My first vivarium! Any advice???

[KOvet]

I'm new to the forum so first I just want to say hi to everyone.

I have a lot of questions haha!
How do you create a vivarium with a water feature/ pond like this one? How do you keep the soil from mixing with the water and turning into a mud puddle? What plants should I use?

NOTE: My vivarium will not be tropical because it will be housing wood frogs.

[Epiphile]

Welcome to the forum, KOvet- have a read through some stickies and older posts, as many of your questions have been asked here before.

[Agamidae Architect]

Hi there, What i would do is obtain your aquarium/container, buy some plexi glass and caulking sealent and go from there. Or what i did is take two different sized rubbermaid containers, and stuck a smaller one inside the larger one and screwed it in place. The water is in the larger one and you can fill up the smaller one with soil/plants etc. Heres an example of mine.

But beware! there is nowhere for the water to drain unless you create a false bottom, so dont overwater or flood your soil container. -architect

[KOvet]

I looked through old posts and I can't find anything about what non tropical plants that can be used ):

[viva la viv]

there tropical because they like water and heat so try bog plants or marginals. you can put any plant in it just may not do so good and you will have to keep replacing it. to keep the soil out of the water pile up hydroton then cover with screen, hope you like brown water cause thats what you get. Read Read Read. Info will save you money$$$

[Agamidae Architect]

hydroton is gods gift to man

[froggsong]

Ferns are great for temperate vives, and there are MANY MANY mosses that require lower temps, so you'll be able to have lots of fun with those (moss makes a tank, imo). When researching plants, you just want to be sure that they don't have poisons that rub off of the leaves and that they don't have thorns, etc. You could try looking up plants native to the area that your frogs are from, then go with some of those. If these frogs are native to your area, I recommend taking a nice hike through the woods to collect some plants. If not, then you'll have to buy them, you'll find a bigger selection online, most likely, but you should find a good selection locally as well. Heck, if you live in most of the United States, you can use plants from your area with no problems. Even anything that will grow outside in your area should do well, even most house plants will do fine in 70ish degrees. It's actually far easier to stock a temperate vive than it is to stock a tropical one.

[KOvet]

To make a small pond do you need to make a false bottom? Or can you just stick with the clay pellets and screen? I'm very confused with this. How do I make a pond like this one below in my vivarium?

[viva la viv]

that pond by the looks of it is just hydroton piled up on a slope, probably sp.moss or screen seperator then soil mix or whatever on top there is most likely a shallow water pump hiding in there somewhere because standing water will foul. you need to make a bog type soil for entering the water then get some moss growing on it. good luck.