Heating and air flow (newbie questions)

[ticmike]

Ok, here we go, I'm fairly new to the frog building game (built one before) and I'm constantly reading and learning for my next build.
I have to questions, the first being heat sources.
This is my current and first ever build and as you can see my heat comes from a heat lamp on top and a heat matt on side, the thing is the heat lamp does no favours to the plant life (think it's too intense, but the heat matt wasn't heating it up well) so my question is what do people recommend?

My second question is air flow, I see lots of people building fans into their vivs but I'm wondering do I need to do this for my next build or do people get away with no fans.

My next build is an exo terra 90x45x45 (pic below) so any advice or hints or tips would be appreciated.

Many thanks for your time and knowledge in advance.

[Philsuma]

Optimal temperatures for most commonly kept Dart Frogs species are what we could consider 'room temperatures' for human habitation - 66-76F. This is another reason why Dart Frogs are actually 'easier' to keep than most other exotic animals, especially reptiles requiring higher heat requirements.

Heat lamps/ rocks /pads are dangerous and prone to malfunctioning and tend to produce 'hot spots' of WAY too high localized heating. Glass bottoms have been known to crack as well.

I would use a small electric 'human' space heater in a room with the frogs if your whole house is too cold.

Ventilation is important was well. Do a search under the subforum 'enclosures' here on Dart Den for 'screen lid modification' or similarly entitled threads to show how some good ventilation is achieved. I'll try to find and bump a few threads for you right now.