controlling the temp through heat/fan/AC in the home.

I want a water feature, and if anyone can point me to a good guide when using a gravel drainage layer, that would be great. Also, is the water in a water feature going to be the same water from the drainage layer or do I need to separate the two?

I've done a ton of reading here in every category but I can only now use the search feature since I registered, so apologies for the flood of newb.

Julio · #2 (**permalink**) 03-19-2008, 05:38 PM

welcome to the addiction of PDFs.

I dont' think you need the heater to maintain your temps as they seem normal from your readings. covering part of the screen is a normal thing that most of us do to maintain a higher humidity including me.

Leap · #3 (**permalink**) 03-19-2008, 07:33 PM

Good to know, but I'm glad I have the heater on hand if I ever do need it.

MELLOWROO421 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 04:48 PM

The temps are ok, but 80 is on the high side. I like to try to keep it 78 or below. As for the water, yes the water in the water feature is the same as the water in the drainage layer. Are you planning a waterfall or just a pond? I wouldn't worry about losing uvb. The frogs don't need the special lighting and your plants should be fine given the right spectrum and lumens. I would browse the parts and construction section for construction journals to get some good ideas for your water feature. Blackjungle.com has some pretty good details about building a viv w/ a water feature. Hope this helps.

Leap · #5 (**permalink**) 03-20-2008, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MELLOWROO421

The temps are ok, but 80 is on the high side. I like to try to keep it 78 or below. As for the water, yes the water in the water feature is the same as the water in the drainage layer. Are you planning a waterfall or just a pond? I wouldn't worry about losing uvb. The frogs don't need the special lighting and your plants should be fine given the right spectrum and lumens. I would browse the parts and construction section for construction journals to get some good ideas for your water feature. Blackjungle.com has some pretty good details about building a viv w/ a water feature. Hope this helps.

Yeah, I took it all apart after getting some great advice through pm's (thanks Aaron) and I'm about to go to Lowes and grab some things for a false bottom. My gravel bottom was too shallow anyway. That should help a little more with the temps. Also, after I got a good seal going, I was seeing a absolute high of 79-80 with the heat on in the house. Closing the vent in this room made things comfortable again. I'm working on fabbing a frog safe box for my old CPU fan since I've already found a good AC/DC converter for it (I knew there was a reason I didn't throw those away). I'll be setting up an alarm system hopefully before I get darts (in roughly 6 months or so, who knows) that will let me know when it's too high or too low.

Also I'm skipping the water feature until I do a full viv build so that I can plan it out a lot better for wiring and tubing. While I let it all grow a bit before darts, I'll do humidity test with the humidifier to see if I need a timer for all day or if I can manage with a couple full mists a couple times a day.