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#1844850
Daco525
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Lighting questions 
Right now I have a light with a flourescent (T5) daylight bulb. I just added a heat lamp because I was having a tough time keeping the temps in the 80s with just an UTH. I plan on changing my set up and one thing I want to do is change my lighting to a blue bulb and a red bulb. This seems more natural to the frogs habitat and I think it will allow me to see him when he is out at night. I thought I would buy a hood that has two bulbs that work independently from each other and I can set them up on a timer. I will probably keep the heat lamp as a separate unit so I can move it. Is this what others do? I am still new to keeping frogs, I have now had my WTF since June.
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08/28/08 06:09am
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#1845434
Peas_on_earth
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Message To: Daco525 In reference to Message Id: 1844850
Lighting questions
The florescent is good for them so definitely keep that. As far as a blue or red bulb, they’re totally unnecessary. They’re just crap that these companies make to take your money...has no true value. During the day, a lower wattage bulb is good because you don’t want them to dry out because you have this super hot bulb on them. Since my house is naturally 80 degrees because of the heat lamps I have on my other lizards, I don’t even use a bulb except my florescent.
If you’re concerned about keeping night temps above 70, try a a night glo or moonlight bulb. most likely, it’s okay to turn off all heat units at night unless your house temp dips below 70.
Since you’re new to frogs, a wtf is a really good starter.
What kind of set up do you have? Tank size, live/fake plants, size of your wtf, and temp/humidity??
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08/28/08 07:16pm
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#1845596
Daco525
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Message To: Peas_on_earth In reference to Message Id: 1845434
Lighting questions
Right now I have one adult wtf. That I believe is a male due to the croaking. I have him in a 10 gallon tank. I have been researching and I going to purchase an 18x18x18 exo-terra terrarium within the next two weeks. I am keeping the temp at 80-82 now that I just added a heat lamp. I also have an uth. At night I let the temp drop to 70’s. I have read that the humidity should be between 30-50%, is this right? I thought maybe it should be higher. Right now my humidity is registering 46%, this is a night reading. I mist the tank each morning when I change the water in his water bowl. I have mostly fake plants with a few pothos. I want to have mostly live plants when I set up the new tank. Right now I am trying to read everything and learn so I can really set up the new environment perfectly for him. Then I will buy another wtf, and put him in the old tank for one month...when all looks well I will add him to the exo-terra tank with the first one. I stumbled upon this hobby and I have to say I love the idea of setting up a vivarium and keeping frogs. It is alot of fun and you get to really play with the landscaping and be creative. Any advice or info you might have would be appreciated.
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08/28/08 09:12pm
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#1845679
Jboogy23
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Message To: Daco525 In reference to Message Id: 1845596
 Lighting questions
actually the red bulb is a great idea for viewing them at night!! the frogs can not see that red light. im not sure on the blue though, for day you want flouresent and at night you want a low watt red light from like home depot. i just bought a red light its called a " Party Light " and its only 25 watts so it wont put out any heat at night so you can watch them and the temp will drop.
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08/28/08 10:03pm
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#1845786
Peas_on_earth
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Message To: Jboogy23 In reference to Message Id: 1845679
Lighting questions
If you’re trying to up your humidity, use moss on the bottom. They retain moisture well, plus the frogs like it. You can get those for cheap at any flower place or for a few bucks more at a pet shop. Soak it first, then rinse, then place in the tank.
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08/28/08 11:54pm
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#1845880
Daco525
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Message To: Peas_on_earth In reference to Message Id: 1845786
Lighting questions
I had moss but I removed it after I read that the frog could ingest it and possibly die. I was told to replace it with the coconut fiber beddiing. I have watched him eat and he sure does get a clump of the substrate in his mouth. The next day I find these "dirt balls" at first I thought this was "poop" but now I think it is what he spits out. When I get the new tank set up I was thinking of trying to keep live moss, this I was told is ok. The humidity registered 46% at night and in the morning after I turn up the heat and mist we hit 60%. What is a correct humidity to try and maintain?
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08/29/08 06:49am
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#1845993
Froggy&Gribbit
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Message To: Daco525 In reference to Message Id: 1845880
Lighting questions
Yes you are right moss is a no no unless it is alive and planted moss..........
For WTF the humidity should be 50%-60% day and night.
The live plants work to help keep up humidity as does terra cotta. You can use it for hides or the plants if you don’t wnat to actually put them in the ground in the tank.
With your lights make sure you don’t just get the painted glass as they can see that.
Infrared is what they cannot see. And it does emit a decent amount of heat since you are trying to up the temps a bit.
I use a blue moon bulb for night viewing. It gives a nice glow to the tank too.
But if you get the infrared you can leave it on 24/7 as they can’t see it. You still need to give them a "day" and "night" 12hours dark/12 hours light for their bio clocks.
In my tank I use a normal incandescent (house bulb) 20w and at night a 15w moon bulb. I have vines in front to diffuse the light a bit for the frogs. This keeps my tank around 82 degress day and 76 night. And this is a 60gal tank. (lights half way up one side as it is home made).
In my PTF tank I have a UV bulb as the tank is heavily planted and the plants weren’t doing too good. I notice the PTF love it though too. On any given day they are all hanging around under it for a time.
And at night again teh moon bulb. I did have a fluro on there which was nice as it didn’t emit much heat but gave great light. But it wasn’t doing what I needed.
I would set up your new tank and see what you need (temp wise, natural light, etc) and want (do you want to see them at night). Then decide on your lighting. There are many options and it really gets down to fullfilling your tank needs.
I would suggest whatever you use have the ability to put more than one bulb in and make sure the unit has the ability to use different shaped bulbs. Alot of the hoods are made such that you can only use the manufacturer’s specific bulbs which can be much more expensive. (eg the uv bulbs at the petshop here are around $14 but the UV plant bulbs at the hardware store are $4 but the shape is different)
Alot of the infrafeds have the really broad bulb which don’t fit in the hoods, took me a while to find one that didn’t.
So just some things to think about.
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08/29/08 10:43am
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#1846986
Daco525
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Message To: Froggy&Gribbit In reference to Message Id: 1845993
Lighting questions
Great info. Thanks. I started researching safe plants for the terrarium I am going to set up and I actually brought 3 small plants yesterday. I am getting the tank in about two weeks, so for now I am deciding what I want to do and picking things up. I noticed you did not mention a uth for your tank. Do you use one? I noticed the heat has gone way up with the heat bulb, I am going to monitor it for a few more days and then I may eliminate the uth. I just use a regular heating pad that has three settings. My humidity does drop into the 40’s. I mist daily, I don’t actually pour water into the substrate, should I do this? Maybe I should mist two times per day?
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08/30/08 11:52am
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#1847511
Froggy&Gribbit
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Message To: Daco525 In reference to Message Id: 1846986
Lighting questions
Yes I do use an uth but not in summer. I have one for both tanks, they keep the substrate just a wee bit warmer. But it doesn’t really bring up the ambient air in the tank up much.
The heat bulbs really do bring the temps up. I found sometimes too much. Often times in summer I do not need the lights on at all.
When you mist just spray the glass if you wet the substrate you could create mold. If you have it planted sometimes you can water the plants I do about once a fortnight. I would try misting twice a day and see what happens.
You might want to try a lower wattage bulb too. I use one 25w in summer (sometimes none) and 2 25watt in winter.
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08/30/08 11:49pm
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