Help Planting live plants.

[Psychotic]

I just got my tree frogs (Leptopelis Uluguruensis) a couple of days ago. They are in quarantine at the moment and will be for a while. But I've been working on their permanent home. I would like to plant live plants within their temperature and humidity range (any suggestions?). I've been looking around and decided to just get a small tropical mix from Josh's Frogs. Unless I get any better suggestions.
My question is concerning the planting of these plants. Should I make a water table in my tank (layered substrate)? Or will they be alright planted right into the substrate with no water table. Or should I just leave them in the pots they come in and water them in their pots?

I've never used live plants before so any help would be appreciated.

Also, if I don't use live plants, what are some fake plants that would be good? Brands and such?

[deranged chipmunk]

A drainage layer is really a necessity with live plants for a few reasons. Without a drainage layer, whether it be a false bottom or hydroton, after misting and such, the tank will become a bog. The water table allows the soil to drain, saving the roots of your plants from rotting. It also allows you to drain off any excess water.
You can then plant the directly into your substrate or leave them in their pots. Just remember that if you leave them in their pots, most likely they will become rootbound and you'll have to replant them. Think of it like living in a small box. You would want room to move and so do a plants roots.

[Psychotic]

Thank you for the quick replay. I've been leaning towards doing that. One question though. Is a waterfall necessary?

[deranged chipmunk]

While a waterfall will help keep humidty levels up, it's not necessary. They are more for looks than anything. Start simple, you can always build something more complex as your skills increase.

[HerpDerp]

I started out with my pacman frog keeping the plants in small pots. The problem with this is that you have to either struggle with keeping the pots covered so it looks more natural or you just have pots hanging around that just don't look natural. My plants also got pretty root bound and started dying because of poor drainage. Since your frogs are in a different enclosure right now I strongly suggest going all out before putting them in it. Once they're in there it's going to be a lot more complicated to make improvements with it.

A false bottom is a great idea for a tropical set up. I had a post a while back about different things to do with a false bottom that was immensely helpful. I had someone suggest putting an aquarium heater in the bottom to heat the water which in turn heats the tank with a moist heat. I decided not to do that because I have a white's tree frog and they aren't as sensitive. But this may be a good idea for you. And with a false bottom you can plant your plants directly into the substrate and not worry about uprooting them to change substrate. With proper drainage you would very rarely have to change substrate.

As for plants, I'm not that sure of specific plants but I can tell you what I use. I have pothos and two kinds of dracaena and they absolutely love the humidity. Unless you plan on using a plant bulb or a UV bulb I suggest you find plants that like high humidity and don't require much sunlight. And rather than buying plants specifically for vivariums you can always go to a hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot and check out their tropical plant section. I get all my plants from there. Just Make sure to wash the roots and the leaves to get any fertilizer and pesticides off of them. I would love to see pictures when you're done!

[Psychotic]

A heater sounds like a good idea. I was going to use a uv light just for the plants. But I do have extra UTH's laying around after changing my snakes to a rack system with flexwatt. The room where the tank is doesn't get much natural light. I had to get a bulb for my aquarium plant by because even though they are low light, they kept dying. They are thriving now. Maybe I can switch between the light and UTH for night and day since these frogs need a little humidity increase at night, but lower temps.

Does this sound like a good idea? Light for day and UTH at night. I've read my frogs only need around 78°F during the day.

[HerpDerp]

If you do a false bottom then the UTH cannot be used on the bottom. The water on the bottom reacting with the heat from the UTH could cause the glass to crack. You would need to make sure it's on the side, away from the water. What I was talking about is a small aquarium heater to put in the water in the false bottom. UTHs tend to not be very reliable with keeping temps so maybe another heat source would be better? Then again if you already some laying around, why not give it a try?

[Psychotic]

One more question for now. I have a exo terra and I was wondering if the water in the false bottom will mess up the foam background that came with it?

