FrogFever 50g build water feature question. Opinions/advice wanted...
So tell me what you guys think here because I can't even sleep at night thinking about how I want this all to play out!
This will be my tenth build in 9 months (a couple times building 2 at once), so I am pretty well versed on most common problems when it comes to vivarium construction. Which is to say that I found out the hard way.
I have already made two tanks with water features. One with a small stream running through it which flows in to a pond at the opposite end of the habitat. This one has given me few problems, if any.
The second one is my 18x18x24 for my super tiger legged monkey frogs. This one has a powerhead pump with a waterfall that drips both down a rock wall AND stream that flows throughout the top of the tank and pours out a (stronger waterfall) into the water feature. This water feature has created many problems for me... the seal to the sectioned off land area leaked and I tried to reseal it NUMEROUS times and it leaked every time. So I eventually opened up the sectioned off part to free flowly with the rest of the tank by utilizing a false bottom.
AFTER I made a false bottom for the land part I then experienced the far end of the stream/waterfall leaking through the great stuff into the substrate! (I used thick, wide plastic tubing for the majority of the stream, except for at the end where it drops off.) So to remedy this I added rocks for the leaking section to drip into instead of the soil substrate. The water then just goes directly under the rocks, false bottom and into the water beneath. So I finally got all that situated and it works fine.
Now for the point of this thread.... This 50 gallon.
I am running short on space in my frog room and I've been dying to do an incredible display build for the living room (although I consider all my tanks to be for display). So I finally settled on a 50 gallon long that I picked up from goodwill for $25!
I've reviewed numerous threads about water features and the many pros and cons dealing with them.
The tank is massive and it will be in plain site to everyone. I REALLY REALLY want to do a water feature which incorporates either a drip wall/ rock wall waterfall, or a stream which goes from one end of the tank to the other before emptying into a very small pond.
This is where I need your opinion...
If I do the water features I am concerned that something will not go right and will eventually leak/ break, soak the substrate somehow, someway. And it could be a huge undertaking to fix a 50 gallon depending on what it might be! And even if it does go right it can still be somewhat of a chore to change the water every week or two. BUT at the same time I feel like if I trouble shoot all these problems prior to the build (which I've encountered before) then I could pull it off and it would be an absolutely incredible habitat.
Bottom line is I want to GO BIG on this one! I don't/can't even think about anything else since I decided to do this. But I need to determine if I'm doing a water feature or not before I get the ball rolling. This is for display in my living room. And the type of dart frog is yet to be determined.
So tell me... if it was you, would the waterfall be worth it?
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