New to dart frogs, first vivarium!

[Keister]

Hello all! I am new to dart frogs as I recently had to sell all my stingrays off and figured I would give dart frogs a try with the money that I made! I have started working on a 29 gallon vivarium for the frogs! I have started the background out of styrofoam that is four inches thick and will be setting four inch pots in various locations across the background and along the sides of the tank with expanding foam. All will be shaped and them sealed with black caulking and covered in Eco earth. I plan on running a water fall through the background and down the piece of ghost wood that I plan on placing in the vivarium. I plan on having an inch to inch and a half of fluorite planting gravel as a false bottom and then four to four and a half inches of tree fern and Eco earth mixed with a leaf litter on top of that. I will have a little water dish off in one corner for a place for the frogs to bring the tads if I were to miss any eggs... It will be heavily planted with bromeliads and and ferns and mosses. It will have a t-5 grow light on it for the plants and will have a monsune mister misting it ten times a day to make sure my humidity is in check unless that is too much? Last but not least I plan on getting the green and bronze darts to put into the vivarium. If anyone has any suggestions or can offer any good advice or make any alterations to the design I am all ears! I know stingrays but dart frogs are completely new to me! Pics will be up tomorrow! Thankyou all!

[DartEd]

Welcome to the board. D. Auratus is a great dart just don't over crowd. Your tank set up sounds really nice the only thing I would change is the false bottom. I'd go closer to 2 inches and keep water to 1" -1.5". this helps avoid soil and root rot. I know I speak for the majority when I say, take lots of pictures of your progress and post them in the vivarium section. We love to see people's progress and if you run into a wall, there are plenty of viv builders here that can help break that wall down. You'll find the hobby very rewarding.

[Keister]

Thanks! I will start with pics once I get out of school! I am really looking forward to this new hobby as it crushed me to have to sell my rays off... So are you saying two inches of false bottom and four inches of Eco earth and tree fern soil on top of that?

[DartEd]

It all depends on how deep of a water feature you plan on keeping. I wouldn't want the water level to meet the soil. If your plant roots sit in water, the roots begin to rot causing plants to die and all kinds of funky odors to eminate from the viv. 1.5" for drainage layer is good if you keep the standing water down to about an inch. Keep in mind dart frogs are indifferent about water features. While they do help keep humidity up a bit, the drainage layer under the viv without a feature will do the same.

[Keister]

The background and side ground are almost done. I just have to fill a few cracks with spray foan, mold the piece of wood into it, and place the pots and then it's ready to be sealed and covered! I may cut the water feature then I just figured it would be kinda neat looking. I left room for a two inch false bottom and a four inch Eco earth/tree fern mix ontop of that. I will use an inch of standing water in the bottom then too. What's everyone think so far anything I should change now before I get too far into it? A local breeder here does the green and bronze darts and I figured I would get them? How many could this tank hold? It will have lots of cover and hiding places too if that makes any difference?

[DartEd]

The background looks great so far. Nice job. You can keep a pair of D. Auratus safely in an enclosure that large. I'd be careful with keeping more. The females tend to be very territorial and can be aggressive towards other females. If you do decide to keep a third try to ensure that at least 2 out of the three are males as they tend to be less aggressive. Make sure you include some good tall branches etc for climbing as they love to climb high when they call.

[flybyferns]

The background and side ground are almost done. I just have to fill a few cracks with spray foan, mold the piece of wood into it, and place the pots and then it's ready to be sealed and covered! I may cut the water feature then I just figured it would be kinda neat looking. I left room for a two inch false bottom and I will use an inch of standing water in the bottom then too. What's everyone think so far anything I should change now before I get too far into it? A local breeder here does the green and bronze darts and I figured I would get them? How many could this tank hold? It will have lots of cover and hiding places too if that makes any difference?

