Complete 29G Vertical

[Sarosaurus]

I apologize in advance for the images being sideways!

My old tank just wasn't cutting it anymore and so, a couple of months ago, I began the work on giving my tree livin' children an awesome home! This is the first time that I have done anything like this and I am rather proud of how it turned out. So proud, in fact, that when I am at work I cannot help but to pull out my cell phone and show my fellow herp lovers what I have created.

When I first began this project, I had read too many times that the GS foam separated from the glass after a little while. Not wanting that to happen to me, I got to applying some black silicone to the sides of the tank that were going to have the foam on them (had the tank been deeper, I would have done three sides). I ended up letting it sit for about a week, just to be on the safe side before I finally began to apply my foam. Unfortunately, the way I wanted to place my pieces of corkbark would not stay with silicone, so I ended up shoving the wood pieces into the foam and let everything dry that way. It's all pretty sturdy! After letting the foam cure for another week (maybe longer) and procrastinating some, I began the long process of gluing coconut fiber to the foam with Titebond III. Next time around, I think I will figure out another method of applying the coconut fiber.

This is the point where the tank sat for a month or two because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I, eventually, got motivated to FINALLY finish up the tank so that it wasn't sitting in the living room behind the couch anymore. Thanks to my kitties, my little tube of clear silicone had disappeared under the couch (I didn't find it until AFTER the project had been completed) so I ended up siliconing my door (my boss is the one that made my the door for the tank. It's made all out of acrylic!) with regular white silicone. Whatever it takes to get the job done, right? After a couple of days, I did some testing to make sure all the seals were good (there was a hiccup here and I had to go over the seals again because of a little leak). When it tested all clear the next round, I added two bags of ZooMed's HydroBalls. I had some leftover screen material from my last tank revamp so I used that over the HydroBalls. For the final layer, I used a mixture of coconut fiber bedding and some super awesome potting soil mix made up at a local nursery (I just need some leaf litter to cover the dirt).

I planted some lovely purple Wandering Jew in the corner. It was one plant, but was able to separate it easily to use in both pots. I found some floral mounting wire to mount my two air plants where I wanted them (I love how one piece of the air plant sticks out into the middle of the tank). Unfortunately, some of the coconut fiber has come off the background and there were some bare spots. I was trying to figure out what to do when I remembered that I had some moss in the my other tank. I used the floral mounting wire to attach the pieces I wanted to the background! It looks lovely now! I still have some spots that need to be covered, but my frogs don't like to hang out there.

I waited about three to four weeks to allow the Wandering Jew to grow in before I finally added my water bowl and frogs. There's no clean-up crew in there yet, but I plan to get some Springtails when my next payday rolls around. Apollo and Artemis love to hide out in the hollow log at the top of the tank during the day, so it looks like there is nothing in there.

Lighting is a 2.0 ExoTerra UVB bulb (6700K for plants) and I have a 24W ZooMed Heating Pad attached to the back of the tank. It currently brings the temperature up to 71 degrees alone, but with the warmer weather we are getting (or when I heave my heater on), it does nicely and gets them up to 76-77 degrees (if I go any hotter, they are not happy!) I run the ZooMed ReptiFogger a couple of times a day and mist the background by hand as well.

They both seem to love the tank! Artemis is the one on the flower pot and Apollo is the one hanging out on the branch.

[flybyferns]

Wow Sarah,
Big job, and beautifully done; congratulations!
Your frogs are very lucky.

[Sarosaurus]

Thank you, Lynn!