False bottomed

[guilletto]

Im new in the frog's world and I got a dude.
What is a false bottomed, what is his use (why people built it) and the most difficult, How is it built?

[deeishealthy]

A false bottom is usually made of cut up pcv pipe that is zapstrapped to be feet on a milk crate floor, thereby raising the actual floor of your tank an inch or two. You cover it with screen then lay your substrate on top. What this allows for is drainage so that your soil doesn't end up a mud bog.

I researched and waffled back and forth about creating a false bottom. I instead went with layers. My tank from the bottom up is river rocks, screen, potting soil, coco fibre. I have a vivarium, with all live plants. The false bottom would replace the rocks. If the table or stand you have your tank on cannot take a lot of weight, or you just don't want your tank very heavy, replacing the rocks with a false bottom makes sense. I like the look of the rocks, myself. I have a tube running from the bottom of the tank (I put it in first, before the rocks) up the back and out for drainage. The screen keeps the dirt from falling into the rocks (I have four layers of screen).

I have pictures of my vivarium in my photo albums. Please feel free to have a look and comment!