The false bottom for a small section of terrain?

[Rukufox]

I was thinking that for a future viv that I would do something that's 3/4 water and a land section. Assuming there is some sort of division via some sort of acryllic or something, would the land part still need a false bottom of sorts. I would think that it would, but would that just make the set up complicated? I was thinking of maybe having four or five inches of water though I would have to decide what I would put in there(I was thinking a vietnamese mossy frog) before making any big decisions. Any tips/ thoughts/ conserns? Much love and thanks in advance. <3

[Mentat]

Seen them both ways with & without false bottom.

If no false bottom the soil part section used a silicone glued glass divider to keep it dry and separate from water section.

Seen one with false bottom at local Pet Shop. A 3 in. layer of hydroballs raised soil above water level and there was plastic window screening material between soil and hydroballs to prevent mixing. Hydroballs were separated from water area by a "wall" made of plastic decor and the black expending foam. That wall was not water proof and allowed water to go into the hydroball section where a hidden pump moved water up and into a small stream on land area feeding the water area. You can also do a false bottom with other materials (i.e. eggcrate found on hardware store lighting section) as long as they are frog safe.

[thadmy]

I've used a piece of glass siliconed in between for a turtle tank that had a land feature and it worked great never had to worry about the water mixing. only down side to the glass divider is that it takes more space up to make a gradual slope into the water where as with just raising the land above the water you don't need as much space to slope the land into the water.

If that makes any sense haha

[Rukufox]

I'll probably section it off so the water can't intermix with the false bottom. Do you think I could use three inches of sanatized pea gravel? Also would I have to have some kind of pump to pull any collected water out of there? With the first tank I did, I made a false bottom, but I just used bamboo that was just beginning to root to absorb all of the water down there. The roots expanded so now it's covering about half of the bottom of the tank even though it is just a ten gallon. Do you think I could do that again, or should I try something else?

[Savannah]

idk if this will help any, but i have a false bottom on my vivarium.
What I did was use a plastic egg carton, that you can get at a home depot. we just cut it to size and ziptied the ends together, then used window screen to cover it. Then I just used s expandable foam for terrian and sealed it with a 100% silicone caulk. Just thought i'd throw that out there. Hope it may help.

[Rukufox]

That actually did, thanks
But does anyone else think that the bamboo thing is a good idea?

[rivkah]

Hi,

As if you need more to think about.... For my vivariums I use cork slabs to divide the water from the land. I silicone the cork to the side and bottom of the tank in a wavy, not staight way. Since it is not water tight, I use hydro balls instead of gravel, as a drainage layer and to hold down the weight. I fill it to basically the top of the cork, cover this with window screening to keep the soil from leaching into the hydro balls. Since the cork has such a great texture, I don't need to cover it up. The cork gives a great finished, natural look that I cant seem to achieve with glass partitions. Also, since it is not water tight, it increases the water volume therefore keeping the water quality more stable.

My most recent vivarium is a well planted 35g hex with a creek and waterfall into 7-8 deep pond to house 2 firebelly newts and 6 white clouds (fish). If I knew how to attach pictures I would include some.

[rivkah]

Okay, here goes nothing... here are pictrures for my 35hex since "a picture is worth a 1000 words"




let me know if these pictures help you understand what I was tryping to say

[rivkah]

Oops... I shoud have removed the silly little plastic turlte first (ha)....



This is another angle, which shows the cork slab a little better. The piece of cork that I used for this particular tank (35hex, 18"x18") was only $12.00 at a rept show.

[Rukufox]

Oh wow yeah I do, very nice set up by the way! I think the tutle add charisma.