Concealing Eggcrate/LECA From View

[alex1976]

Okay, I'm preparing to do a complete tank rebuild my 10 gallon as practice before I begin work on my 120g but I did have a question about the eggcrate and LECA...
What's the best way to conceal these layers of eggcrate/screen/LECA/screen from view???
I plan on building a water portion, much like I have now, and was wondering about any tips on creating a realistic shoreline.
I read that one way is to glue rocks equal to the height of your soil, concealing the eggcrate from front view, but what about the side view?
Also, can you silicone the coco fiber to these rocks for a more natural "pond" look? Would the water wick from this to the main soil and would it be able to stay attached being constantly wet?
As always, any help and all suggestions are always welcome.

[Green Ghost]

No one really worries about concealing the substrate layers and to be honest it's not really worth it especially if you're planning on a water portion. I don't recommend it for a few reasons but I think maybe the best way might be to smear a thin layer of black silicone on the inside of the tank where you want to hide the substrate. You can use a single edged razor blade to cut and scrape away the excess once it's dried. Obviously, take caution not to remove any silicone that's sealing the tank glass sides and bottom when removing excess black silicone.

If you want to make a realistic shoreline, what I did was go get a fake rocks at the local pet store and use them to shore up the substrate of the land section. The way I did it is I used a one inch layer of river stones 1/4" - 3/8" dia. Except at where I planned the water section at the front side of the tank (where most of the viewing took place from) - I didn't put any stones there.

Then I covered that with a good inch of sand. So at the back it was about 2" high but sloped down to 1" at the front side but only sand, no rocks under. It looks much better this way.

Then another layer of riverstones where I planned to have the land section. Then I placed the fake rocks on top of the outer edge limit of the riverstones. So the fake rocks act like a bulkhead for the land substrate. It's like a 4th side across the tank holding back the substrate from the water section.

Then more sand in the land section. Another layer of riverstones and finally the last layer of sand to bring the land section height equal to the height of the fake rocks. I have a good 7 inches of rocks and sand there.

Now if you leave the sand there it will get washed into the water section eventually. Also if you want to have a waterfall in the land section, the water coming from the waterfall will wash the sand away also. What I did to remedy that was that while I was filling up the land section with sand and riverstones behind the fake rocks I also piled flat slate pieces one on top of the other in the back corner. When the land section was filled to the height of the fake rocks the flat slate pieces were level with that also. I found thin pieces of slate and covered the land section with them. So finally the whole land section was covered in thin slate with the sand visible between the pieces. Then I kept piling the flat pieces of slate up in the corner untill the waterfall was the desired height - about 14 - 15 inches high.

This way when the water flows down the slate to the land section, it doesn't wash away the sand.

This can also be done with good quality drift wood instead of fake rocks (or both) I actually used both.

Keep in mind if you fill up the water section to the height of the fake rocks which in my viv is just (about 1/4") below the level of the land area, then the whole land area will also be waterlogged. I know this is not for everyone meaning not everyone likes this idea because they want to have plants in thier viv that will root in soil not waterlogged sand. (And what I did to solve THAT problem is another post entirely )

To further keep the land section together I planted lucky bamboo as I went along in the land section. The stems come up through the edges between the flat slate pieces covering the top of the sand in the land section. The root systems hold everything together. There's maybe 7 or 8 bamboo in there.

Whew what a novel. Anyways that's it....

[alex1976]

Wow, thanks for the great reply!!
I really like the simple solution of using a thin layer of black silicone on the inside.
Your tank sounds really awesome, you should post some pictures.
It will make both my 10g and my planned 120g tank plans a whole lot easier. Thanks for the fast post too.
I'll be starting my 10g rebuild sometime tomorrow now that I got all my notes done. Thanks for all your help. I'm sure I'll be buggin ya again before too long.

[froggsong]

growl, I just lost everything I typed... Stupid laptop mouse...

Anyway... all that sand sounds like it would make a tank very heavy...

I took a look at your ten gallon, and it looks very nice. Those frogs in there are the ones native to South Carolina, right? If so, you need more plants and places for them to hide in there. I grew up playing with these guys, so I know what kinds of places they like to live. If you have enough good tall bushy plants in there, they wont jump on the glass as much, in my experience. (I have some very similar frogs that are from the same area). When you redo your tank, try to put in some tall plants with broad leaves that have growth from the top to the bottom of the plant. Maybe some sturdy grasses and some thin branches, going across in different directions (they like to have lots of stuff to jump on, especially when hunting. Actually, some thin branches with some pothos or ivy climbing on them would work very nicely (though you'll probably have to prune it fairly often). Having more plants will make the frogs more comfortable, and also help keep the humidity up. They like a good hide too, even a piece of pipe or a broken brick (they will hide in those in the wild, so you don't have to worry about the brick being to rough). While a water feature is a must (a stream is perfect for these guys), a larger pool isn't necessary, because they don't generally swim much, or at least not that I've seen. They only need water deep enough to sit in. So I'd focus on a nice stream bed and a small shallow pool. And of course daily misting. If you do decide to keep the deeper pond, I'd plant some smallish water grasses in there, they will really like that. I know this is off topic, but I thought I should share since I grew up where those guys were native. Of course, if those aren't the frogs I think they are, then disregard the entire thing (although most of what I said can apply to most frogs).

Good luck with the rebuild. I hope I helped at least a little.

froggy

[Green Ghost]

Yeah the tank is quite heavy. But it's a 3 foot tank so it doesn't get moved around at all. Aquariums are built to hold this kind of material.

