[josh_r]

bbrock, im curious.... how are you providing your frogs with uvb lighting without boosting temp or losing humidity?? ive been thinking about doing this for a while, but i have my frogs in smaller cages (no moe than 25 gal). do you keep them in large setups? thank you and have a good day!

 

[Guest]

bbrock, im curious.... how are you providing your frogs with uvb lighting without boosting temp or losing humidity?? ive been thinking about doing this for a while, but i have my frogs in smaller cages (no moe than 25 gal). do you keep them in large setups? thank you and have a good day!

I am not Brent Brock ....... but I'l give this a shot anyway.

You don't need mercury vapour lamps like Powersun bulbs to provide UVB. UVB can be provided simply by using a product such as Zoo-med Repti-sun 5.0 fluorescent tubes, or vita-lites to a lesser degree. The four footer Repti-Sun fits into a standard T-12 fluroescent ballast shoplight... while I believe the smaller ones like the 18 inch tubes are T-8. Of course, UVB does not penetrate glass... but will penetrate a screen top with saran wrap covering the screen rather well from what have read.

 

[josh_r]

ive tried the screen idea, but then i had humidity issues. i know that even an 18" bulb does have the potential to overheat a small tank.

 

[geckguy]

Brent separates the uv bulbs with solacryl which is a uva/uvb passing acrylic. Here is a link for discussion on it, http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5512, Paul of FCA is buying a sheet of it to split for dendroboard members.

 

[bbrock]

bbrock, im curious.... how are you providing your frogs with uvb lighting without boosting temp or losing humidity?? ive been thinking about doing this for a while, but i have my frogs in smaller cages (no moe than 25 gal). do you keep them in large setups? thank you and have a good day!

Good timing. Just last night I posted the following page to my web site in the how-to section:

http://www.bbrock.frognet.org/venthood.htm

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

ive tried the screen idea, but then i had humidity issues. i know that even an 18" bulb does have the potential to overheat a small tank.

I suppose that depends on where you live and how hot your house gets. And judging from the fact that it says that you live in Arizona means that it is both hot AND dry. Up here in the great white north, overheating is not really an issue if your house is air conditioned in the summer. When my collection was much smaller, and I had only a few ten and twenty gallon tanks.... I actually had 18 inch fluorescent lights sitting directly on the tops of my tanks. I never had a problem with heat... but based on your location.. I see the point in your case.
And of course.. with that dry Arizona air.. I guess I could see problems wth humidity. Most of my tanks have screen with saran tops (with the exception of my acrylic ones from Mark Pepper).. so it has worked for me.. but then again, I don't live in Arizona

 

[bbrock]

I suppose that depends on where you live and how hot your house gets. And judging from the fact that it says that you live in Arizona means that it is both hot AND dry.

Except that he lives in Flagstaff. Arizona's AC where people go to get chilly! My kind of place!

I didn't mention on the web page I posted that the humidity inside the viv is always above 85% while the room humidity has been running around 25%.

 

[dvknight]

Sorry to interupt:

Living in this hot, dry and inhabitable place we call a city, I will attest to the fact that using a screen top here would be, at the very least, risky. I would never leave my humidity controls up to an automated misting system. All glass tops are my best bet.

If the power goes out, I don't have to worry about 30 brightly colored raisins. Cooling, on the other hand is an issue (picture my girlfriend and I carrying mulitple vivariums out the door into my VW last summer over to my dear friend Chad's place when the ac was malfuntioning; thanks again). My cobalts and imitators, I might add, did just fine in their ninety gallon which was in the 88 F range in the open areas of the enclosure. There was no way to move them.

Josh, however, lives in Flagstaff, where it rarely gets over a high of 85 F in the summer. My concern would be the extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night there (I remember nights in the middle of the summer at 45 F when I was at NAU). Many residences there do not have cooling units. Keep that in mind as we get closer to summer time, Josh.

 

[bbrock]

Josh, however, lives in Flagstaff, where it rarely gets over a high of 85 F in the summer. My concern would be the extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night there (I remember nights in the middle of the summer at 45 F when I was at NAU). Many residences there do not have cooling units. Keep that in mind as we get closer to summer time, Josh.

