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Is anyone using a refrigerator or freezer with an external temperature controller and flexwatt/thermostat to store cultures? I'm thinking of placing one in the garage so the culture smell is isolated to a proper part of the house. Normally my melano cultures are relatively less stinky, but some of those producing hydei cultures can get kind of ripe. Anyhow, I'm thinking of a small fridge or freezer with one of these:
external thermostats:
http://www.amazon.com/KegWorks-Freezer- ... 0002EAL58/
http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Controls- ... B00368D6JA
heat mat or flexwatt and a thermostat:
http://www.amazon.com/Flex-Watt-Incubat ... B004XNMI6E
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MT10006 ... _lg_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPRTC- ... B000NZZG3S
I've seen folks using them as froglet incubators, but I would think I could accomplish something similar for storing cultures in my [insulated] garage. Escapees would also supplement my resident Mediterranean house gecko population 
![[Image: 293px-Mediterranean_house_gecko.JPG]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Mediterranean_house_gecko.JPG/293px-Mediterranean_house_gecko.JPG)
Thoughts?
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Jim, personally I'm leery of any place storing my cx's where there is inhibited airflow. Confined spaces, like drawers, boxes and tubs...I don't like.
I would think that such a thing could be a 'mite hotel' with all the crack and crevices.
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Yeah I suppose it could also more easily attract other unwanted critters that can more easily make it into the garage. Ah well, back to figuring out how to de-stinkify my hydei cultures ...
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Man, I must be lucky because 9 years of cultures, I rarely had any really stinky (from a distance) ones. Granted, I was never much of a Hydei cx-er.
Best FF cx 'placement' by FAR for ease of use / maintenance. Large restaurant trays. SO easy to apply and reapply mite paper, clean, stack, store, move ect. And I just kept the trays with about 18 cx's each on top of the various frog bakers racks. Easy peasy.
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Are you coming to the Arlington NARBC? If you are i will give you some media that doesn't stink to try out. Or i could ship you some down next week.
What some see as death, others see as beauty.
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Philsuma Wrote:Jim, personally I'm leery of any place storing my cx's where there is inhibited airflow...
Right. The CO2 build-up alone will not be a good thing. Ventilation would help, but be much more expensive too.
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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Ghostvivs Wrote:Are you coming to the Arlington NARBC? If you are i will give you some media that doesn't stink to try out. Or i could ship you some down next week. Hey Casper. No, I won't be venturing up to Arlington for NARBC. I've been trying out NE Herp, but I wasn't able to get the production I was getting with Josh's mix so I went back to his stuff. I've been blending the two to work off the NE Herp mix I have left, but I'm willing to give a new mix a go. I'll PM you. Thanks!
Philsuma Wrote:Man, I must be lucky because 9 years of cultures, I rarely had any really stinky (from a distance) ones. Granted, I was never much of a Hydei cx-er. It seems like I was doing fine with hydei until this winter (my first winter with hydei) - maybe the drop in ambient humidity and my increase in water within the cultures spiked the smell. It's not horrible, just a faint whiff of stank every once in a while. I keep them near the cat litter so I have another creature to blame  I still have not figured out the pattern - I didn't get a whiff of anything just now walking past the cultures ... maybe it is the cat. haha
This is version 2.0 of my hydei culturing - I had them crash over the summer and I gave up for a few months, but I wanted to work some variety back into the food supply so I picked up some hydei and golden hydei again. I like the boom cycles I get - but they can be smelly - it amazes me how they disintegrate coffee filters and even paper plates in a week or two.
I'd swear it seems like the frogs prefer big game hunting - they seem much more exuberant in their pursuit of hydei versus melanogaster. It's like they just put on a feed bag when I dump in the melanos, but the hydei are a good bit faster and get around the different levels of the viv. My female azureus can get so rotund that I think she needs to work a bit harder chasing down a meal...
Philsuma Wrote:Best FF cx 'placement' by FAR for ease of use / maintenance. Large restaurant trays. SO easy to apply and reapply mite paper, clean, stack, store, move ect. And I just kept the trays with about 18 cx's each on top of the various frog bakers racks. Easy peasy. Im paranoid so I keep mine in vented sterilite bins with mite paper in the base. I need to keep the cultures enclosed to keep the kiddo's curious fingers away from the mite paper.
My collection is not that extensive (2 adults, 4 sub-adults, 15 or so froglets) so 4 to 6 cultures for melano, hydei and golden hydei are all I keep going (about 16 to 18 total - 1 bin for melano, 1 bin for hydei). I can also clorox wipe the bins every month or so - that combined with the paper, sifting and cx container wiping has kept the mites in control. I'm thinking of trying a carbon filter over the vents instead of or in addition to the current paper filters I am using.
I appreciate the ideas and offers!
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RichFrye Wrote:Philsuma Wrote:Jim, personally I'm leery of any place storing my cx's where there is inhibited airflow...
Right. The CO2 build-up alone (from FF cultures) will not be a good thing. Ventilation would help, but be much more expensive too.
Edited to ad (from FF cultures)
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
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![[Image: evil-cat1.jpg]](http://cdn.blogs.sheknows.com/babybanter.sheknows.com/2011/05/evil-cat1.jpg)
RichFrye Wrote:Philsuma Wrote:Jim, personally I'm leery of any place storing my cx's where there is inhibited airflow...
Right. The CO2 build-up alone will not be a good thing. Ventilation would help, but be much more expensive too. Maybe it's worth an experiment removing the lid on the bin and seeing how the smell does with more ventilation. I'll give that a go. But now I need a quantitive method for measuring fly stank...there has to be a data logger for that.
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If there was some way to use the cat, I'd suggest it. There's got to be some good use for 'em.
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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I have a data logger for that, the wife's nose...
What some see as death, others see as beauty.
Casper
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RichFrye Wrote:If there was some way to use the cat, I'd suggest it. There's got to be some good use for 'em.  Joking Beth, BTW, just joking. : :wink:
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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If you can fit one into your budget I suggest buying a nice home air purifying unit. I run one in my my frog room almost 24/7 and I actually keep it located pretty close to where the cultures are kept. Normally within 6 feet. Mine has a carbon filter that wraps around the main filter and i have to stick my nose right up to a lid to even get a small wiff. My media isn't too bad though either. they are nice to have regardless of a ff issue. The unit I have I actually use to sell about ten years ago so I knew how well they actually worked. Although they were around 800$ back then im not sure what the same unit is going for now but im sure you can get a quality one for MUCH less.
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^ An ozone generator is another option too.
I had one in my house in MI when I rented and not a smell, other than ozone, which I like.
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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Those can be quite spendy too. I had one as well a long time ago before the frogs when I was mainly keeping tropical gecko and chams. It really did give the gecko room a real rainforest feel and smell.
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Less than $200 is what I spent almost ten years ago. Unless the recent legal growing of pot has bumped them WAY up I'm pretty sure they can still be found for the same -ish price.
Mine lasted about 7 years before the bulb went.
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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Mine was given to me by someone leaving the hobby but I thought they were around 400$
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The "350" they have for $279 does 800 sqft, which is WAY more than most would need. Gotta assume one the does , say 400sqft would be less than $200. This is just the second place I saw on Google. I'm sure better deals can be had.
http://www.odorfreemachines.com/?c1=GAW ... Mgodz0MAWw
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.
If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.
My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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Just looked on amazon quick and your right on in the price range. Anywhere from 150-275$ only found one though that looked as heavy duty as mine was. Not something most people would leave out in plain site in a livingroom. But plenty of them looked small and not so gaudy. Kinda like a small eclectic space heater. I may have to get another one in the near future .
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