New Dart Setup!

[aquaman3680]

Hey all,

I just set up my first terrarium for some darts. I decided to take some pics along the way so I could post them! There are still a few things I need to do before I buy any frogs but I decided to post some pics anyways.

From the beginning-



Started off with the foam and then I planned on having the pump be in the tank.



Added gravel to where the waterfall will be



Added everything else, but there was a problem-



The next morning the pump was already all clogged up so I decided that a sump would be a better idea so we drilled the tank where the water area is.





The sump in progress of being built, the Sour Cream cup acts as a sponge and micro fiber filter, all incoming water goes through it.



The sump completed, just added the AC20 today as extra carbon and zeo-carb filtration, should clear up the water.



The tank all done-

Not too sure what type of plants these are-





Let me know what you think about the setup!

I will be adding the leaf litter and seeding it with spring tails here pretty soon!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Matt

[froghobbiest]

Aww man you beat me to it. I was going to have a waterfall leading into a creek off my background to but great tank. At least I saw somebody else do it before I do

[aquaman3680]

Thanks for the compliment! I went through several ideas before deciding on this one.

I think I am planning on doing azures or tinct's- do you think these guys would do alright in this setup?

Thanks

Matt

[Ebony]

Wow, Very nice.

[John]

Very nice indeed. The water area seems really deep, is it?

[Kurt]

What I would have done is created a drainage layer or false bottom, as most plants don't do well with there roots soaking water. Your pump would've have been less likely to clog up. The water level of the reservoir would be below the substrate level to prevent the substrate from becoming water logged. I would take one of those naturalistic reptile bowls, drilled some small holes in it, so it could serve as a pool for the frogs. I took your picture and drew on some lines to show you what I mean.

[aquaman3680]

Thank you for the compliments!

John-

The water area is only about 3" deep. I will eventually have a couple fish in it plus I want to have some water/land plants in there half in the water half out.

Kurt-

Actually the picture that you drew on has a false bottom on it. I took out the false bottom because I did not want to have to rip up my substrate to work on the pump, I found this idea to not be ideal. It also allowed me no place for the filtration of my water which I really want to be clear and not be discolored by tannins. So after tearing the tank down the next day because the pump was clogged or not working I decided that I needed to think of something else to do. My plants are in pots so their roots are not actually touching the soil at all. I have about a 2" soil layer on top of my gravel. I put some fine mesh in between my gravel and plantation soil layer so that the soil does not get into the gravel.

Hope that kinda explains the reason I decided to go away from the false bottom idea!

Thanks,

Matt

[Kurt]

Yes, it does. Thanks for the clarification.

[aquaman3680]

Just a quick question-

There is going to be a reptile show coming up here in KC next Sunday. I was talking to one of the guys that is going to be selling stuff there and he said that he will be selling some type of moss that is naturally collected and then sold. He said that this would be the best thing I could use to put over my soil and then to put some leaf litter on top of that for the darts. He also said that in the moss there are many natural decomposers, beatles and small millipedes and some other guys that the frogs can eat and will also eat the frog poop. Would this be better than seeding the tank with spring tails? Is there anything that would be wrong with the moss?

Thanks,

Matt