purpose of a false bottom?

[ColleenT]

i have been reading about builds and seeing instructions to make them, but i am not sure of their purpose? Is it only for an intricate setup with a water feature? Or is it for looks? other reason?

[poison]

It's to prevent the water from building up in the soil and drowning the plants and microfauna that you have in the enclosure.

[ColleenT]

oh, i see. Thank you. I am probably going to get an exo terra but have gray tree frogs and for now i will not get intricate with design.

[awelcome]

I could be wrong, but I think some people also refer to the things like hydroballs as "false bottom". What I think of when I see it is like the egg carton/pipes type set up I see on build threads, but if you don't want that hassle you could and probably should at least get something like hydroballs covered with a barrier to lift your substrate off the bottom and allow it to drain.

[ColleenT]

i was going to have a water bowl for them, and mist daily.

[awelcome]

Are you having fake or live plants? I don't know if your substrate would get swamped out if you didn't have live plants and weren't misting quite as much (but hopefully someone with MUCH more experience can chime in on that) but if you had live plants they'd need more water obviously and the drainage layer might be more necessary then. I just redid mine after I took the advice from the petshop and had a bit too simple of a setup and I went with live plants. I did the whole drainage layer, barrier, substrate, moss, leaf litter, I mist multiple times a day and I still have a water dish, but I have a dart frog and they need it really humid.

[DigitalPunk]

CollenT,

Bill has a Vivarium build how to thread going (it is a sticky). Here is a link to the page where he and I discuss the False Bottom and the drainage layer

http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...n-101-a-3.html

In short - The drainage layer is the BARE minimum you will need for any Vivarium. It consists of a 2 - 3" deep layer of a drainage material. You can you Leca, Hydroballs, Josh's Frogs False Bottom, Neherps False bottom, Small rocks. Anything that will not compact and will let water drain down into it (it also need to be something that won't absorb the water). Not top of the drainage material you put something down that will allow air and water to pass through but not the soil. Fiberglass window screen works great for this as does weed block material. Then you add 2 - 3" of soil/substrate.

This setup will allow any excess water to pass through the soil and down into the FB. It will keep the excess water from creating a swap in your tank and ruining it. You will know if it is swamped out by the smell of rotten eggs in your house.

The False Bottom technique is used when you are wanting to make an aquatic section so you push the bottom of the tank up to a desired height using PVC pipe and egg crate.

[ColleenT]

ok, for now i am going to keep the bottom clean, put potted pothos in the tank, water bowl, climbing limbs, but was not planning to put soil in the tank for a while. Mine are still very small and Gray tree frogs don't seem to need as much humidity and etc.. as other frogs.

[mpmistr]

Don't be intimated to make a false bottom down the road, they are surprisingly easy to create.

You just need eggcrate, zip ties, weedblocker/fiberglass window screen, pvc pipe, and a tool to cut the eggcrate (I used pliers), and scissors to cut off the excess plastic on the zip ties. The plastic snaps out very easily (though it is messy and flies all over the place -- do it outside or prepare to sweep). So if you add it up, I am pretty sure you can make one for less than 20 bucks.

I think I made my false bottom in about an hour, and I never made one before. The part I really disliked was cutting the pvc pipe, I had to use a saw by hand and it just was a chore to cut. My design was very simple, just a single ramp to give the frogs access to water. You can place a small internal filter and water heater, which is insta-humidity too. In my vivarium, I don't feel the water heater (though set to 84F) provides any real *heat* to my enclosure though.

[ColleenT]

my husband has a ton of tools, so i'm not worried about doing it, i just don't know if and when it would happen. I have been reading a lot on this site. i hope to find an enclosure saturday ( maybe exo terra, maybe i'll convert a tank to vertical)