Would love some help setting up

[Hypnotic]

My rough draft is complete, the tank is in my posession and I'm waiting for a few more of the materials to arrive and I'd love some second opinions.
The tank I'l be decorating is an exo-terra 45x45x45 (18x18x18") and is for a horned frog, cranwelli albino to be specific.
The blue is the waterdish, green the plants (the sides of the tank will be covered from top to bottom in fake plants, and the background is exo-terra rock style), brown is the log provided for shelter and red the infrared heatlamp. Probes will be attached underneath the right side of the tank, under the folliage.
My only big concern currently is, is my heatsource to close to the waterdish? I've read that the hottest point of the terrarium and the coldest should be as far from eachother as possible, but I'd like to provide my frog with some privacy, unless the fake plants will take care of that for me, in wich case I can move the waterdish to the front left side of the terrarium.
Really curious about others peoples input and ideas.

[Mentat]

Hello and here is my input! Ditch the ET fake background and cover 3 sides with background paper (static "cling on" type works great) you like. IMO that background looks fake, takes out few centimeters of enclosure space, and provides a place for feeder insects to climb to and easily access the rear vents or get behind it and die.

Place water dish in front left so you can easily access on a daily basis. BTW, there is no issue of lamp being over water dish as long as water temp stays at or below 27C or it evaporates water too fast and that increases humidity above 80%.

Hanging fake plants should provide privacy; but make sure they are not pointy hard plastic which could injure frogs eyes. Have fun and post pics when done !

[Hypnotic]

Thanks for the tips, I wanted to place the water dish in the front left for easy accesibility but my girl is lazy or shy, I figured I'd create her a nice little private area. The plastic plants are actually silk I think, really soft.
I'l simply move the waterdish to the front left then, as my gut told me, and place a plant before my doors so she still feels like she has privacy.
I actually like the background, my frog is an adult female and fully tong trained, and offcourse the background would recieve silicone lining. But now I'm considering doing the back full of fake plants too, I want my girl to feel safe and these plants should give my humidity another boost, not that's it's needed, but I like the look of it.
How would a figurine fare inside a tank? I have one made out of some kind of stone, an easter island statue type one and some aztec ones, note, all of my figurines I pick up are treated and tested, I give them a vinigar soak for 2 days, then an alcohol gel soak, and afterwards leave it in water for a few days, to make sure nothing comes off.

[Janice]

I dont know about lazy, that is just pretty much what a frog does, is sit, and wait......on food then they wait again.....for more food. That is it. They do not sing and dance. And good luck my african bullfrog tears the hell out of his tank almost every night. If I plant a plant within 48 hours it is demolished and never in the day. I do turn dubia roaches loose or super worms or night crawlers so he burrows thru the dirt at night to see what he can stir up. He has a 20 gal that is divided 1/3 pool and 2/3 substrate. A couple pieces of drift wood.

[Mentat]

Thanks for the tips, I wanted to place the water dish in the front left for easy accesibility but my girl is lazy or shy, I figured I'd create her a nice little private area. The plastic plants are actually silk I think, really soft.
I'l simply move the waterdish to the front left then, as my gut told me, and place a plant before my doors so she still feels like she has privacy.
I actually like the background, my frog is an adult female and fully tong trained, and offcourse the background would recieve silicone lining. But now I'm considering doing the back full of fake plants too, I want my girl to feel safe and these plants should give my humidity another boost, not that's it's needed, but I like the look of it.
How would a figurine fare inside a tank? I have one made out of some kind of stone, an easter island statue type one and some aztec ones, note, all of my figurines I pick up are treated and tested, I give them a vinigar soak for 2 days, then an alcohol gel soak, and afterwards leave it in water for a few days, to make sure nothing comes off.

You are welcome ! IRT figurine, just make sure frog can't knock it over itself and get injured. So unless you glue it to bottom or sides; stay with low wide based figurines and avoid tall ones . Fake silk hanging plants are great and do look more realistic than plastic ones. They can also be easily soaked in bleach or vinegar solutions to sterilize when required. Sorry missed your response and good luck !

[Mentat]

I dont know about lazy, that is just pretty much what a frog does, is sit, and wait......on food then they wait again.....for more food. That is it. They do not sing and dance. And good luck my african bullfrog tears the hell out of his tank almost every night. If I plant a plant within 48 hours it is demolished and never in the day. I do turn dubia roaches loose or super worms or night crawlers so he burrows thru the dirt at night to see what he can stir up. He has a 20 gal that is divided 1/3 pool and 2/3 substrate. A couple pieces of drift wood.

Hi Janice! You are correct, plants do not belong in most ABF enclosures (sure there is one out there that does not mess with them). You can get around that by using artificial or even natural hanging plants that are out of it's reach. My Duncan's tank has a small silk fern in it's resin base and he likes to hang around below it.

Oh... and he does sing to cows and does a squat and fast back up better than many break dancers !

[Hypnotic]

This is what my background ended up looking like. I can't get it right, the white specs won't fill up and no matter how much silicone I'm trying to rub on it to fix it, some other part will come off and I'l be back where I left off. My friends are cheering me up by sayingit's not that bad, and I can always cram the back full of fake plants, but I'm not sure. It's either that or ripping it out as this point.
If anyone has any advice on what I can do, please tell me. I'm not happy at all with all the white specs.
Curse my two left hands.

[deranged chipmunk]

You just found out one of the downsides to the silicone background cover method. If you don't get complete coverage the first time around, that is what you end up with. You cannot touch it up like other methods because silicone will stick to almost everything in the world EXCEPT silicone. That is why I use brown silicone for the rare times I use it, but otherwise I use titebond iii wood glue and coco fiber to cover all my backgrounds. You can do multiple coats if needed, no fumes and no need for gloves, unless you want to use them. Although, it does take twice or three times longer to dry and cure. The other advantage is that you don't need the cocofiber to be dry before using it.

[deranged chipmunk]

Forgot to mention, your options from here: grow plants all over the background, or peel it off and start over. You can TRY titebond over the silicone, but in can't promise it will work. It may, but it may not.

[Hypnotic]

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go for the cover-up I'l be using fake plants, but since that was my plan for the left and right side, I hope it won't look too weird.
I still have 6 days to wait before I can add the plants but it looks like I'l need alot of em.
It looked so easy in the video.

[deranged chipmunk]

And those non stick pans always work on the commercials lol good luck with the tank!!

[Hypnotic]

Well, I dare to say... SUCCES!
Still have to remove the sillicone and on a very few spots, you can see sillicone through it if you look really close, but I'm happy how it turned out!