new 20 gallon for my firebelly toads, got some questions!

[mafoo]

now since i am planning on getting a pacman frog monday, ive decided to use my old firebellys tank for the pacman frog and and giving my firebellys the 20 gallon! now ive picked up the tank already and a floating island but i still need a bunch of plants and some more rocks for it but im just wondering how deep should the water be? im hoping it doesnt need to be to deep since ive fallen in love with putting crickets in a glass bowl that they cant get out of but if the bowl isnt dug into gravel deep enough the frogs jump into the glass since its see through. since i need to do this i figure i need to have a small ramp of gravel and then ill place the bowl in there and itll be good, but water depth is an issue now because if its to deep i need a bigger ramp so the bowl isnt in the water and i dont have to much gravel. im sure ill do fine though if the water doesnt need to be over 2 inches deep. another question is what should i do for a filter? all the filters ive seen need to be plugged in but theres no room for a cord to be in the tank when the lid is on! ive seen these vacuume filter kind of things that u use to clean gravel or something but what to they do? is that an option to use to clean the water? one more question that ive been wondering about but never asked, to firebelly toads need calcium with d3 and a multivitamin? ive always used just calcium with no d3. that about sums it all up and i will have pictures of the setup tommorow after i get everything ready!

[heyjude2200]

Hi mafoo,

Well, I'm still relatively new to this, but I can share a few things that have worked for me. I have about 2" of water for my fire bellies and it seems to be the right amount for them. They prefer to be able to touch the bottom or hang onto something. Also, I'm using a submersible filter as well as a pump--are you sure that there isn't enough room for the cords to go through the lid? I thought I would have a problem with it too, but they fit fine. I also have a small circulating pump. And, I give my FBT's crickets with calcium on them at most feedings and crickets with the multivitamins a couple of times a month. I'm not the authority--I read that somewhere--probably on this site--but they are healthy happy little froggies. And, regarding the feeding dish, I tried a clear glass bowl, and they kept bonking into the side of it instead of going over the edge to get the crickets. Now I'm using a ceramic dish that is supposed to be for water--it's about 1/2" deep, but has very slick sides, so the crickets usually don't get out, so that's working pretty good, plus it only takes a little while until they figure out where the food is. I have a routine now and I change out several quarts of water and mist the tank before I put in the crickets. They know the drill now and look for the crickets when I do this.

Good luck with your new FBT tank and your new pacman.