[deranged chipmunk]

first off, as far as plants go. Josh's and a few others have excellent selections. i can point you in the right direction if you want to expand your plant inventory. as far as home depot and lowes plants goes, they use a grower names Angel Exotics. they grow really nice quality plants, but beware, some of them will outgrow a viv rather quickly. so research the plants before you buy. fittonia, pilea, peperomia and dracena are all good, easy to care for plants that should stay a decent size. another option is to find a garden center that sells terrarium plants. mini terrariums are all the new rage in suburban america these days and more and more garden centers are starting to cater to that part of the hobby. if you are still stuck, let me know what you are looking for and i can ship you some, just cover my expenses.
as far as heaters are concerned, i am a big fan of aquarium heaters under a false bottom, but that is probably because i am an old aquarium guy and it's all about consistency in that hobby. if you have uth's laying around, by all means, use them. just remember to place the heater on a DRY side of the enclosure. a side where there is no water feature. and keep it about 2" above the false bottom. i'm not a big fan of those ceramic heat emitters due to the humidity that rises from the tank. moisture, heat and electricity bad!!LOL

now, as far as your background, a few options. remove it and build your own, remove it, cut it down to the false bottom height and re-silicone it, or just build the false bottom to mate up with it and it can have a sort of "dug in" look. be creative, go nuts!!

[HerpDerp]

What I ended up doing was cutting the background so that it fit perfectly on top of the false bottom. The backgrounds are textured so trying to fit the false bottom to it without having gaps for substrate to fall through would have been such a headache. I saved the cut background for use in the future... I just haven't decided what use it has!

[deranged chipmunk]

I forgot.....here's an example of what i am talking about when i said terrarium plants. This is my white's tank that i just re-planted using mostly terrarium plants

[Psychotic]

Just got done shopping at Lowes. I got three little plants that look easy to trim. I wanted some ferns and a vine of some sort, but didn't see any I liked. Would like some moss too. I have java moss in
my aquarium but not enough to share with the frogs.

[deranged chipmunk]

ooooohhhhh, new plants!! whatcha get?? huh? huh? okay, i'm probably one of the few men on this planet who gets excited about new plants....lol and uh, what kind of moss do you want? i have flame, stringy, spikey, fissidens and i might even have some xmas moss in a tank in my kid's room....LOL

[Psychotic]

I got a Dracaena, Peperomia, and a Pothos. I figured they should be easy to trim back. I'm going to add some fake vines I have and let the Pothos climb it.

I'm going to start drawing some ideas of how I'm going to decorate.

Also, at the store I seen this really pretty
light pink grass looking plant. I didn't get it because I didn't know if it might harm my frogs in any way. Kinda wish I had gotten it anyway just to have as a house plant.

[deranged chipmunk]

You made good choices. You could also go with a nice philodendron as well. Also, depending on what you plant to keep as a humidity level, you can use some aquatic plants. Quite a few will grow emersed, and actually prefer to be grown at the edge of the waterline where the soil is the most soggy. Bacopa monnieri is good for that, so are most of the cryptocoryne species. Bacopa will grow nice and will sprout small white flowers when it gets close enough to the light.

[Psychotic]

I have some Bacopa. Didn't even think of using it. Thanks for the idea!

[Psychotic]

Today I got working on my tank. I still need some mesh and I need to cut notches in the bottom of my pipes. But other than that I'm nearly ready to start getting things put together.

Here are some pictures of the plastic egg crate stuff. With a couple of things in there for reference of where I'm going to be putting stuff. I made a few different levels and made an open area for water. I'll be putting rocks and stuff in there. Don't worry I won't drown my froggies! I intend for it to be very shallow.





Can anyone recommend a good but cheap little water heater? I found a mini one at the pet store but I didn't know if I could lay it on it's side or not. They also had some for betta fish that were tiny. But I don't know much of anything about aquarium heaters.

Any help is welcome.

[deranged chipmunk]

Looking great ashley!! As far as heaters go, glass tube heaters can be placed in any position. Stay away from those betta bowl heaters, they tend to short out easily.

[Psychotic]

FINISHED!

I'm going to put some black fabric on the sides so the frogs can't see through it. But so far it's pretty much finished.

[Heatheranne]

Very pretty