60/40 Budget Viv. for Leopard Frogs.

[Rat The Unloved]

A little over half a year ago I rescued some beautiful Leopard Frog tadpoles from a local bait shop. I raised these guys on fish food, assuming I would maybe get one or two to morph. Fortunately, all of them did. Unfortunately, I also had two escape along the way. Fortunately, the two survivors are thriving, and have outgrown their "bachelor pad" - a standard 10gl shown elsewhere.

"The Plan" was to create a sort of biotope vivarium. A snapshot of the environment in which these frogs are normally found here in my home state of Oklahoma. I researched our native plantlife and found that most of it would not be suited to a vivarium enclosure. We do have Maidenhair ferns, an "analogue" of which I picked up at a garden center, and I opted for Pothos and later Philodendron to act as my main plants. I have -considered- taking cuttings off of a patch of Kudzu vine we have on our lot. No, kudzu is not native, but it is a very strong part of the Southern landscape.

I started with an Aquatech 29gl starter kit that's been kicking around my home for about ten years. It's previously housed numerous aquatic and semi-aquatic critters over the years, and is being put to it's final use. This kit is a standard 29gl, with a fitted lid and additional fluorescent hood. I have plans to "retrofit" the hood to hold either a small LED strip, or a couple of CFLs - should the plants prove that they need more lighting.

I started with four cans of GS, and two tubes of GE "Window And Door" 100% - for my setup I got one in black and one in brown. So far I've used 2.5 cans of GS. LET THIS BE A LESSON: Start with twice the amount of supplies you -think- you'll need. Cold weather effects the expansion of GS. It will tend to "Flow" rather than "puff", and I used an entire can on a very small area. After the initial failure, yes, I did my GS in the house. I've done it before, and as long as I kept a vent fan on in the bathroom I did not notice the smell anywhere else in the house. I DO NOT SUGGEST anyone do that, though.



The waterfall for the water feature is "carved" from Styrofoam. Specifically a thermal shipping box. I attempted to carve some small basins into it, but largely wanted it to flow easily to avoid algae growth. It is backed with GS foam to close up any remaining fissures, and is going to be fully coated in silicone and sand, as well as some sandstone chip. I may also include some crushed slate to add color, and some pea gravel.



Here is the full tank - so far. Essentially all I have left is the "coating" process, testing the water-tightness of the setup, and installing the pump for the waterfall. The area around the base of the waterfall will hold a filtration pack (made by myself) and will be surrounded with siliconed-in pieces of sandstone to finish the look. The pond feature will have a couple of inches of pebble and sand, and will be planted with some low-maintenance aquatic plants, as well as housing wild-type guppies. For some reason the frogs don't eat them. Go figure?

The background will be coated with silicone and various bark chips, fibers and moss. The plants intended for the setup are a lot of cuttings from my Pothos, a rusty-tinged Philodendron, maidenhair fern, and Peacock moss. The water feature will contain Ludwigia, hairgrasses, duckweed and Azolla. The "Ugly ends" showing on the outside of the tank will get a special treatment with a few coats of high-gloss black acrylic paint. Between that and the silicone coating, nothing should "show".
I have not had problems with the 10gl holding moisture, so I doubt the larger space will cause trouble either. Because of that I'm not going to worry about hydroton or river rock under my substrate. For substrate I'm going with a mix of vivarium soil, and coco-fiber, with some added bark chips and leaves.

For the curious, the water feature will also have some delicately stair-stepped rocks to ensure the frogs can -very- easily climb out of the water.

I hope to get to the coating process in the next couple of days.

[Rat The Unloved]

So, it's been almost a week since the first post. I learned a few important things along the way.

1: Buy gloves that are just a little too small for you. As they heat up, and your hands sweat, they tend to get a bit roomy - leading to floppy finger-tips getting coated in fiber and silicone. This was the main "hassle" of working on the tank.

2: If you're going to do a water feature, just use the pond/waterfall foam. While I would've loved to have done this, but none of my local stores had it in stock for some reason. I imagine that the waterfall foam, being black, would be far easier to cover. However, it would also be harder to see one's progress. The real advantage being it's watertight from the start - as long as you don't cut it. Which brings me to:

3: Don't cut on the foam too much. You'll uncover large voids that go deeply enough to be worrisome. If this happens, try plugging the fissure with a rock, and siliconing over it. One or two such fissures began steadily dripping when I did my first leak test. For really "curvy" features like mind, don't knock the idea of siliconing a section of pond liner to the back of your feature. I'm seriously considering it myself.

4: Sand gets everywhere. Silicone-kissed sand gets everywhere, and then sticks.

5: There will be "missed spots" - don't sweat it. Go back later with a more decorative material like shaggy spaghnum, spanish moss, or pebbles.

On to the "finished" tank shot.



The waterfall works nicely, but the flow is a little high. I have to wedge a small rock into the overhang to prevent it from spitting like a water fountain. The water feature leaked, so I bailed, dried, and patched... we'll see what comes in the morning! I used an artists acrylic paint to cover the "ugly ends" - it looks much better in person. The water feature holds about 1.5gl, so it'll be closer to 1gl with the full amount of substrate, driftwood and plants. Once the feature tests leak-free I'll be waiting one week for the silicone to get fully cured and de-stink'd, then everything gets to move in.