I've always wanted to set a dart frog tank up. One of the local shops has a dart frog display with bumble bee dart frogs in it, I've always been impressed by their color.
Questions:
1) Won't a ficus quickly outgrow an enclosure this size?
2) What are your plans for filtration of the water?
3) Any plans on breeding darts?
Yea the ficus will want to outgrow the tank which leads me to my first decision. I have some that have been raised bonsai for the past 6 years and are trained to be kept in check. I built the hardscape so that the pots can fit inside the tank and also be removed for root trimming and other measures used to keep growth in check. not sure if i should leave them in their pot, or plant them in the carved out spot with added soil. I can poke a few holes to drain the water into the false bottom. They will be several inches from the water to prevent root rot. We'll see, there seems to be some success out there on the net but nothing really all that documented. I have one thats acclimated to my newt tank and been growing for three years now. requires some trimming but nothing major. more to come on this.......
i have two giant eheim canister filters that will be serious over kill. I need to get my plumbing in order and get the holes drilled in the bottom of the tank on either side. 2 jets will aid in water movement as well to keep fresh water cycling underneath the giant false bottom. I have huge chunks of sump foam lining the space to give a decent medium for bacteria growth. Three waterfall pumps will push water for the drip walls and river.
I would like to breed the frogs if possible. the tank will reside in my science lab and be the focus of a bunch of cool studies. water chemistry, microfauna populations, genetic manipulations with d. melanogster, and hopefully breeding! we'll see. living in AK means for certain challenges. probably won't order frogs till next fall. i want the tank to fully grow in and acclimate before i add them. how many do you think i can put in there. the tank is huge but there is a ton of hardscape taking up space in there.
I finished adding the foam, created some more surface area for the frogs by carving, and then added a huge cave on the left side underneath the river. I hope it works out. I plan on running a couple small led black lights inside for viewing and hope to grow luminescent mushrooms inside. Sure you guys have seen the kits. I tried it once in a ten gallon but they never grew. have read they are hit and miss. i might try them one last time. would be cool i think.
I finally added the first layer of dry lock on today and it took almost an entire gallon. this will definitely be my most expensive build yet. at $35 per gallon, 1 more coat and then touch up work will soak up another couple gallons. that and like 5 sheets of polystyrene, 7+ cans of GS, 3 tubes of silicone, 2 bottles of titebond III, 1 bottle of gorilla glue, 1 sheet of dry moss, 1 brick coco fiber, and more.......
Biggest hurdle right now is fitting the damn thing into the tank. it's like a giant rubix cube. once the layers of dry lock set, the whole thing will be less and less flexible. getting it in without breaking it is a huge ordeal. hopefully only one or two more times and ill be done.
Im going to have to use some expanding foam and silicone to seal the whole thing once its inside the tank that will be a challenge in itself i imagine.
ill snap some pics tomorrow
more to come
yep. the stuff is amazing for building hardscape and BGs. Ive been using it for years and it holds up quite well, doesn't leech into the water and only takes a day to outgas if you do it right.
17 pieces in all. i wrote down the best way of getting them in so it should be doable for the final fitting. Its tight to say the least and the hardscape has to press up against the walls many times. I hope it doesn't get too scratched on the last run.
Leads me to the least fun part of this whole project. The Tank. I need to buff it and get it ready for viewing. there are some serious scratches in it as you can see from the pics. Never done it before so I'll fumble around until I get it. Any advice out there? I have a buffing attachment for my drill with the rouge compound and then an orbital buffer with spray on compound used by tanning salons......im hoping to get it crystal clear...
I also have to fill it with 6 inches of water to just make sure it doesn't leak. original owner had it as a salt water tank before donating it to my classroom. i then made it into a semi arid desert viv have never checked. fingers crossed on that one.....
I have a bunch of drilling to do on the cabinets as well in order to get power down to the eheim filters. I want to add a fogger into one of the cupboards above the tank. I just love the look of the fog melting all around. I have the fogger, just need to figure out the plumbing and how to get power up into the cupboard.
