As a vivarium owner planning to add frogs, you might be wondering how to heat a dart frog’s vivarium. Fortunately, you came to the right place because there are five different ways that I’m about to show you!
From heat pads, heater cable, submersible water heaters, radiant heat lamps, to room/space heaters. I will go in-depth with these items for you. 🙂
Advice: During the winter, your house can be much colder, which is why it’s recommended to heat up your vivarium tank.
You have to admit, being an owner of a tank can add up in costs and expenses for your vivarium. By asking a question with the term vivarium, it can be quite vague since you’re relating it to dart frogs. A vivarium is a simple term meaning a place for life.
To make the question a little more specific, dart frogs live in paludarium or terrarium. It’s fascinating when you learn about the types of vivarium that exists.
Now to go back to the topic, you must be wondering how you can heat your dart frog’s tank with the items I listed earlier. Let’s help keep your dart frogs warm! After doing thorough research, I’ve found five ways to help you with this problem. Let’s begin with the first:
Solution 1. Heating Pad
Here I am giving you the first solution to warming your dart frogs’ vivarium. One of the products that you can add to your dart frog’s vivarium tank is a heating pad.
How does a heating pad work?
When you have a heating pad, you can likely add it to the side or place it on the bottom of your vivarium. When you’re placing the heating pad on the bottom, the effect of the pad is much greater because it helps warm the temperature of the entire tank.
You must be wondering what happens when you place the heating pad on the side. Well, when you place it on the side, the heating pads can heat in a different way compared to the bottom. By putting it on the side, you can generate a horizontal warmth gradient.
You can find heating pads at your local pet stores and if it’s not available, there are many heating pads on Amazon with quick shipping. If you’re struggling to place the pad under or the side of your tank, let’s jump to solution 2.
[amazon bestseller=”frog heating pad” items=”1″ ]
Solution 2. Heater Cable
Jumping to the second solution is heater cables. Heater cables are insulated and long enough to place around your tank. This might ease your way of heating because things can get in the way of a heating pad.
How does heating cable work?
While heating pad and cable both have the same goal, a heater cable is a long wire that contains warming components inside. With a wire, it makes it easier to place around your tank. Heater cables are usually water-resistant and can be buried in stuff around your tank.
By adding a heater cable to certain spots of your vivarium, you can create warm spots for your dart frogs. You can evenly distribute your heater cable to balance the overall temperate of the ecosystem. Before buying, keep in mind that this product was designed to handle with a thermostat.
You can find heater cable at your local pet stores or order one on Amazon for quick delivery.
[amazon bestseller=”heater cable” items=”1″ ]
Solution 3. Submersible Water Heater
In this solution, you can warm your tank (mainly water) with a submersible water heater. In case you didn’t know, a submersible water heater is also known as an aquarium water heater. There’s a great history of submersible water heater being used in certain vivariums to increase the warmness.
How does a submersible water heater work?
These aquarium water heaters have to be placed in the water to warm it up. If you’re planning on owning a water heater, then you should remember to place the water in the false bottom of the tank.
When you’re installing your aquarium water heater, keep in mind that you should place it in a way that it’s easy to remove. This helps when you’re in a situation where the heater doesn’t work correctly or needs a little adjustment.
Remember to always keep this type of heater underwater because there can be a major problem if you don’t. When your heater is exposed to air, it can break and shatter.
If you feel that a submersible water heater is the right kind of heater for you, you can find it at your local pet store or order one on Amazon for your tank.
Solution 4. Radiant Heating Lamp
This fourth solution to warm your tank is pretty common. You can use a radiant heat lamp to warm your tank and it’s great to provide a basking site for your dart frog. Maybe even Mickey Mouse in the image above. 🙂
How does a radiant heat lamp work?
Not only that it helps with frogs that want to lie down and be exposed to warmness, but they are great at for creating small warm areas. When it comes to dart frogs and amphibians, these creatures always use the basking spot if ever available.
This also means that when the temperature is normal, amphibians will still go beneath the radiant heat lamp. You can buy different types of radiant lamps or bulbs. You can find one with lower wattage or one with higher wattage.
You can check out all available radiant heating lamps here on Amazon. If you’re not willing to wait for shipping, then you could always check your local stores.
Solution 5. Space/Room Heater
Last but not least, you can use a room heater. But that’s only efficient if you’re a dedicated and avid owner of vivarium tanks (because this does kill a lot of electricity).
How can you utilize a room heater to heat your tank?
When you’re a dedicated owner with many tanks, it starts to make sense to utilize a room heater. It can be many times more efficient when doing so. There are many ways you can heat your room (different types of heaters). This will all will depend on how big your ecosystem is, how many ecosystems, and your budget.
From VivariumTips,
To vivarium and maybe dart frog lovers, you can find most of these items here on Amazon.
Keep in mind that I do receive a commission from your purchases and this will help keep my blog running.
If you’re a big fan of vivariums, you might like the different types of vivariums that you probably never heard of. If you have any questions, comment below and I will answer it.
Extra information will be added to this article to help future readers when it comes to dart frogs and vivariums.