Terrarium cleaning routine - White's tree frog

[rosaphile]

Oh wow, thanks - I knew that White's are aggressive eaters but I was under the impression the coco husk/sphagnum were safe! I will definitely go with the eco earth type substrate instead. It definitely sounds like the false bottom setup would be the way to go, with that.

How hard is it to do the siphoning if necessary? With the egg crate bottom, is that the purpose served by the pump? And what kind of pump is that? Sorry, I'm not very "handy." It's sounding to me like it might be easier and cheaper to use the Hydroballs, but does that make for harder long-term maintenance? Does the setup ever need to be completely removed and cleaned/replaced with the Hydroballs or egg crate false bottom?

It also just occurred to me to wonder if, with the pump and egg crate setup, the pump could be set to continuously recirculate the water from the bottom over a sort of waterfall feature back into the substrate? But would that make the substrate too soggy where the water ran back down? Not sure if I'm making sense.... :/

Thanks again for the info! I know I'm full of questions but I am really excited about making a great setup!

[DonLisk]

Your definitely making sense but with the WTFs I don't think I would do a waterfall since they dirty the water pretty fast. Best bet and easiest is to just have a little excess screen in one corner that you can grab and lift slightly to slide a small hose down in. The have a bucket lower that the tank and siphon the excess off. The pump in that build is for pumping off excess water and it is a basic zoomed small pump but you need to make the suction section flat at the bottom and not sucking from the side when set up.

If you do decide on a waterfall, it can just drop back into the substrate and soak through. Usually most of us will shy away from the pumps and waterfalls for Whites just because of the extra maintenance needed to maintain the pump system.

More questions, just ask away.

[rosaphile]

Okay, thanks, I think that all makes sense to me now. I will save the waterfall idea for my next frog.

Just a couple more questions. First - I was poking around on Amazon and found an alternative to Hydroballs called "Hydroton Clay Aggregate Grow Media": Amazon.com: Hydroton Clay Aggregate Grow Media - 10 Liter Bag - HYD310: Patio, Lawn & Garden Someone writing a review on the Hydroballs said they liked this stuff better, and it looks like about half the cost. Any reason not to go with this?

Also, how do you know when there is excess water that needs to be siphoned out? And if you put a deeper layer of hydroballs will that make siphoning necessary less often?

Finally, where do you get the leaves to place on top of the substrate? Do they actually sell those in pet stores or something? I'm guessing it's not a good idea to just go out and pick up leaves from outside....

Thanks again, really appreciate the advice!

[DonLisk]

I never used that so I couldn't comment on how well it would work.

You will see the excess water at the bottom of the tank through the hydro balls or filling under the eggcrate depending on which way you go. The deep you make the false bottom the longer you can wait between draining but you may never have to drain. My Red eyed tank never has to be siphoned off while my WTF tank needed draining once a month.
I would usually have about 1 inch of water under the eggcrate in the WTF tank.

I use Joshsfrogs.com for my leaf liter. You can boil magnolia or seagrape leaves and use them but I find it easier to have Josh mail me a bag now and then. Josh has a 5.99 dry good shipping and have stuff in only a few days after ordering.

[rosaphile]

Thanks again, Don! I think that finally answers all my questions... at least for now.

Oh, and about the Hydroton - I went to check out joshsfrogs.com, and when I clicked on "substrate" that was the first thing that popped up! So apparently there are a few folks out there using it for their frogs. They don't seem to be carrying it right now, though. But it looks like one bag ($20 on Amazon) is the perfect amount to fill an 18x18 area to a depth of just under 2 inches, so - perfect!