About to start my FBT setup - a few questions and advice please.....

[Mr Bee]

So, the plan is I'm gonna re-use my aquarium tank for some FBT's now I no longer have any fish. Today I spent a good hour scrubbing all the algae off the glass and giving it a damn good clean - its sparkling now, and I'm ready to start on my FBT build.


I'm going to use a glass divider to split it in something like a 50/50 or 60/40 water:land ratio, with the water side around 4" deep. Under the water side, is it important to use large grade gravel (is ther a risk of the FBT swallowing small pieces?), or does this only apply on land for when feeding?

For the background, I know a few have used foam or terrarium backgrounds, which are then sealed with pond sealant to stop them rotting. If I use the Lucky Reptile Celta background, it says they are suitable for aquarium use, so presumably they are waterproof and wouldn't need sealing?

LR Background Celta 58x38cm - Backgrounds - Vivarium Decor - Blue Lizard Reptiles - Reptile Shop

Also, does the background need to be stuck to the rear glass pane with aquarium sealant, or is it ok just to kind of wedge it in place? I am probably just gonna cut a slot in the background to fit over where the glass divider will be.


For the land side, I understand its important to have some drainage area to stop the land substrate getting water logged. What is the best method for doing this.....
There's the eggcrate stuff, and then there's these hydroballs..... which is good to use? Do I just make a few layers of the hydroballs or eggcrate with the substrate sat on top, then fix some sort of tubing into the bottom of the drainage are and siphon off every so often as any water builds up? I've seen a few builds where these hydroballs have been used, with some sort of white sheeting between the layers - what is this sheeting? is it something particular?


In terms of substrate, what do people tend to use? There seems to be loads of options......... ZooMed Eco Earth & Forest Floor, Exo Terra Jungle Earth & Plantation Soil, Lucky Reptile Jungle Bedding, T Rex Forest Bed & Jungle Bed.......
I was just gonna use Eco Earth I think - would you all agree this is OK for FBT's?


Then to cover the substrate and stop it getting muddy or all dragged into the water I though I'd cover it with either large pebbles (but then there's a problem of crickets hiding between them), or some sort of moss.
Are ther any particular mosses which are reccommended, or which should be avoided? All I've read so far is to avoid using sphagnum moss, as it can be ingested when eating crickets. What about this Zoo Med Frog Moss (ZooMed All Natural Frog Moss 1.3L - Mosses - Substrates - Blue Lizard Reptiles - Reptile Shop)? It says it comes back to life, or is there something else more reccommended?


Thanks for any advice you can give me on this, I'll update with pics as and when I get stuff done on my setup.

[Mr Bee]

Bump!

No opinions on wether my plans are good or bad?

I'm gonna put a small internal filter in there mainly to keep the water free of debris and stop stagnation, is it possible my toads might get sucked in and maybe get their toes stuck or anything? Should the filter be shielded with rocks?

[missfrogger]

though i'm fairly new to fbts myself, it sounds to me like you have a pretty good idea planned for your tank. i'm still learning, but i would suggest against eco-earth to save you from cleaning out your water frequently and instead use a type of moss to cover the land area (i want to say java is okay to use). i don't know how well it will do with the toads jumping in and out of the water.

on my first tank i had a layer of aquarium rocks about 1/4 inch, then a thin layer of charcoal, just enough to cover the rocks. from there i put sphagnum moss on top of it and i can't remember what on top of that, but on the water side it was about 6 in deep with aquarium rocks on the bottom. the aquarium rocks didn't seem to bother/pose a threat to the fbts as mine didn't open their mouth under water.

a lot of the setups i've seen have a filter, but they also disguise it as a waterfall - again, not sure if it will be a hazard to fbts, but i would build up around it as much as i could without causing it to be inefficient.

hopefully i helped a little bit! be sure to post pictures, and good luck. =)

[ApxWingman]

I used the false bottom method with eggcrate. I found that is really easy to use (I did not make a divider, but I used eggcrate to divide)
Here is the link to my build.
http://www.frogforum.net/fire-belly-...rst-setup.html

The water drains into the water that is throughout the entire tank and I have a filter to clean out the water. I used cocofibre for substrate and put moss over the top of the cocofibre. I am not experianced with the hydroball method.

[Badger]

eggcrate is what I just used as well, it is really easy to do and is probably the best way of doing a drainage layer. As long as you have a good filter than eco earth shouldn't be a problem, I think. But either way you can use leaf litter on top of it and it will cut back on dirtiness.

[ApxWingman]

I agree, I will be taking out the cocofibre and using just moss. Even though I have moss as a top layer over the cocofibre, it is making the water dirty up a bit, so I will change it along with the water to get it clean again, or atleast cleaner. It is not too bad though. Eggcrate was cheap (not sure pricing on hydroballs) and easy to do, and easy to build a background with if you want to make ledges, and other things.

[badkelpie]

You can use any gravel at the bottom of the pond, they don't try to eat things on the bottom of the water. One way I set up my tank once was to put about 5" of water in a tank, a filter, and made the land area out of rocks, a few big rocks as a foundation (hide the filter in there), and a big flat rock over the top. Stick a couple pothos or bamboo (or both) in the water, wedged in by the rocks, and you have a fire belly tank. I did this because the dirt/moss kept dirtying the water, the water/rock setup eliminates that. Crickets die easily in this setup, but I was using mostly lobster roaches at the time (roaches are smarter than crickets).

Right now, I have a different setup. I have about a 5" deep bowl (about 10" across) to make a pond, and land area made out of big gravel, and a couple fake plants stuck in the gravel, and some moss. Every few days, scoop out some water, and add fresh. They like this setup, the seem to like more "land" and it's more cricket friendly.