Should I use soil that my Exo Terra came with?

[abacabb]

I read online that using soil in the habitat is great for maintaining humidity and promoting growth of good bacteria. I read on Czar's Frog Page that adding aquarium gravel followed by an air conditioner filter followed by the soil is a good setup.

Is this true? If so, what air conditioner filter should I use?

I'm sort of worried that the soil will cause the tank to smell bad and perhaps my room as well. I understand that using real plants in the soil will recycle the waste that the frogs produce.

Has anyone run into any issues with using soil? Should I even use this method? Maybe adding the soil by itself would be better?

And if using soil with real plants is the better route, how often should it be cleaned/changed out?

I want my frogs to have the best habitat possible. *worried first time frog owner here*...lol

Also, if I want to breed the frogs and I use some plants over the Exo Terra waterfall, would this be an ok configuration for breeding the frogs and raising the tadpoles?

I'm completely open to suggestions.

[Kurt]

OK first, scratch the aquarium gravel and replace it with LECA. ZooMed sells it under the name Hydroballs. ZooMed also sell mesh to cover the LECA. Now you can either use soil or ground coconut shell. With soil comes the danger of pesticides and fertilizers that may be found in it, so consider where you get your dirt. It should come from and area where neither of the chemicals have been used. I use coconut shell because it's safe and convenient.
What kind of frog do you intend on breeding? Most will not breed outside of a rain chamber.

[abacabb]

Well I have 3 red eyed tree frogs and 1 tiger leg (I think monkey...not sure). They are in separate habitats now. I'd like to buy another tiger leg and breed all of my frogs.

Also, what exactly is the purpose of the gravel/leca? And how often should soil/coconut shells be changed out? Does the Leca need to be cleaned as well?

[Kurt]

Red-eyes and monkey frogs need rain chambers to stimulate breeding, as do most frogs. See red-eyed care article for more info.

LECA and pea gravel provide a layer for drainage, so water can pass through the substrate without congregating in it. If if the substrate is left soaking wet, most plants' roots will rot and the plants will die. Excessive moisture will also encourage decomposition.

[abacabb]

Oh ok. So I imagine that the water that drains to the gravel needs to be taken out somehow every week......is that correct? If so, what is the easiest way of doing so?

Sorry about all the questions......I'm just trying to cover everything :-p


Oh ...one more thing, I found many instructions online on how to build a rain chamber. Is building one the only solution or is there a commercial one available somewhere?

[CrazyAirborne]

if you build a false bottom, you leave a piece of PVC pipe accessible so you can siphon out any water that makes its way down to the false bottom. i guess you could pretty much do the same thing with just LECA down there. figure out a way to siphon it out

[fruggit]

The part that you have to syphon out the water sound like alot of work?

[abacabb]

So where would I find a good "LECA"?

[Kurt]

BlackJungle.com

[Kurt]

The part that you have to syphon out the water sound like alot of work?

I only siphon off water as needed. Also, you should cut notches in the bottom end of your drain pipe to allow for water to flow easily. The pipe should be wide enough for your siphon hose to fit down it and be capped when you are not working on it, to prevent anything from climbing down it.