[Robru]

Because I now have to wait for the furniture panels to dry, I immediately painted the first layer on three sides of the viavarium. Still a few pieces missed with the silicone remover I see, but that will be fine.

 

[Robru]

The furniture and the 3 outer walls of the vivarium are ready. I am now going to focus on the lighting. I am now reading up on plant growth, and in addition to the main lighting of a meter of LED (2 x strip of 7000K and 1 strip of 5000K), 2 double LED strips in the colors red and blue are also being added. Red for the flowering of the plants, and blue for the growth of the plants.

 

[Tijl]

Keep in mind it's the frogs you are building your enclosure for and they might not like the very bright lights unlike your plants.

There are a lot of species that hide from it.

 

[Robru]

Keep in mind it's the frogs you are building your enclosure for and they might not like the very bright lights unlike your plants.

There are a lot of species that hide from it.

Thanks for your extra info Tijl. I had already thought about this myself, and once there are poison dart frogs in it, I will set the lighting to max 30%.

 

[Tijl]

Thanks for your extra info Tijl. I had already thought about this myself, and once there are poison dart frogs in it, I will set the lighting to max 30%.

View attachment 296869

Awesome,
In the future it would be helpfull to play with the settings and see how to frogs respond to it. Feel free to share this experience

 

[Robru]

Awesome,
In the future it would be helpfull to play with the settings and see how to frogs respond to it. Feel free to share this experience

I am thinking about, if it is fully focused with plants, to increase the values so that the plants will catch on better. The first few months, no frogs will come in yet, so that I can fine-tune the temperature and humidity during that time.

 

[Robru]

Heating:

Because the LED lighting emits very little heat, I am going to lay a 10 meter long heating cable (100 W) over the entire floor under the LECA substrate, connected to a thermostat.

Incidentally, it is not the intention that this heating is always on, but it will certainly prove its worth in winter.

 

[SimonL]

FWIW I experimented with a 50W version of the same cable when building my tank. Whilst it did raise the temperature in the tank fairly quickly, ultimately all it did was dry out the substrate and lower the humidity too much. The general advice I received on dendroboard was not to use it so I removed it before completing the build.

 

[Robru]

FWIW I experimented with a 50W version of the same cable when building my tank. Whilst it did raise the temperature in the tank fairly quickly, ultimately all it did was dry out the substrate and lower the humidity too much. The general advice I received on dendroboard was not to use it so I removed it before completing the build.

I will keep this in mind in my decision.
On the other hand, you can of course also spray more often if the humidity becomes too low.

Then how did you solve it to get a higher temperature, Simon?

 

[SimonL]

The ambient temperature in the room is 22 during the day. I’m hoping this will be enough warmth during the winter - it’s a new build so i don’t have any frogs in there yet. In the spring/summer I have no problems with getting higher temperatures in the room the other two smaller vivariums that I have seem ok with 22, and it’s possibly slightly warmer inside the tank anyway.

I have considered installing some heat strips underneath the front vent, but I’m not sure if they would make too much of a difference

Here’s the thread I discussed it in Hiding a heat cable

 

[Robru]

The ambient temperature in the room is 22 during the day. I’m hoping this will be enough warmth during the winter - it’s a new build so i don’t have any frogs in there yet. In the spring/summer I have no problems with getting higher temperatures in the room the other two smaller vivariums that I have seem ok with 22, and it’s possibly slightly warmer inside the tank anyway.

I have considered installing some heat strips underneath the front vent, but I’m not sure if they would make too much of a difference

Here’s the thread I discussed it in Hiding a heat cable

I have read your topic about the heater cable with a lot of interest. Since I do not use ventilation in the front window, I will have to find a solution to add more heat to the vivarium. In my house it is about 21C in the winter, that does not seem enough to me. I still intend to mount the heater cable on the bottom plate anyway, so I can always decide later whether or not to use it. Better shy than unashamed.

 

[Robru]

I have decided that I am going to mount the heater cable at the bottom of the window. Since the vivarium does not rest directly with the bottom pane on the furniture, but 1 inch above it. So there is enough space for the heater cable and ventilation. Again, it will only be used in winter when the required temperature is really not met.

 

[Tijl]

I have read your topic about the heater cable with a lot of interest. Since I do not use ventilation in the front window, I will have to find a solution to add more heat to the vivarium. In my house it is about 21C in the winter, that does not seem enough to me. I still intend to mount the heater cable on the bottom plate anyway, so I can always decide later whether or not to use it. Better shy than unashamed.

Normaly this will do. My room is also 21, the light give enough extra warmt during winter

 

[Robru]

Normaly this will do. My room is also 21, the light give enough extra warmt during winter

Tijl, do you also use spots that naturally generate much more heat than LEDs.

I measured the temperature increase when all LED fixtures are on. This resulted in an increase of 1.1C in the vivarium, which now only contains the back wall and the side walls.

How much temperature increase do you expect if the vivarium is completely furnished with a false bottom, substrate and plants?

If you can also gain a few degrees here, I don't have to worry about extra heating ...

Thank you.

 

[Tijl]

I get a rise of 2-3°c during the day from the led's.

 

[Robru]

Today we started making the false bottom. This bottom will rest on several 1 inch high supports. The space below will be filled with hydro grains. We are now waiting for the shipment that includes the hydro fleece.

 

[FroggerFrog]

Looking good!

 

[Robru]

What do you think? Seal the edges of the false bottom all around or fill the cracks with something else?

 

[Encyclia]

Not sure of the exact kind of cracks you are talking about, but you could take an idea from the cracked cork mosaic method and wet some dead sphagnum moss and cram it into the gaps real tight. That method actually lasts a long time when used for cracked cork mosaic backgrounds. Really nice looking tank, too!

Mark

 

[Robru]

Not sure of the exact kind of cracks you are talking about

Sorry Mark, I meant the four edges around the false bottom.