Hi Keister ,
Have you considered using ABG .. instead of "a four inch Eco earth/tree fern mix on top of that."
This soil mixture will support the pants nicely ,

EDIT ( plants )
Lynn

[J Teezy]

For the price of the monsoon mister you can get the standard mistking setup, but I would get the Ultimate kit with zip drip valve. You will thank me later

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[flybyferns]

For the price of the monsoon mister you can get the standard mistking setup, but I would get the Ultimate kit with zip drip valve. You will thank me later

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Keister
It looks great !
I agree with Josh
Seriously, consider the mist king
http://www.mistking.com/Starter-Mist...tem-MKMSN.html
I can't imagine being without it
Lynn

[J Teezy]

So what I think I am getting from this is, to make these guys group frogs you need a lot of space for them to kind of spread out? I think not having a lot in this tank could be made up for by them successfully breeding and getting new frogs out of them! I just think it would be awesome if I could get them to breed, lay eggs, have the tads, and then have those tads successfully make the transformation into baby frogs! I think you guys have swayed me into getting the mistking supreme kit..... I am looking at dropping over $400 just into making this vivarium right hahaha oh well whatcha gonna do!

I hope by this you are saying you are anxious about the life cycle of a frog and not getting into this for the means to try and breed frogs to just sell offspring.

By supreme mistking kit are you meaning the Ultimate www.mistking.com/ultimate-misting-system.html

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[Keister]

I hope by this you are saying you are anxious about the life cycle of a frog and not getting into this for the means to try and breed frogs to just sell offspring.

By supreme mistking kit are you meaning the Ultimate www.mistking.com/ultimate-misting-system.html

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Oh no that's not it at all. I find dart frogs quite beatiful and fascinating and it amazes me that such little creatures can have such vibrant and bold colorations and I just feel a sence of personal achievement whenever I am able to successfully get something to breed, like I have accomplished something. I got into stingrays for how beautiful and majestic they are, they can have such fascinating colorations and patterns and the way they swim just drew me into them. Making money and selling baby dart frogs has nothing to do with me wanting to get these guys at all. I like to expand my knowledge as much as possible regarding animals because I am just fascinated with the way things live and interact and carry on their lives. I have had and breed various different animals and fish and I have never gotten into amphibians at all and we got two dart frogs in at my work from a local breeder and that was it, I was sold. I now contacted the breeder and am lining up two green and bronze darts and they will be my new babies. I am putting their Viv on my night stand so I can watch them while I lay in bed hahaha. I watch the darts at work every free second I get because of I am just mezmorized while i watch them! So no I am not getting into darts for the idea of breeding and selling but rather for their natural beauty and majesty. Oh ya sorry that's the mistking I'm getting I thought it was called the supreme my fault.

[Keister]

Sorry for the double post but what should I use in the way of lighting for this?

[J Teezy]

i couldn't be happier with the Jungle Dawn 13w LED bulbs. Great light output and bring out the color in my plants

[DartEd]

The jungle dawn lights are great if you wanna go higher end. On the lower end you can use 4500k to 6000k rated cfl bulbs. They keep things warm and provide perfect lighting for good plant growth.

[Heatheranne]

Pretty . Very nice!

[Keister]

Thanks everyone! I am glad everyone likes it I wasn't sure what everyone would think of it considering you see those huge beautiful vivs! I just wanted to make it as pretty as I could with what I have to work with and I just wanted to make one of those beautiful vivs just on a smaller scale... I really want it to grow in I think that will make it look even better. I left the left log pretty bare, except the brom on the end, so I can put another type of brom on there to grow in to give it even more color!

