1st Pal build

[Ausfrog]

Hey guys this is my 1st post, so hoping it's in the right section.

Just completed my 1st Pal build and thought i'd post my pics and get your feed back on what you think and any advice you may have.

I started with custom built tank 3ft high x 2ft x 2ft, with sliding front doors and full mesh top. I had 2 overflows drilled into the base, one for the land area and one for the water area. I had the return drilled in the top left corner and a cord port drilled into the top right corner.

I siliconed in a glass petition to separate the land and water areas. I built the rear rock wall by stacking up styrofoam pieces, leaving a channel in the back wall for the return hose that would force water out of spray bars behind the rocks in the water area. And built a reservoir in the top right corner that flows down as a waterfall.
Once i'd shaped the styrofoam i gave it 3 coats of a mix of cement, silasec (concrete water proofer) and bondcrete.
While the last coat of cement mix was still wet i threw a mix of different coloured sands at it and then let it cure for about 2 weeks. I then hosed off any loose sand, then once it was dry applied 2 coats of clear pondtite.

For the land area i placed eggrate on pvc stilts topped with a volcanic rock for drainage, then on top of that fly screen topped with sphagnum moss. I siliconed pieces of malle root to the edges of the glass petition to make for a smoother transition to the water and to hide the glass.

Plumbed up both overflows into the sump beneath, which holds 2 pumps, one to run the return spray bars and water fall and one to run the rain system which is made from garden irrigation spray nozzels.

I've planted it with broms, native Australian rock orchids, ferns and baby's tears.

Anyway hope you like it. Any feed back would be great.

[Grimm]

Damn...Thats a good looking pal! The plant placement is really great and flows smoothly. Not a bad 1st post at all

Id really like to see some more pics of the different sections of the palu. Its super organised and clean looking.

[Herpetology101]

Gorgereous pal. I agree with grimm the plant placement is awsomne!

[Ausfrog]

Id really like to see some more pics of the different sections of the palu. Its super organised and clean looking.

thanks guys, glad you like. Both from Canada....Beautiful country, would love to go back sometime.

I've posted some more pics, i hope they are what you mean by different sections^

1st - This is a photo of the land side of the tank

2nd - this is the male, behind him is the reservoir in the top right corner that flows into the little pool beside him and then the rock face to the pool below.

3rd - this is pretty much the whole floor of the tank. The babies tears died off initially from the frogs jumping all over it before it had settled in, but it is starting to grow back now.

4th - this is the side view, so you can see i've managed to keep the rock wall pretty close to the back of the tank and kept lot of spare room for them to move around.

last - this is just a shot from the land area towards the top of the tank.

if you want to see any thing just let me know. thanks for the feed back.

[Herpetology101]

looks pretty sweet man so can you like catch those frogs their or do they still sell them in pet stores I have 7 of em and they only really do anything when there is food or its dark lol

[beckdg]

looks fantastic!

[Ausfrog]

Originally Posted by Herpetology101

looks pretty sweet man so can you like catch those frogs their or do they still sell them in pet stores I have 7 of em and they only really do anything when there is food or its dark lol

It's illegal to take them from the wild here, and you can't by them in pet stores. Laws on keeping certain types of animals is pretty strict in Aus. You need a licence to keep frogs, lizards and snakes and they're pretty strict as to what species you can keep too.

Yeah, they're pretty lazy. That's why i set up a 3 stage lighting system.....dawn (Black light), morning, midday, then back to afternoon, dusk(black light again) and then night. Keeps them out a little bit longer for viewing.

[Ausfrog]

hey all,

I wasn't totally happy with my pal when i was finished. So i took the frogs out and made some changes: i added bigger pieces of volcanic rock to the shoreline, removed the fish tank gravel and replaced with larger pebbles and planted out some large pieces of wood with broms, birds nest fern, rock orchids and a whole lotta moss.

Hope you like the final result.....

[Grimm]

Looks pretty sweet...To be completely honest I liked it better before but it still looks great haha. I think this new design will be a lot better for your frogs however. The larger plants give a lot more climbing space and support.

I think some plants in the water section will finish this puppy off nicely! I hope you can get that moss to stay alive and start spreading, it could look amazing.

[Platypus Gus]

Wow looks great don't know much about the frogs you have but what you could do is maybe put some small fish in the water area like maybe guppies or zebra danios? That would make it look even better.