My daughter's terrarium

[Heatheranne]

Very nice .

[Nick Major]

Love the step-by-step pics, and the finished article is great! Where do you get the meshed plastic? I am looking for something similar to use with my frogs and have struggled to find something similar (in NZ).

[Calmwaters]

Very nice!

[flybyferns]

Davey,
Welcome to Frog Forum !
That's a great job!

Please continue to come back to this thread to post more photos.
Keep us up to date on how things are coming along.
I can't wait to see more.

It will always be YOUR "build thread"

Lynn

[DaveyFig]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to look and comment. We keep going back to Josh's Frogs and reading the same things over and over on each species. We think all of the dart frogs are awesome, we just haven't narrowed it down much yet. We want something active and brightly colored to contrast the greens of the tank, and something that does well in groups. Other than that we are open to anything. Thoughts?

About the hood...It had a few gaps in it where it hinges. I siliconed a strip of screenover the whole hinged area, creating a sort of mesh piano hinge. Just to keep things inside. Is there a reason I couldn't leave the hood light in the "on" position and plug it into an on/off timer?

Nick, the mesh is just from a roll of nylon window screen. I used three layers. The first layer covers that false bottom grate and keeps the gravel on the sides and back from getting in underneath. Once that was in place, we poured gravel in around the false bottom up to the same level as the top grate of the false bottom. The other 2 layers are between the false bottom.

[deranged chipmunk]

oh, most definitely, if it has a 2 pole switch. i have about 10 old strip lights, half of them have 2 pole switches (like a regular light switch), but quite a few have the old style single pole momentary push switches. like the high beam switches on old cars. those obviously can't be used. i just thought i would mention it because i have people in the past (on another forum) ask, "why won't my light work with a timer".

Dendrobates Leucomelas are great beginner darts and do well in groups. they are also semi-arboreal, so they wouldn't mind having some vertical spaces to climb up on. if you do go with darts, you may consider replacing the lid with an all glass one. the tank needs to be almost sealed. you'll need to keep humidity in the 80%+ ranges. they don't need a lot of ventilation like tree frogs do, but they do need the humidity.

[DaveyFig]

Thanks again!
Honestly, the lid is almost completely sealed except for the seams. The light hood is separate, and sits on top of a glass panel . Only one section (that I cut out for the fish filter) is open. I put screen over that too, but will seal it off if that is the recommendation.

[flybyferns]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to look and comment. We keep going back to Josh's Frogs and reading the same things over and over on each species. We think all of the dart frogs are awesome, we just haven't narrowed it down much yet. We want something active and brightly colored to contrast the greens of the tank, and something that does well in groups. Other than that we are open to anything. Thoughts?

About the hood...It had a few gaps in it where it hinges. I siliconed a strip of screenover the whole hinged area, creating a sort of mesh piano hinge. Just to keep things inside. Is there a reason I couldn't leave the hood light in the "on" position and plug it into an on/off timer?

Nick, the mesh is just from a roll of nylon window screen. I used three layers. The first layer covers that false bottom grate and keeps the gravel on the sides and back from getting in underneath. Once that was in place, we poured gravel in around the false bottom up to the same level as the top grate of the false bottom. The other 2 layers are between the false bottom.

Check out the: leucs
D. leucomelas
They are ALWAYS out and about! They can be kept in small groups!
Adorable and very entertaining !
Lynn

[Louis Charles Bruckner]

I love the tank,
On the question about the lights being controlled by a timer.
Most modern florescent lights have a automatic ballast.
So do this simple test.
turn on the lights.
then grip the plug and pull it out of the wall socket.
then wait 15 seconds or so and plug it back in.
If the light comes back on then you can use a timer.
I have a combo of LED lights and florescent lights on my setup.
The LED lights are RGB LEDS that can provide Red Green Blue light in any combo
I want.
So for day time I power up all for white light.
and for night I just power the red with a lower voltage.
just enough light for me to see in and not too bright as I have heard that red light
can hurt the frogs eyes.