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Vivarium - heat

Besides water, heat ( or temperature ) is the most relevant feature of a rainforest vivarium for poison frogs, orchids and bromelaids. On average the temperature during daytime should be around 25 degrees Celsius ( * 9/5 + 32 = 77 degrees Fahrenheit ), during night time the temperature can go to 20 degrees Celsius, and most frogs and orchids will survive 18 degrees Celsius, but much lower is already risky.

Lamp heating

The most important heat source is the lighting system, which provides the most natural heat source for the animals anyway. Fluorescent lights ( TL lamps, PL lamps ) provide the best light/heat balance. Standard light bulbs will provide too much heat, instead of light of which the plants will suffer most.

As a rule of thumb 400 W TL or PL light per square meter vivarium is good for both plants and animals. The lights are seperated from the vivarium by acrylic sheet and cooled in the hood with a computer fan. In case fine wire is used to seperate the lights from the animals other ( lower ) values have to be used. During the morning i switch on the forced ventilation of the vivarium one hour later as the lights, this heats up the vivarium to the right temperature much quicker than by simultaneous operation.

Water heating

The other heat source is the standard aquarium heater in the water section. A 100 W heater is sufficient for my vivarium, but for vivaria with larger water sections a larger heater should be found or better 2 heaters of 100 W to provide equal heating and backup heating in case one quits. The water heater will heat not only the bottom water, but also the water pumped via the back wall panels, creating a another good heat source for the vivarium. The heater is set at 23 - 25 degrees Celsius.

The well known vivarium mats and other vivarium bottom heating can be used when designed for aquaria ( and not dry reptile or snake vivaria ) and are used instead of the standard water thermostat heater.

When you keep the vivarium against a very cold ouside wall of the house, extra isolation ( standard expanded polystyrene plates ) of the backside can help keeping the temperature at the right level during cold winter months.

In case you live in an area that becomes very warm, and the vivarium room becomes much warmer as the desired temperature inside the vivarium, extra cooling might be required to prevent the frogs from overheating. Extra ventilation is the best first aid, more water will evaporate which cools the vivarium signicantly. Watch out that the vivarium does not dry out. Switching off some of the lights is another method.

For the large vivarium i use forced air circulation via a false backwall. The thermostat regulates the temperature with the air heather below the vivarium which heats the air that returns inside the vivarium, until the temperature is completely right. The 14*36 W lamps and the 300 W heater do all that is required, in combination with the double glazing front and heat isolation around, to keep that area on a cosy 25 - 26 degrees celcius and 20 degrees during the night, since the thermostat has a light sensor which regulates a 5 degree drop during the night. Since the lamps are off then and the ventilation continues, even then sometimes the heating does its job.

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