Overkill lighting or what?

[estanfield]

New 40 gal with lighting taken from my old reef. 2x96w pc's running 13 hrs and a Metal halide 175w running 6 hours for heat and mid day humph! This is my first viv and is in my classroom. its got several types of ferns and other small palm type plants. A five gallon river runs across the tank driven by a canister filter. I want to turn it into a small community tank (anoles, day gecko, tree frog and a salamander or two). Temps over a 24hr period range from 74-86f and hum is between 24-42%.

Comments or suggestions?

[Landon]

WELCOME TO VivariumForum!!

i dont think many responsible keepers are going to agree with keeping multiple herps in a tank together. i think it can be done with care, but you may be trying to get too much into one viv with multiple species of reptile and amphibian. try limiting yourself to one reptile and one amphibian and choose species that have different space requirements. a small reptile in the upper regions and a frog on the botttom seem to be the most succesful (with limiited success) matchup. also you need to make sure both of the animals care requirements are met to perfection. when researching these types of set ups its easy to research animals whose "acceptable" range overlap. however, with the added stress of another species in the tank its important to match the animals to their ideal requirements for them to strive. this is why i think its important to choose animals from the same area. also, if these animals are running across each other in the wild, they may be less prone to stressing each other under constant contact.

as far as answering the lighting question, i think you should use as much as you can without roasting the inhabitants. some plants may have negative reaction to your intense lighting, but with amphibians you need to look at the heat/humidity issue. there arent too many (if any) commercially available amhibians that will live at the levels you have there. if you can get the temps down to around 78-80 at its peak and get humidity up to 75 or more (at minimum) you would open youself up to a good range of herps to choose from. a cooler temp wouild be needed if you are going to try and keep most salamanders.

[Tindomul1of9]

I agree with Landon,

And welcome to Viv Forums!
Now, salamanders especially would not do well in temps of 86. I'm surprised your ferns are doing well. I suppose you are giving them some sort of shade coupled with the limited amount of HD light exposure. Very nice tank.
A 40 is actually pretty small for a commuity tank. And most herps don't do well sharing space with other species. But if I had to choose. I would go with anoles or small sized geckos, and some kind of newt, firebelly newt (Cynops orientalis)or Eastern red spotted newt(Notopthalmus viridescens), but you have to keep the water temp cool. Don't know much about geckos and anolis, what temps do they like?

[Landon]

most day geckos and anolis can handle temps from low 70s up to mid 80s with no problems. they even appreciate areas with higher temps for short periods of time, or at least need a cooler retreat if there is constant heat like that. defonatly dont go up into the 100s like you would for basking desert animals.