Losing my mind with tank filters

[Duriel]

Custom setup in 40G breeder. Box in the upper left was meant to have a hole in it connected to PVC to route the clean water over to the right and dump beneath the water, to give a slight crossflow (also meaning the filter wouldn't suck up freshly cleaned water and to eliminate the noise and splashing, though the frogs don't seem to care. One even lets the water splash down on her head as she floats). Hard to see in the pic, but this plan didn't work as the plexiglass was none too happy with the holesaw bit. Ramp has gravel siliconed to it for traction and is supported by a piece of PVC. The "soil box" is supported by 3 pieces of PVC. Triangular support is very strong, looks neater than 4 posts (to me), and took a bit less time and material Hard to see from this pic, but the water level is about 2cm below (so they can pop their nostrils up to breathe) the bottom of that plexi-box on the right (which is filled with plain old unfertilized soil with some mondo grass planted. They seem to enjoy the natural cover, and it's the only place they will stay put if I come near. Usually there's a mad dash through the water). Still waiting on my order of 1000 <=1/2" dubias. I called and they said they shipped yesterday. I'm not sure how long they can survive in shipping, but I do hope they get here tomorrow so I can stop feeding crickets to my small army of creatures (5 juvie bullfrogs, 2 american toads, 3 ??? common tree frogs, 3 firebellied toads, and a brand new bearded dragon). I'm in love with the idea of putting some small stainless steel bowls in each enclosure with I dont know about 20 roaches and just letting them decide when they want to eat, without worrying about them hiding in ******* places or drowning themselves. Sourcing adult dubias for breeding separately, as I am sure 1000 dubias will go very quickly (mostly thanks to the dragon!)

These are all new/3-4 days old filters. Nothing building up inside yet. They just don't seem to work... That's also why I haven't cut the plexi-top to fit a filter yet, as I keep having issues and they all have different dimensions. Been looking into canister filters, but they are quite expensive. Might just say **** it and buy it anyway. Upside of that is I could just dremel (experimented with a bandsaw, and the plexiglass couldn't take it) a large window into the plexiglass and put some of this aluminum mesh in (for ventilation and for this UVB light to be effective).

A nice perk of running a canister filter would also be I could temporarily move the frogs and construct a second land section (on the left with a separate ramp). Also, I forgot my brain when I bought a heat pad for this setup... it's only 16 watts. I should have known the large quantity of water would disperse the heat so well that the pad feels like it's not even on (tested it pre-water, and it functions). Think I'll just put it on the beardie's tank bottom. The slate tiles should make use of some of my wasted money. Oh and this is Puff (crickets were removed after pic):