Beginner needing help setting up exo terra

[DweamGoiL]

I have some experience in this although a bit wayside, but the things that will make your life the easiest are a rheostat so you can put on the heat mat on automatic according to temperature, you may also need a fogger for the frogs if your conditions are not very humid (exo terra makes a strip extension chord with timers, which will make things a lot easier), a temperature and relative humidity gauge (some are pricey, but you can go with a relatively basic one as long as it shows both readings accurately), and a heat mat. IMO, the best ones are made in Ireland and if you PM me I can send you a link to a vendor in the US if that is doable for you to have shipped from. These mats are not sticky so you can reuse them and are very adjustable with the rheostat. Some people also use a dimmer to control the temperature, but then you have to babysit the tank a lot to get the intervals down to a science. I much prefer to automate everything and make sure the 'environment' is how it's supposed to be.

What type of medium will you be using? I don't think frogs would appreciate bark and you will need some type of pond like structure with a bubbler for the frogs to drink and bathe in. I use Eco Earth for my hermit crab tank. I have a 65 gallon tank with 2 bubbler pools and fake plants, or else the crabs will eat them, but the maintenance is pretty much the same. I try to make things as easy on myself as possible for my benefit as well as the crabs.

I think you may need a mix type of substrates - maybe some Eco Earth near the pool (s) and bark on a drier side of the tank for the orchids. I think it will be difficult to regulate the moisture in the Eco Earth if it's all in there together, particularly if you need depth to hide the bubler pool (s). The Eco Earth retains a lot of moisture within the depth of the substrate to help maintain the humidity in the tank, but the orchids do not like soggy feet so they may not be thrilled about that as a medium. Also, remember that in order to keep your humidity in balance, it will be a fairly closed environment so airflow may be a problem unless you live in a FL like environment where it is humid all year round and you won't need a glass top to seal in humidity.

[Discus]

Originally Posted by DweamGoiL

Some people also use a dimmer to control the temperature, but then you have to babysit it a lot to get the intervals down.

A Rheostat and a dimmer are (electronically at least) effectively the same thing - you probably mean a "thermostat" when you're talking about automated control of temperature
Some thermostats have rheostats in them however (in order to change the setpoint(s)), although a potentiometer (slightly different to a rheostat) is more common.

I would certainly use a thermostat to control temperature on a terrarium; it's too easy to get the dimmer/rheostat set wrong - and of course the right setting of a "dimmer" changes as the ambient heat does.