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Thread: How often to change the substrate?

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    Default How often to change the substrate?

    My guy is still young, about the size of a quarter and he defecates in the water most days. Ive been reading that ammonia can build up in the soil and not sure how often I should change out the cocohusk substrate.I stir it up every few days and pick out any stray feces.

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    When I did straight coco fiber (husk can cause impaction) I changed substrate about every 2 weeks at that age.

    You really need a false bottom so you have a drainage layer. I put down about 2" of false bottom, then a weed guard, and then my substrate. I also run a tube into the false bottom so I can drain it if the water gets around1" deep. I also kept a giant water container that i changed daily then filled back up with prime treated water.

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    Wow thanks for the detailed reply, its nice to get some good info since im pretty new to frogs.I thought coco fiber was the way to go? What do you use?

    I havent gotten him in his permanent enclosure yet, just keeping him in a tub.I do have a 40 gallon that he is going in, i will def. put a false bottom in. Also i have a big bottle of Prime for my fish but wasnt sure if i should use it for the frog so used Aquasafe since I saw a few posts were people used it.Thanks for the heads up..

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    Yes, coco fiber is best way to go, changes once a month. You can use prime or any other water conditioner.
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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    You are correct NH3/4 will build up during the Nitrogen cycle process but it will be consumed by NO2 and convert to NO3 as the end process. To help turn your soil you add things like springtails. This will help reduce the likes of tiny NO2 pockets much the way a fish tank is I imagine. they will also help clean up during the process when things like leaf litter and poo is decomposing as part of the cycle and over time will turn into good soil.

    I fully recommend the bioactive approach to soil, the cleaning will be spot cleaning mostly.

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    With African bullfrogs this system may not work well as they produce so much waste and in typical tanks this could build up quicker than is processed. This is my opinion though and not a fact but I personally wouldn't chance this unless I had a massive tank. It's usually darts or tree frogs kept in bio-active set ups and they are much smaller.

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    I get your madness dood if it doesnt brake down quick enough with these guys then u will be correct. It will be a case of changing the soil a lot.

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    Default Re: How often to change the substrate?

    Quote Originally Posted by miranda2 View Post
    Wow thanks for the detailed reply, its nice to get some good info since im pretty new to frogs.I thought coco fiber was the way to go? What do you use?

    I havent gotten him in his permanent enclosure yet, just keeping him in a tub.I do have a 40 gallon that he is going in, i will def. put a false bottom in. Also i have a big bottle of Prime for my fish but wasnt sure if i should use it for the frog so used Aquasafe since I saw a few posts were people used it.Thanks for the heads up..
    Dood i noticed you use tetra aquasafe as a dechlorinator, great stuff use the pond version though its green instead of yellow, it will last you a lot longer as you use less. Tetra also do 'safe start' that is the bacteria in a bottle for cycling , great stuff used it with my WC fish for many years but double check it can be used with frogs.

    Prime is good but I prefer safe start, as far as I am aware prime only makes NH3/4 non toxic for a period of time to allow cycling I dont think it actually cycles though. You will also get false readings on your test kits with prime but it does what its intended to do make NH3/4 non toxic.

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