Experimental Frog/Toad Tank: Build Log with Pics.

[froggsong]

yeah, i feel pretty much the same way, Athen... you pretty much have to expect to injure yourself, i have just managed to hurt myself a little more seriously on this project than i usually do... i think it must be addition of power tools, lol... I just got up, since I was up til 5 AM, but I'll take some pictures after I eat and make a phone call.

[alex1976]

Wow, I've never knocked myself unconscious but I have done a ten finger count on the table saw (don't tell my wife!!).

The way I see it's not a completely successful build unless I've injured myself in some way. My 10 Gallon Rebuild was a rare exception other than a few sore points on my feet from stepping on pieces of eggcrate barefoot in my garage. Blood was spilled though and that's the important factor for the Gods That Be...

[froggsong]

lol...

[janelc]

Athen and Alex1976-thanks for the insight into the minds of men!!! Egg crate does really hurt if you step on it barefoot as does the small electronic parts my husband leaves around the house.....(He's the brains, I'm the brawn).

[Athen]

no problem for the insight =) just didnt want yall to think it was something wierd that women only get hurt when working on stuff =) cause they dont we just look at it differently =)

[janelc]

You know what they say "Chicks dig scars." Do guys?

Meghan-we need pictures!!! I am getting ready to plant as well-I have LECA, screen, moss, coco fiber and potting soil. I am waiting for pictures from you and Waterkeeper before I take the plunge myself!

[froggsong]

Ok, I'll see if I can get it in some better light and take some good ones...

[froggsong]

Ok, the first pictures are of the stuff I had to settle on for the track for the door. I was originally going to go with a hinged door, but I discarded the idea because I couldn't figure out how to secure the door. Anyway, I spent somewhere around two hours looking for something that would work at home depot, it seems that no one could understand what exactly I needed, and when they'd ask me what I was using it for and I would say a track, they kept directing me to drawer tracks and stuff...


This one's a little blurry, but shows a view from the end.


Here's the track installed installed:



Here's the door installed: well, maybe not, It doesn't seem I took a picture of it before I put in the plants.



I set the plants in where I wanted them to get an idea of what it would look like, this was before I bought the moss and the plant with the purple backed leaves (the pot is just holding up the dracaena):







Then I put the peat in the tank, added water (a pain to do... you have to squish it and squish it to get the water to mix with the peat, otherwise you have to et it sit forever because it just floats on the water...) and planted the background (the ivy is held against the background with staples loosely stuck in the foam until I can get something that wont rust, there is also one loosely holding the piece to the Y shaped branch):





Then I put in the plants in this order: dracaena, that one with the purple leaves, the big dieffenbachia, the saxifrage (the one with the red flowers), and the other two dieffenbachia. Then I planted the other dieffenbachias in the planters in the glass portion of the tank with some grass seed sprinkled around them. After that I put one of the half log hides that I cut in half diagonally against one of the walls and put some "frog moss" in side to keep it cushy and moist. Then I spread the rest of the bark/peat/coco fiber mix that I was using for the background to begin with on top of the substrate and planted the moss:












There are more pictures in my photobucket album: My Photobucket Album

I still have to screw the handle to the door because the silicone isn't holding enough (probably because it is on plexi), put rocks and such in the water area (I also have to weigh down the stump planter because it still floats a little), spackle the outside, and paint. I think I'm going to paint some spots on the inside that got a little GS on them (mostly branches) and paint the inside where the white silicone shows through.

What do you guys think?

[froggsong]

Oh, I forgot, I'm also thinking of putting a landing in that big empty spot on the back plexi wall. I think it will look better that way, and they'll have a good spot to jump on.

[janelc]

Hey Meghan! Looks great! I love the rock planter things! They turned out really nice. I love how they stick to the wall!