A little over half a year ago I rescued some beautiful Leopard Frog tadpoles from a local bait shop. I raised these guys on fish food, assuming I would maybe get one or two to morph. Fortunately, all of them did. Unfortunately, I also had two escape along the way. Fortunately, the two survivors are thriving, and have outgrown their "bachelor pad" - a standard 10gl shown elsewhere.
"The Plan" was to create a sort of biotope vivarium. A snapshot of the environment in which these frogs are normally found here in my home state of Oklahoma. I researched our native plantlife and found that most of it would not be suited to a vivarium enclosure. We do have Maidenhair ferns, an "analogue" of which I picked up at a garden center, and I opted for Pothos and later Philodendron to act as my main plants. I have -considered- taking cuttings off of a patch of Kudzu vine we have on our lot. No, kudzu is not native, but it is a very strong part of the Southern landscape.
I started with an Aquatech 29gl starter kit that's been kicking around my home for about ten years. It's previously housed numerous aquatic and semi-aquatic critters over the years, and is being put to it's final use. This kit is a standard 29gl, with a fitted lid and additional fluorescent hood. I have plans to "retrofit" the hood to hold either a small LED strip, or a couple of CFLs - should the plants prove that they need more lighting.
I started with four cans of GS, and two tubes of GE "Window And Door" 100% - for my setup I got one in black and one in brown. So far I've used 2.5 cans of GS. LET THIS BE A LESSON: Start with twice the amount of supplies you -think- you'll need. Cold weather effects the expansion of GS. It will tend to "Flow" rather than "puff", and I used an entire can on a very small area. After the initial failure, yes, I did my GS in the house. I've done it before, and as long as I kept a vent fan on in the bathroom I did not notice the smell anywhere else in the house. I DO NOT SUGGEST anyone do that, though.
The waterfall for the water feature is "carved" from Styrofoam. Specifically a thermal shipping box. I attempted to carve some small basins into it, but largely wanted it to flow easily to avoid algae growth. It is backed with GS foam to close up any remaining fissures, and is going to be fully coated in silicone and sand, as well as some sandstone chip. I may also include some crushed slate to add color, and some pea gravel.
Here is the full tank - so far. Essentially all I have left is the "coating" process, testing the water-tightness of the setup, and installing the pump for the waterfall. The area around the base of the waterfall will hold a filtration pack (made by myself) and will be surrounded with siliconed-in pieces of sandstone to finish the look. The pond feature will have a couple of inches of pebble and sand, and will be planted with some low-maintenance aquatic plants, as well as housing wild-type guppies. For some reason the frogs don't eat them. Go figure?
The background will be coated with silicone and various bark chips, fibers and moss. The plants intended for the setup are a lot of cuttings from my Pothos, a rusty-tinged Philodendron, maidenhair fern, and Peacock moss. The water feature will contain Ludwigia, hairgrasses, duckweed and Azolla. The "Ugly ends" showing on the outside of the tank will get a special treatment with a few coats of high-gloss black acrylic paint. Between that and the silicone coating, nothing should "show".
I have not had problems with the 10gl holding moisture, so I doubt the larger space will cause trouble either. Because of that I'm not going to worry about hydroton or river rock under my substrate. For substrate I'm going with a mix of vivarium soil, and coco-fiber, with some added bark chips and leaves.
For the curious, the water feature will also have some delicately stair-stepped rocks to ensure the frogs can -very- easily climb out of the water.
I hope to get to the coating process in the next couple of days.