Well, I did it!

[Sarosaurus]

I just couldn't wait any longer to spruce up my frog tank, so I drove around for about an hour to pick up the things I would need to get this done! Once I got home and got to work, it took me about an hour to an hour and a half to complete this project.

Supplies

• 24x18x18 Exo-Terra Terrarium
• Potting Soil
• Zilla Fir & Sphagnum substrate
• Flukers 8qt. moss
• Window Screen material
• Zilla/Mag-Naturals Mushroom Ledges
• Large aquarium gravel
• Live plants
• Aquarium background
• Velcro
• Water Dish
• Vines and branches
• Tape

Prep Work

• Remove the frogs from the tank
• Remove substrate and other decorations
• Wipe down bottom/sides of tank to remove any debris

Getting down to Business!!


This is my pathetic little set up BEFORE I did any real work on it. I had been planning on rearranging everything when the bug for completely re-doing the tank hit me. I left it like this and headed into town to get everything that I would need.


All of my supplies! 10lb. bag of potting soil (I didn't use all of it), moss, window screen material, Velcro, gravel (all 50lbs of it), plants and mushroom ledges!


Artemis and Apollo were removed as well as all other decorations. All that is left to do is remove substrate and wipe down the tank!


While I had the tank moved away from the wall, I got to work taping on the background. I used electrical tape as it blended in with the black trim of the tank nicely.


After blocking off about an inch of the front of the tank, I poured in both bags of gravel and smoothed it out until it was pretty even.


After several attempts to cut the screen down, I finally got it the size that I wanted it.


Screen is laid on top of the rocks. I won't lie, I had a hard time getting it behind the boxes and eventually had to pull them out and shove the rocks back. I managed to get the screen tucked under the rocks and get everything just right for the moss/dirt mixture in the front.


I removed the boxes and put the moss & dirt mixture in the front. It keeps it looking a little nicer now that you won't see the rock layer from the front. Then, on top of the screen material, I put some potting soil down. I think I put about an inch down. It's from a local nursery where they make up their own mix. There's no chemical fertilizers in it. On top of the potting soil, I put down the fir & sphagnum mix. It was the stuff I originally had in the tank. I only put it in a week ago and didn't want to waste it.


Live plant time! I ended up not using the purple one because it didn't look like it was doing too well. When I pulled it out of the pot, it only had one root attached to it. I wasn't sure if it would survive in the tank.


Everything's planted! I ended up moving the moss in the back left corner to the front and moved the Spider plant to the back. Add in the obscenely large water dish, and it's looking more like home!


Time for the mushroom ledges to go in! I used Velcro to affix them to the back wall!


Close up of ledges!


Added in the fake vine that I was using before to fill up the middle. Apollo and Artemis really seem to love this stinking thing!


Add in the twisted vine and the frogs back in!


Close up of Artemis. She seems like a happy camper in her new home. Or maybe it was the crickets that were just added?


Apollo had just caught a cricket!


Artemis looking quite regal sitting on her vine.


Happy little Apollo checking out his new digs.


The pair hanging out on one of their live plants.


Side view of all the layers. Stupid me, I forgot to add a tube where I can siphon out all the water that builds up. Will have to do that here soon.


Very blurry front view of the tank. You can kind of make out the moss covering the dirt. All of the extra went to covering it. I shall try to get a better image up in a few days.

THE END!

Hope you guys enjoy. Feel free to critique and whatnot. This was my first time doing this and any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated!

[John]

Wow what an improvement! Well done Sarah. One comment I would make is that you should be careful about letting the base of the bromeliads get too wet - they don't like to sit in water-logged substrate. Not that yours is but I thought it only fair to warn you.

[Sarosaurus]

Thank you, John. For both the compliment and the warning. I am going to see what kinds of naturalistic looking planters I can find and plant the bromeliad in that. If not, I will ne extra careful to make sure the soil isn't too water-logged.

I had a lot of fun doing this! Might try to talk my bosses into doing something like this at the pet store I work at. Or maybe even do it in our own tanks that we house animals in! Hehe.

[kueluck]

If I were a frog I would be happy to live there! I always love the real plants instead of fake.

[MonsterPyxie]

love this "build"!

[UncleChester]

Nice work! Be sure to provide updates as the plants grow.

I had a lot of fun doing this! Might try to talk my bosses into doing something like this at the pet store I work at. Or maybe even do it in our own tanks that we house animals in! Hehe.

A display tank giving ideas on what people can do with the accessories and other jazz your store sells is a great idea. You can even put a price tag on it- if it sells you get to make another

[Lacibeth]

Excellent job. I'm feeling even more inspired and now the question becomes redo Hannibal's digs before or after the move.

I've been playing w/ hanging planters to help w/ the "stair step" thing and utilize epiphytic plants--something like this Lecanopteris sinuosa

Black Jungle has these fern pots that might work for the brom Tree Fern Sqare Pot - 9"

[frogluver]

I think you did a splendid job ! I liked the step by step picture process you took us through...very nice

[Sarosaurus]

Hey guys!

Thank you for all the compliments! I have shown this to a lot of people (including my bosses) and they like it as well. I might be able to talk the head honchos into doing something like this (one already said we should)...I am going to wait for a few weeks and see how my plants do before doing anything like this at work. I want to be able to tell my customers how successful my tank has been. Haha.

I will definitely post pictures when the plants have taken off and taken over the tank!!

After doing this...I almost want to get started on the 20H that I have and turn it into a vertical tank.

And thank you for the links, Lacibeth! I will keep checking back to see when they have those pots back in stock!

[Sarosaurus]

Just an update ...

My moss died off and so did my bromeliad. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a pot for it before its demise. I will try again here soon!


On a side note, we got a tank in at work and now I want that one. It's a 36x18x36 Exo-Terra. Hahaha.

[BG]

Sorry to here that Sarah. I know that wonderful feeling you had when you finished your project. I just finished one with broms my self. The guys here told me about the broms and i did what what they said. One is tided to a driftwood. and the other on a rock. The roots are and will be dry. Your thread inspired me to do my lame wtf tank next. Thank you. I'm also going to steal your background idea.

[Sarosaurus]

Those broms are beautiful! I have seen a couple that are close to those colors that I have been thinking about getting to add to my frog's tank. When you start working on your WTF tank, you'll have to post a thread to show us what you did. =D