First frog habitat (WTF)

[rosaphile]

Some progress this morning, no photos yet but not much to show in photos. Got the egg crate false bottom in more or less, just need to cut out a hole to insert the drain pipe once the silicone on that dries. (I used silicone to adhere eco earth to it to camouflage it.)

One snag I discovered was that the thermometer/hygrometer I got isn't going to work. I realized, looking again at the package, that it reads temp and humidity at the location of the device, but only temp at the location of the probe. So I'll return that one, but not sure what to get instead. I guess I'll go back over to Petsmart and see what I can find. I'm leery of the accuracy of these things but I guess it's not critical in this application....

[rosaphile]

So here is as far as I've gotten:

This is with the false bottom installed, eco earth, fake plants and branches. I plan to put black posterboard or something around the bottom to conceal the drainage space, hence the black rectangular blob I stuck in with Paint. I am ordering a fake rock background from Josh's Frogs and I hope to put in real plants soon. Probably a bromeliad (maybe installed to the background if I can figure out how), some sort of fern, a vine to hopefully climb up the background, and one or two other plants to give a variety of textures and sizes. Goodness knows I have never done anything like this before and I don't know what plants will look good and behave well, I imagine it will be trial and error to some extent. I only put one brick of eco earth in the bottom; I'm guessing I should probably do another if I'm going to be planting in it.

So.... once I get the light hood and the thermometer/hygrometer to make sure I can get the conditions right, does this look like a decent home for a Whites Tree Frog or two?

[rosaphile]

So, it's still all fake stuff, but here it is with the frogs moved in:



I temporarily put a sheet of black posterboard on the right-hand side.

I now have the Zoo Med terrarium hood with two daylight CFLs in it, and behind it is the 8.5" Flukers clamp lamp with dimmer with a 150W heat bulb in it. Because we heat with a wood stove, the temperature in the room where the vivarium is kept fluctuates a lot. Hopefully the dimmer will help me to keep it in a good temp range.

Edit: I should say, it's all fake except for the substrate - which is just Eco Earth with a few chunks of frog moss, and sea grape leaf litter.