# Vivarium lid



## Guest (Mar 25, 2006)

I want to get my 29 gal. tank this weekend, but am not sure what kind of lid to get. I know that there needs to be ventilation, but needs to stay humid. so what type of lid should I get. I was thinking all glass, but I dont know if that would provide necessary ventilation.

P.S. Maybe some one could give me some advice about the search feature. I typed in "Vivarium lid ventilation" and got nothing remotely close to what I was looking for.


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## Guest (Mar 25, 2006)

When searching, if you have multiple words, hit the "Search for All Terms" box and it will only find results that contain all of the words. The tops that All-Glass sells are pretty good. Just opening the vivarium a few times a day to feed, mist, etc. should be enough to provide adequate ventilation.


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## Guest (Mar 25, 2006)

thanks for the search tip.

Anyone else disagree, or agree, or just have ideas that will make my frogs more healty? -No offense to you squidbille, im sure you really know your frog stuff, but I just like to get multiple opinions on big decisions, especially when the decisions regard the life of an animal.


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## twisner (Jul 7, 2005)

the frogs will do fine in a completely sealed viv, its the plants you gotta worry about. 
Most plants will benefit with a bit of ventilation, even though most will grow ok in a sealed viv. However orchids and some other plants cannot stand stagnant, 100% humidity air.
Also, having vents on the front of the lid will help keep the glass from fogging up.
a 1 or 2 inch strip of screen on the front will be fine.
but it is your decision, and many people have great vivs with no vents.


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

"Perfecto" lids are GREAT.


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## Guest (Mar 25, 2006)

Do they make lids that are mostly glass with a strip of mesh, or something similar. I want to have some ventilation so that I dont have trouble growing plants. Im worried that with a completely mesh lid that the viv will not be humid enough for the frogs.


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## DartMan (Nov 29, 2005)

I've always used Exo Terra's, so I don't have experience first hand on this. BUT I've used the Perfecto all glass canopies before for fish aquariums so I know how they are made. They have two pieces of glass joined together with a flexible hinge. Attached to the one piece of glass (toward the rear) is a long strip of thin plastic. It is designed to allow you to "cut out" openings as such for filters, heater cord, air lines, etc... I can see doing one of two things:
1) Just drill some real small diameter, say 1/16-inch, holes in the plastic strip to allow for some ventilation.
2) Remove the plastic strip and don't use it. Instead, make your own vent using some screen door/window channel and fiberglass screen from Lowes or Home Depot.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

So far I have just been using the cheap screen lids that you can buy in pet stores or Wal-Mart and I cover them with either saran plastic wrap or clear packing tape, leaving a strip for ventilation. I do this because if I need more ventilation or less it can easily be acheived by removing or covering up more. There are some people, however, that say a glass lid with no screen at all is the only way to go for darts because they can scratch themselves on the screen part. That is why I will cover the screen from the inside instead of the outside so the frogs won't scratch themselves on it. This covering up the screen lid really works great for my tomato frogs, because they need a dry period followed by a rainy period to breed, or so I've heard, I have yet to try it. But your darts will be fine with an all glass lid.


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## Guest (Mar 25, 2006)

What i do for my standard rectangular tanks is I buy the glass top that comes with the plastic border, and I buy the screen top. I put the glass top on, without the plastic border, usually in the front, and then I put the screen top above to prevent frog escapes. This should keep the overall humidity of the tank above 70% and give enough ventilation to keep most if not all the front glass condensation free.
Im paranoid about sealing the vivs, I keep thinking CO2 levels will go up to much over nite or something. But then with all the plants shouldnt there be enough freshly made O2?


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

exactly which plants cannot do good in 100 % humidity. I mostly plan on having ferns, bromeliads, tillandsias and anturiums, and maybe a carnivorous plant or two to mix it up a little. Maybe an orchid as well.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

I think all the ones you mentioned do well in high humidity, but its ventilation that you need to worry about. Stagnant air in even moderate humidity makes perfect conditions for fungus.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

ooo, didnt even think about fungus! Is it bad for the frogs? Im trying to invision how I would replace the back part of the perfecto lids with a fine screen. Can anyone help me with this? FF's couldnt escape from a very fine mesh could they?


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

Fungus is also bad for the plants.
Fruit Flies are the Hudinies of the frog hobby.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

I just made a new top that I'm very happy with the ventilation/humidity for my 29. I used two 4"wide strips of 1/4 glass, the plastic piece used on the back of the "all glass" glass lids, and no-see-um mesh (off ebay) w/screen framing from Lowe's.

I cut the plastic strip long ways, about an inch wide, using the back side of it("without" the grove for the glass to fit into),and notched out a spot for the cord to run through. I then placed one of the glass strips on top of it, and sealed it up with scotch tape, for easy removal, if I have to take the pump out. I put the other strip all the way to the front rim of the tank, and then made a screen strip to fit between the two sheets of glass. I also used scotch tape to seal the glass to the screen frame, and it works like a hinge. 

The vent runs along the middle of the top, but I have about 95% visibility and average 85% humidity.


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## DartMan (Nov 29, 2005)

Mike,

Any possible pic(s)?


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2006)

Sure,

This shows the difference of visibility, the one on top is completely sealed.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

The problem with the glass tops that one purchases for standard tanks is that the fruit flies can march right out where the hinge meets the sides of the tank. Theoretically you could buy the six foot hinge strips from Drsfostersmith.com and cut both the hinge and glass to fit very tightly against the sides. That hinge is not that easy to cut precisely though. You would need a radial saw with very small teeth. 

My fix for this is to have two pieces of glass cut so that they fit fairly tightly (end to end) in the rim on top to the tank. It’s the length that is important, because it is at the edges of the hinge that the fruit flies escape. I place these two pieces on top of the tank with a 1/32” to 1/16” gap between them. The front and back must overlap the black plastic rim but they do not have to be tight to the outside edge. With the two pieces of glass 1/32” apart I apply a bead of silicone along the entire length of both pieces of glass. For a professional look I put a strip of electrical tape ½” from the edge of the glass along the entire length of both pieces. The silicone gets spread with a razor all the way to both edges of the glass. Don’t worry about the silicone sticking to the tank rim. When the silicone is a few hours dry, I pull the tape off. The silicone forms what is called a living hinge. When the silicone is completely dry, you can open the hood and pull both pieces of glass off the tank (together). When you place them back on there will be no space for fruit flies to escape. If you have to make holes for electrical chords or airlines, these can be made with a diamond tool and a dremel. Just remember to use a good quality respirator when you are using a diamond tool on glass. Glass dust is harmful to breathe.

Obviously this is an unvented set-up, but I don’t think it would be too difficult to make it vented. One thing that you could do is to take eggcrate which is the length of the tank and two squares wide. You could than glue no-see-um mesh to the eggcrate and then glue the eggcrate to the front rim of the tank. The glass top would have to be less wide to accommodate the eggcrate.

Here is the living hinge above my reef tank.


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