Please help I made a mess

[mips]

I had too many days off in a row, and started to browse and decided to totally change my fire bellies home. They spend less than 10% of their time in the water so I thought more land would be good. I wanted to do a planted tank so I got a new background and some coconut Eco earth and I used substrate etc, but didn't think to convert the 1 inch into way more because of a 4 inch deep pond... So do I have to have DH empty all this mess and start again? Other than more substrate where did I go wrong? My filter died, so I have to head for petsmart. At this point I'm considering a large exo terra waterfall as their pond. I know they are not meant to like moving water but my guys all sit under the filter and always have done.



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[deranged chipmunk]

Well, there are a couple issues I see. One is you need to separate substrate from water. This is done by either a false bottom or a drainage layer made of hydroton. Just putting substrate in the tank and filling it up with water make a bog, as you found out. The coco fiber clogged your pump and burned it up. You can also make a small pond out of a piece of plexi glass siliconed in to separate land/aquatic portions if you don't feel comfortable with doing a false bottom or hydroton setup. But it must be 100% water tight or you'll have the same issue.

[deranged chipmunk]

Oh, and they are normally found in streams and ponds in their natural habitat, so I'm not sure where them not liking running water comes from?

[mips]

Thanks :/. I put in a hydroton layer but only an inch deep then some big pebbles, I didn't like the look so put aquarium gravel along the sides, then put some window screening over the whole lot and added water. I can't do silicon because it's below freezing here and I can't cure it inside because of my parrots.

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah, you may want to go the false bottom route. Not very hard. Check my mantella paludarium thread, it is fairly detailed on how to do it.

[mips]

It was that thread that got me into this mess...

[deranged chipmunk]

lol well, sorry about that one

[mips]

Will the froggies be ok in the boggy mess for a couple of days? Or does it need to be stripped out today? I don't have another tank to put them in. I ordered a tetra 25905 (will be here Monday thanks to amazon) and will add landmass with stones and bridges and give up my idea of a planted tank for now.

[SweetApples]

How about using an aquarium divider?. I've heard of that being used before for these kinds of setups.

[s6t6nic6l]

ideally you want to set up another home for them in a much larger tank as that seems way too small for these active toads. there are a number of concerns with keeping them in such an unsuitable environment. are you able to re-home these or is the only size tank feasible?

[deranged chipmunk]

Will the froggies be ok in the boggy mess for a couple of days? Or does it need to be stripped out today? I don't have another tank to put them in. I ordered a tetra 25905 (will be here Monday thanks to amazon) and will add landmass with stones and bridges and give up my idea of a planted tank for now.

They should be ok for a couple days. They come from boggy areas in the wild, so they should be cool for a bit. Just make are their water is kept clean until you get a new filter.