[J Teezy]

The big brom in the middle looks out of place. If it were me i would move it to one of the ends of the tanl in the back corner or take it out completely. Just my opinion. Its the first thing that catches my eye and having it in the middle and upfront like that just seems out of balance to me

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[Keister]

The big brom in the middle looks out of place. If it were me i would move it to one of the ends of the tanl in the back corner or take it out completely. Just my opinion. Its the first thing that catches my eye and having it in the middle and upfront like that just seems out of balance to me

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Ok I can do that! I can move it to the right side on the background. Thanks for the advise! Well I just hooked up my mistking and the whole thing is defective the pump leaks from a fitting and the zipdrip valve doesn't prevent the mist heads from dripping at all and the wiring is all messed up. The pump doesn't turn on unless you hold the connector from the zipdrip valve to the pump connector and you have to jiggle the wires and the pump just cuts in and out. Even when you by pass the zipdrip valve you have to do the same thing with the connectors only to receive the same result. I emailed mistking and hope they will correct this problem and I have faith that they will. It is a really nice pump and set up but I think this one may just be a lemon at least I hope so anyway! I will give and update on what I hear back from them! Anyone else ever have anything like this happen?

[J Teezy]

Ok I can do that! I can move it to the right side on the background. Thanks for the advise! Well I just hooked up my mistking and the whole thing is defective the pump leaks from a fitting and the zipdrip valve doesn't prevent the mist heads from dripping at all and the wiring is all messed up. The pump doesn't turn on unless you hold the connector from the zipdrip valve to the pump connector and you have to jiggle the wires and the pump just cuts in and out. Even when you by pass the zipdrip valve you have to do the same thing with the connectors only to receive the same result. I emailed mistking and hope they will correct this problem and I have faith that they will. It is a really nice pump and set up but I think this one may just be a lemon at least I hope so anyway! I will give and update on what I hear back from them! Anyone else ever have anything like this happen?

When i first got my mistking (a year ago about) i had some issues. I had a leak at the output of the pump where water would spray out from the fitting where it connected to the main pump body and also the same thing on the zip drip valve with a leak spray at one of its fittings. Marty did some trouble shooting with me of having me wrap the fitting threads in teflon tape and reattach them. That didn't work so Marty sent me his UPS number for me to send back my pump and zip drip at his expense and he sent me out a new pump and zip drip that same day that he personally tested himself to make sure it was leak free. Stuff like this happens, no products are made to 100% perfection everytime. Marty's thoughts were that maybe the torque setting on his tool that they use to attach the fittings go messed up and may have stripped out the fitting a tiny bit causing the spray leaks. I never hesitate to buy any misting products from Marty because he stands behind his product 110%. He is one of the few people that make products in the business that I never hesitate to talk with. Same goes for Tony at Ecozone Vivarium Controllers, Josh's Frogs is pretty good as well, Mike Rizzo of glassboxtropicals, and Todd at lightyourreptiles. You'll love that Mistking once you get it up and running at full steam. I just recently changed out my standard nozzles to the premiums for the less bulky look. Should have went with the from the start!

[Keister]

When i first got my mistking (a year ago about) i had some issues. I had a leak at the output of the pump where water would spray out from the fitting where it connected to the main pump body and also the same thing on the zip drip valve with a leak spray at one of its fittings. Marty did some trouble shooting with me of having me wrap the fitting threads in teflon tape and reattach them. That didn't work so Marty sent me his UPS number for me to send back my pump and zip drip at his expense and he sent me out a new pump and zip drip that same day that he personally tested himself to make sure it was leak free. Stuff like this happens, no products are made to 100% perfection everytime. Marty's thoughts were that maybe the torque setting on his tool that they use to attach the fittings go messed up and may have stripped out the fitting a tiny bit causing the spray leaks. I never hesitate to buy any misting products from Marty because he stands behind his product 110%. He is one of the few people that make products in the business that I never hesitate to talk with. Same goes for Tony at Ecozone Vivarium Controllers, Josh's Frogs is pretty good as well, Mike Rizzo of glassboxtropicals, and Todd at lightyourreptiles. You'll love that Mistking once you get it up and running at full steam. I just recently changed out my standard nozzles to the premiums for the less bulky look. Should have went with the from the start!

Yes he seems like a great guy! I look forward to giving him more business in the future! The wiring is the main issue with my pump and that requires a complete redo so he is just sending me a new pump and zipdrip valve! Like I said before excellent customer service!