So much left to do, one step at a time i guess. more to come
JD
i added a bit of color to the tank so i could actually see the depth and contour better. i like where its going and think ill get serious about the colors when my brown concrete color comes in. I feel like the carving took forever and looking back......it did. glad its done!
made some decent progress this weekend...pulled an all nighter on accident and played with some colors. pictures from the iPhone skew the colors a bit but i like where its heading.
I couldn't help but detail a small section to see how the natural pieces are going to look. I like the spruce root and hope to get some more.
The river is 47" long from headwaters to delta
Im never gonna get the tank crystal clear but its looking better. Plumbing and drilling next.
thanks so much. i love this part of the build!! i never did get my pure brown in, they mysteriously canceled the order...the wood turned out darker than expected but i think i still like it. thanks again for subscribing
Wow that is a great build. I really like the use of the foam. 150 gal is a lot of space to experiment with.
I'm new to this forum and I would like advice on where to find incredible driftwood (think branchy and manzanita like). Price is of no issue.
I'm preparing for the arrival of my Biopid Grand (90 gal) and I'm planning to stock it with pairs of either phyllomedusa savaugii or Cruziohyla craspedopus. Im probably also going to add a few non-aggressive, diurnal gecko species to avoid conflict with the frogs. I plan on having an aboreal region at the top of the vivarium, a terrestial bit and the bottom, and aquatic shallows in front of the tank bottom (I'd like to add some micro crabs or micro fish, the tank can hold up to 6 inches of water). Inspiration will be taken from the Amazon basin and treetops.
Anyways, if anyone has suggestions or ideas on where to find quality driftwood, let me know! Thanks
thanks ...... the tank size is immense compared to my others and i love the length for the river and large hardscape. if i could add 6 inches to the top of this thing,it would be the perfect tank.
there was a guy on this forum and dendroboard that used to sell amazing manzanita pieces. good seller, i used him a bunch back in the day. i can't for the life of me remember his handle. search and ye shall find! good luck with the build and make sure to keep us posted!
Wow that is a great build. I really like the use of the foam. 150 gal is a lot of space to experiment with.
I'm new to this forum and I would like advice on where to find incredible driftwood (think branchy and manzanita like). Price is of no issue.
I'm preparing for the arrival of my Biopid Grand (90 gal) and I'm planning to stock it with pairs of either phyllomedusa savaugii or Cruziohyla craspedopus. Im probably also going to add a few non-aggressive, diurnal gecko species to avoid conflict with the frogs. I plan on having an aboreal region at the top of the vivarium, a terrestial bit and the bottom, and aquatic shallows in front of the tank bottom (I'd like to add some micro crabs or micro fish, the tank can hold up to 6 inches of water). Inspiration will be taken from the Amazon basin and treetops.
Anyways, if anyone has suggestions or ideas on where to find quality driftwood, let me know! Thanks
slow going on the build: just been super busy with life.
heres a few updates:
Gonna need ventilation: picked up speed controller, power source and CPU fans (80mm). they're almost done being built in and wired.
Made more floor space for frogs.
Carved more caves at various altitudes and locations to vary the humidity.
Built up the river bank in places to try and stop water from entering the bonsai planters.
This looks awesome!
This is now one of my favorite paludarium builds, I really enjoyed reading your older thread too with the smaller tank.
Have you ever seen the guy from Finland with his mudskipper paludarium? I forget his name but its on this site somewhere, Your set up looks like the more terrestrial counter part to that build.
Very inspiring, I can`t wait to see how this turns out
Thanks for posting this tank build. I've been seriously thinking about doing a dart frog vivarium but I know next to nothing about it. Builds like yours help fill in the (sizable) gaps in my knowledge.
A nice example of a mudskipper tank. The whole video is pretty cool though. Skipped right to my favorite tank, but play it from the beginning if you like what you see.
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