Help with Viv -- Mold

KarmaFairy · #1 10-07-2010, 06:48 PM

We recently lost our first pdf (green & black auratus) after finding mold in his vivarium. We're in the process of getting ready to adopt two juvenile powder blue tincs, and I just discovered mold in our newly planted (1 week) vivarium.

One thing that we have been doing without, and I realize now why this is bad, is tank lighting. Because we live in FL, our a/c can barely keep up during the day, and lighting can raise temperatures dangerously high when it's already borderline. I guess my big question is, will introducing light help to control the potential for mold? Also, what kind of lighting will yield the least increase in temperature in the viv?

geckolord1 · #2 10-08-2010, 11:20 AM

flourescent lights will raise temps least but only super high heat will kill mols take all plants and critters out then dilute some bleach then set it out for 3-4 days to air it out then once its fully aired out put the critters back in and a flourescent UVB 5.0 will benefit the frogs and plants

Grimm · #3 10-08-2010, 12:26 PM

Mold in a newly set up viv is completely normal. It was definitely not the cause of death of your previous Auratus. Maybe give us a little more information about the enclosure...Building materials, temps, humidity, cycle time. Also, what about feeding and supplements. Any additional information you can think of is helpful to determine what went wrong before.

And as for lighting, I dont agree with uvb 5.0. IMO they are a useless pet store bulb. It really depends what fixture you have. If you have a fixture that takes screw-in bulbs. I would go with GE Daylight 6500K CFL's. They dont produce too much heat, plants love them, and they are about 10$ per pair. If you have not purchased a fixture yet, I would recommend trying to find a T5 fluorenscent fixture. They produce the least amount of heat of any fluorescents I have seen (almost no heat at all!). Worst case if you cannot find any T5's, would be a cheap T-8 fixture from any home/garden center. I am currently having trouble with temps however, hovering around 82 degrees without the use of my fans (with my T8s). With the fans on, it reduces the temps to around 79. I live in a very hot condo building, so even though I live in Canada, our situations may be quite similar.

As for the mold, there are a ton of solutions. Add in some springtails and woodlice (this is an essential part of dart keeping anyways, so hopefully you already have done this) They are the garbage composters, and they thrive from eating mold. You can increase in-tank circulation. Stagnant air is a breeding ground for mold. Any new pieces of wood, rocks, or natural material should be boiled, then baked dry at around 270-300. This will help, but mold will still grow from anything natural in a viv's environment.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Judy S · #4 10-08-2010, 03:56 PM

Does that mean that you increase the likelihood of mold problems using a clay background, especially if you mix coir and milled spagnum in with the clay???

KarmaFairy · #5 10-08-2010, 05:37 PM

I'm pretty sure the substrate was growing some nastiness in there -- we had misread something in our pdf book and didn't change the substrate for 7 months. Another possibility is that without any lighting, he may have developed a nutrient deficiency. Def. death due to neglect, though :-(

We have a 10 gal horiztonal tank and we're using coconut, sphagnum, and I just picked up some fir bark to mix with the coconut fiber for aeration. I've decided that I absolutely loathe LECA, and I picked up some styrofoam peanuts to use as a drainage layer. I also picked up a 13W 2.0 UVB bulb today. I will see if our reptile shop can get woodlice or springtails for the substrate. For feeding, we alternate between dusted ff, and gut-fed crickets.

I think one problem was that were keeping a plastic sheet over the mesh top to keep humidity in...I think we're just going to have to mist frequently and remove the plastic to improve ventilation.

Am I on the right track, here? We feel really horrible about the loss of our first frog, and we just want to make sure that we have a suitable and pleasant environment for the pair that we plan on acquiring.

Judy S · #6 10-08-2010, 06:16 PM

Just out of curiosity...why do you hate the Leca?? I made a substrate with it, washed charcoal, washed lava rock, coir, spagnum (milled)...and covered that with nylon/plastic sheets of needlework "mats" as suggested by a vendor at the Maryland show..I can see his logo in my mind, but I'm partially brain dead...They sell for about 50 cents at the hobby shop Michaels--do not degrade like the fiberglass or weed barrier cloth..allows great drainage to the bottom...I'm going directly to the members' list..

KarmaFairy · #7 10-08-2010, 06:24 PM

Despite being lighter than gravel, it's still quite heavy. It also breaks into small pieces, making it difficult to clean the tank. We live in a third floor apt., so we can't just take it outside and hose it --- all tank cleaning is done in the bathtub. I got quite a bit of it down the drain, and thought I was going to have to call a plumber and explain why there were rocks in the drain, lol.

The book we have says that you can use packing peanuts, so I'm going to give that a shot. Not the prettiest drainage layer, but, hey...definitely light and easy to clean.

geckolord1 · #8 10-08-2010, 06:26 PM

you could try painting over the drainage layer with paint (i heard you could do that)

Grimm · #9 10-08-2010, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarmaFairy

I'm pretty sure the substrate was growing some nastiness in there -- we had misread something in our pdf book and didn't change the substrate for 7 months. Another possibility is that without any lighting, he may have developed a nutrient deficiency. Def. death due to neglect, though :-(

We have a 10 gal horiztonal tank and we're using coconut, sphagnum, and I just picked up some fir bark to mix with the coconut fiber for aeration. I've decided that I absolutely loathe LECA, and I picked up some styrofoam peanuts to use as a drainage layer. I also picked up a 13W 2.0 UVB bulb today. I will see if our reptile shop can get woodlice or springtails for the substrate. For feeding, we alternate between dusted ff, and gut-fed crickets.

I think one problem was that were keeping a plastic sheet over the mesh top to keep humidity in...I think we're just going to have to mist frequently and remove the plastic to improve ventilation.

Am I on the right track, here? We feel really horrible about the loss of our first frog, and we just want to make sure that we have a suitable and pleasant environment for the pair that we plan on acquiring.

First of all, a 10 gallon tank is very small, especially for a pair of large dendrobates. So you may want to upgrade tanks once the froglets mature.

High humidity is NOT a problem. I have limited circulation and only give ventillation at feeding and misting times. I would keep the plastic ontop of the viv, and look into getting a small computer fan if you want more circulation. Where exactly is the mold originating from? It may just be a bad piece of wood or something.

What PDF book are you reading? I have never herd of cleaning out and replacing substrate after 7 months, ever. If you have a well set up viv, you shouldnt need to do any major cleanings or material changes after several years, or until you get sick of the design. The most you should be doing is removing the occasional dart waste, adding more leaf litter, and cutting down plants that are outgrowing the tank. Having a healthy population of microfauna is key to a viv's longevity and cleanliness, aswell as a well balanced dart diet.

And sorry to be ripping on this book, but I have also never herd of using styrofoam pellets for a drainage layer. People use aquarium rock, leca or eggcrate flasebottoms (lightest alternative), and try to stay away from synthetic materials as much as possible.

I think your best bet is to do a lot of searching around the forums for dart setups. There are definitely a ton of awesome ones here, with well documented building steps and lists of materials used.

Judy S · #10 10-08-2010, 07:54 PM

There is another product that I forgot to mention that is part of my substrate that I bought at the Maryland show...it is an expanded glass product that is extremely light...I used that as well because it is considerably lighter than the leca...it, unfortunately in my case, is light pink because it was all they had..but it does come in black too. So to disguise it, I put leca around the four sides, and in the middle a healthy dose of the glass...it is pourous so will become a good biofilter...and unless you crush it will stand up to the "earth" portion, and will not break down. Believe it was from the place in MA--Jungle World, and was not too expensive...Good luck