I live in the mountains outside Bozeman and we have similarly variable weather. A summer day high can push 90F and by 2 am we can be tickling the frost point. I have actually had a much easier time maintaining viv temps here than I did living in the humid prairies of KS. We don't have AC but even though it gets hot outside for a few hours, the temps in the house stay comfortable. I agree about the screen tops. Vivs don't need that much ventilation and it's more important to keep the humidity in. I pretty much just put token vents in my vivs if anything at all.

 

[Guest]

UVB

So, Im no expert, but I like the effect of UVB on my frogs. They get a little less sluggish with a regular dose of UVB, or so it seems. I also seem to get better reproductive behavior, though Ive not got a large enough sample to judge that in any serious way. In any case, Ive had an animal or two who seemed like they were on their way out, or werent eating well. A dose of UVB seems to perk them up. But, keep in mind that people have been successfully raising frogs without it for years.....So, make of it what you want.
I use .22' solacryl as tops. They warp, but only slightly. And, lately, Ive been using 1/4" aluminum channel trim on the edges. Eliminated warping, and looks sort of cool. Allows UV transmission (including UVA, but not UVC), and stays sealed tight. Oh, and I can drill it for misting nozzles (I do trust my misting to an auto system), and dont have to worry about broken glass. So, I like the stuff. Whether or not it actually does anything for the frogs is an interesting, and as of yet unresolved, question. Brent is the first person to have played with this, so he has more info/data/anecdotes than I. But, so far, his intuition hasnt steered me wrong...Plus, its a vital aspect of the husbandry for other animals that I keep, so for me, it seemed like a natural thing to do. I just use a small 18" zoo med and rotate it across tanks weekly. Seems sufficient....

 

[Ed]

snip " I also seem to get better reproductive behavior, though Ive not got a large enough sample to judge that in any serious way. In any case, Ive had an animal or two who seemed like"

This may also be due to increased UVA as this is where in increase in reproduction occurs with birds and lizards.

Ed

 

[josh_r]

living in flagstaff has its advantages over the rest of AZ. but it still gets dry here. even in this wet winter we're having, our potted plants dry within a matter of days from the draft through our poorly insulated apartment. ive been able to keep the temp under control. the humidity, however, with a screen lip covered in plastic was making humidity control tough. i now have an all glass top and i dont have to worry anymore. david, i couldnt imagine having to transport that 90 gal!! that must have been a pain! im glad everyone did well. have u gotten any offspring from your imitators?

 

[josh_r]

so in all aspects here, the key to the uvb is that solocryl? where do i get it? thank you for all the info by the way people! bbrock, your info was quite interresting. i may have to try that. thank you as well. have a good day

 

[Blort]

Josh,

Paul from FCA is getting a sheet of OP4 which is also UVA/UVB transmitting. You can read that thread here:

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5512

Then, if interested, post what dimensions you need. He has the sheet on order and should be getting it pretty soon. There are a couple of other threads on UV in the forums. Do a search for "UV" and you should be able to find some good information. Also, you might want to chedk this out: http://www.anapsid.org/uvtable.html

Best,

Marcos

 

[bbrock]

Re: UVB

(I do trust my misting to an auto system), and dont have to worry about broken glass.

Just to clarify, I think what we were both saying about not trusting the mist system to maintain humidity is with large screened tops in dry environments where if the misting system fails, the tank can quickly dry out. A more tightly enclosed glass or plastic top holds the humidity up for weeks without any additional misting. I love automated misting systems but I wouldn't trade a good humidity holding top for one.[/quote]

 

[bbrock]

This may also be due to increased UVA as this is where in increase in reproduction occurs with birds and lizards.

Ed

Just to add to this. I once had a pumilio froglet about 4 months old go off feed and was obviously depressed. Not even termites induced it to eat. On a whim, I grabbed a Reptisun 2 light and put over the frog and within seconds it perked up and started feeding like crazy. That frog is still alive and well. It was amazing. The reptisun 2 only produces UVA.

 

[Darks!de]

I have heard of situations the same as your Brent. It's quite amazing.

Thanks for those articles Blort, they were full of info I didn't know.

Luke