as a saltwater reef keeper, common sense should have made me think before diving into a terrarium. Obviously, the larger any contained environment (wether it be land or sea) is going to be easier to care for.

so here i am with my first real terrarium. 10 gallons. the first 11" of the tank are land (1/2"gravel-1/2"peat-1/2"potting) and the far right side is 3" deep water with a waterfall powered by a Whisper intank 10i and a 200w heater. they are separated by a piece of siliconed plexi. i use the water temp to control the tank temp as my apt tends to change spiratically. tank stays 78-82.

my question is about the happy medium between ventilation and humidity/temp. when the glass lid is close the entire tank saturates on all sides and top to the point i can't look in to enjoy it. when open it all dries and I evaporate quickly(3 days) from my pond side.

what i have been doing is allowing it to saturate all night(lid closed/light off) i turn on the light at 9am when i leave, then open the lid when i get home 5-9pm so i can see in to enjoy it, light out around 12 or so and close the lid. is this the only way?? any thoughts or ideas

the tank currently contains some palms and 2 4"x4" patches of irish moss. it will eventually house a couple dart frogs(are looking to be more trouble than i want) or a pair of firebelly toads or the like.

TIA,

Chris