New & any tips/ideas welcome

[jlennon]

So I am new to this site, and so far I am liking it. I have browsed many topics in search of ideas for my recently vacant tank.

I had previous had a Green Anole set up in my terrarium/vivarium setup. I am not really sure of the difference at this point. It was a planted tank with organic soil and Pothos (variated Philodenron?)

So my little anole died about 2 - 3 weeks ago. I estimated the age to be around 4 since I had it for almost 3 years.

I plan on getting 1-2 small frogs to house in my tank. I believe the set up I will be creating is called a Paludarium (3/4 water, 1/4 land). The tank I will be using is my lizards tank once its cleaned out of the current setup. It is a 10 gallon standard tank.

Really what I need help with is the actual setup. I have already bought a Whisper 10i internal tank that seems to be common in Paludariums to create a waterfall setup. I also bought a 10L bag of Leca material (Hydroton) which is better for the false bottom, water table in the tank.

Thing i need help with is do I need to seperate the leca and substrate with screening, or can I use something else in place of that. I am unable to locate any stores that are not selling any but huge rolls of screening at crazy prices.

Also, I would *love* suggestions how to hide the filter so it looks like a natural waterfall and not a filter.

I drew a rough picture of what I want to do with the tank, hopefully I can attach it correctly.

[Grimm]

To hide the filter/pump you need to either create a false bottom out of egg crate or some type of "cave" to hide them. But considering your tank is so small I dont think the false bottom method would work since it will take up quite a large amount of room.

You say you are going to house frogs in this tank? What type of frogs? Typically frogs need a lot of ground to hop around or plenty of hight to climb. Considering you are planning to make the tank 3/4 water I dont think this will allow for either....

[jlennon]

Well since it is such a small tank I just planned on getting probably one frog, either a Fire Belly Toad or another small species.

I have read some details on small frogs/toads that they can be housed 2-3 at most in a 10 gallon, stating rougly average is 4 gallons per individual.

I would probably do this as 1/2 to 1/3 water or 1/2 water to 3/4 land. My sketch is roughly 1/3 water to 2/3 land, I thought it would be best this way.

What would be the best set up in this case with my small tank? I'd prefer not to have to buy a larger tank if I can use this to house one or two small species frog.


Please let me know if this could work for small frogs 2" and under.

[Grimm]

Oh....I kinda forgot about the frogs that live in water haha..But yeah id say 3/4 water for 2-3 toads would work well...Maybe throw in a few little rock islands in there too. If you want to hide a pump you can just build up a few rocks around it.. Thats what I did in my tank and it is totally hidden.

[jlennon]

Ok, I will definately try it and see what happens. As for substrate, what type should I be using. I originally had soil in there, but i will be replacing that and the pothos, I dont want that taking over the little frog tank, it grows like a weed in any condition.

I was thinking of using the coco-fiber substrate, is this good for little frogs? I dont want to worry about them ingesting anything from substrates.

Also since I will be using Leca for the bottom to increase the water flow underneath the substrate (plus it was cheaper than aquarium gravel) is there anything else I can use to separate the layers other than screening to prevent the substrate from mixing and making a mess out of the water.

I will post pics once I set this up, which should be tonight, now that I have my basic design plan in mind.

[Epiphile]

If the measurements in your drawing are correct, you've got a 20 gallon tank, which should afford you a bit more room to work with.

You can use anything to keep your substrate out of your drainage layer- it just has to hold up over time, keep the substrate from falling through and allow water to pass freely through it. A lot of smaller hardware stores do have this available by the foot- call around and I'm sure you can find something suitable.

[beckdg]

i will read through this later... hopefully. for now check this out and really dig... how it's done... favorite links thread

you are bound to find a lot of answers to your questions as well as a lot of inspiration and ideas in there.

[jlennon]

Ok, I bought some supplied for my setup. I picked up some live frog moss, that is dried and 'supposedly' comes back to life when waterd and set up in the terrarium. Well it will do well for my land portion even if it does not come back to life.

Also picked up expanding coco fiber for my substrate. I didnt have a chance to get to a hardware store for any screening. However, I did locate something I can hopefully use in place of it.

I have some Polyurethane black filter foam (typical a/c filter media) that I am hoping is safe for use as a divider between the substrate and Hydroton.

Any ideas if this foam is safe to use? I did see some threads on here regarding Polyurethane, but nothing about open cell filter foam as a divider. Heres a pic of it, any thoughts if it would be feasible?

[beckdg]

i have no idea if that filter pad would be treated or if it'll stand up to water. if it's treated most likely you can't use it regardless. if it's 100% polyester i don't see why not to try it.

other supplies are cheap and easily enough to find though that if you don't know it's not worth it.

[Nighsliv]

I would think a filter pad would get clogged fairly soon compared to things like screens.