[alex1976]

The 10g has filled in since that photo. I'm not sure what plant is in there (anyone else know?) but it's grown quite a bit. I have some type of small leaved vine in there as well that grows like crazy. I'm constantly having to prune both back. I really should take a few more photos before I rebuild it.
The guys I have in there are your common American Green Tree Frog (Hyla Cinerea). I'm not sure what there range is but I see them everywhere around here. All of the frogs I got are wild caught. One of them was given to me by a friend of mine. It had fallen out of a tree into her daughter's hair!
For the big tank I plan on doing a lot of new plants plus some thick vines that I have laying around from cleaning my yard up.
They really seem to enjoy the water portion despite everything I hear about them being poor swimmers. From what I've seen they're pretty good swimmers actually. If one of the kids comes into the room too fast or taps the glass, startling them, they'll sometimes dive in the water and hide in there. They'll pop their head out when they think it's safe or I open the hood to feed them. Fingers mean food and they constantly jump on my hand looking for crickets since I hand feed them all to ensure they all eat.
I'm planning on a stream for the big tank so we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for the help! I grew up catching Gulf Coast Toads (Bufo nebulifer) or, as we call them around here, ditch toads. We really don't see them that often anymore and nowhere near the sizes I remember as a kid.

[Green Ghost]

If you can take pics while you're doing your build, and post on here it's interesting to watch and usually everyone tries to give some insight.

[alex1976]

I was definitely planning on starting a thread for my rebuild and post pictures as I go. I'll post a link here as soon as I start it.
Once the 10g rebuild is done, I'll start my plans for the monster tank.
Ribbit
The tank portion of my planned big tank are 4' feet tall, 18" inches deep, and 3' feet wide. The stand and canopy will put it well over six feet tall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope all goes well.

[froggsong]

Originally Posted by alex1976

The 10g has filled in since that photo. I'm not sure what plant is in there (anyone else know?) but it's grown quite a bit. I have some type of small leaved vine in there as well that grows like crazy. I'm constantly having to prune both back. I really should take a few more photos before I rebuild it.
The guys I have in there are your common American Green Tree Frog (Hyla Cinerea). I'm not sure what there range is but I see them everywhere around here. All of the frogs I got are wild caught. One of them was given to me by a friend of mine. It had fallen out of a tree into her daughter's hair!
For the big tank I plan on doing a lot of new plants plus some thick vines that I have laying around from cleaning my yard up.
They really seem to enjoy the water portion despite everything I hear about them being poor swimmers. From what I've seen they're pretty good swimmers actually. If one of the kids comes into the room too fast or taps the glass, startling them, they'll sometimes dive in the water and hide in there. They'll pop their head out when they think it's safe or I open the hood to feed them. Fingers mean food and they constantly jump on my hand looking for crickets since I hand feed them all to ensure they all eat.
I'm planning on a stream for the big tank so we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for the help! I grew up catching Gulf Coast Toads (Bufo nebulifer) or, as we call them around here, ditch toads. We really don't see them that often anymore and nowhere near the sizes I remember as a kid.

It's great that you are IN their natural habitat and can just look outside to see what to put in there! Just remember, as long as there are no pesticides, you can use plants from outside that you see them in, saving you alot on the cost of plants. Most frogs do swim well, I just haven't ever seen these guys in the water (mine don't go in the water much, but if they do, they swim great!). I think mine are either what is termed barking tree frog, or squirrel tree frogs. I was convinced for years they were the barking ones, but now I think they might be the other one. I'd have to look up the scientific name... I lost my biggest one not too long ago... I think she was just old. She was already full grown (and huge) when I caught her. I'm sure she led a much longer life than she would have in the wild though, there were lots of things that ate them in the area I found her. I had her for almost three years. The other guys I caught at the same time are doing fine though, and they get along well with my banana tree frog (again, I'd have to look up the species name, especially since there are alot of frogs called banana tree frogs). You might think about (when you set up your new tank) turning it on it's side so they have more up and down room (unless the side isn't big enough to be a stable bottom...). I am going to use my 36"x17"x18" tank that way when I finally get an entirely new enclosure built for my chinese water dragon. I think that it will be so awesome for them, plenty of room to climb and jump. I know my banana tree frog is going to like it better than the ten gallon they are currently in, he jumps pretty far when he takes the notion. Plus I'll be able to make a larger water feature for my FBT. (yes I know, everyone says not to mix them, but they have always been together and do fine. He even lets the smaller frogs ride around on his head and they almost always sleep together in his brick house.) I might post some pics of my guys soon. I'd like to get some of the ones you have from the pet store, but all of the ones they have are so small they would likely be dinner fairly quickly for the banana tree frog... He is very large, and I already made that mistake once. I like tiny things, and my sister caught a tiny little tree frog like the ones I already had, and Joe (the BTF) ate him! I was very sad, but I never made that mistake again! I'm probably going to at lest start building the new part of my CWD enclosure in the next few days, and I plan to keep a picture log for mine as well. I think it is a very different way to set it up (of course I could be wrong). It's likely going to take me a while due to budget issues, but I'll try to keep it going as quickly as possible. That little dragon of mine eats like a pig, and he's keeping me broke!!! Time to start breeding those bugs! OK, I'll shut up now... lol...

EDIT:
well, lol, it looks like you've already got lots of plants! I should have clicked your link before I posted the reply, lol... Looks like they'll love it!!! You should totally plant some grass too. My guys are soooooo much happier now that the grass has grown in so nicely. I think I used kentucky blue grass. I have it in my CWD cage too.

[alex1976]

I finally got around to starting the 10 gallon rebuild so here's the link:

https://www.vivariumforum.com/communi....html#post7194

Let me know what you all think so far and feel free to make suggestions or critique!! Thanks!!!