40b Dart tank - Natural style build Journal

[ndame88]

Great, can't wait to see how you put in the substrate around the rocks for plants, isos, and springtails.

Best of luck

[DigitalPunk]

Ok soil was added to cover the egg crate on the bottom of the tank We used Unfertilized and organic top soil and covered that with Flourite <Back>. I then added in the proper amount of de chlorinated water and put the heater in the tank and the small filter. I will let it run like this for several days and let the water settle before doing anything else.

When I added the soil I removed the bulk of the rocks to make sure I got the soil in most of the bottom. But now all of it to keep the weight of the tank down some. I took a picture but it looks like a hot mess right now.

I also got some glass cut for the lid at a local glass shop for around $14. Much cheaper than buying some kind of plastic to cut to size.

The order for the rest of the materials has been delayed due to the weather. Should be shipped tomorrow.

[DigitalPunk]

Here a re a few pics of the progress tonight. I forgot to take pics of the Aquatic substrate being added. When the Flourite came in I realized that it was not going to be enough to accomplish what I was looking for. So I went to HD and bought some regular old topsoil. I added about 1.5 inches of it across the bottom. Then covered that in a .5 to .75 inch layer of the Flourite.

I then filled the tank to the desired depth with De Chlorinated tap water.



I previously had gathered some Leaves and sticks from the yard (We have an ancient Oak and Pecan tree in the yard). I had to dig them out from under 12 inches of snow so I did this in advance so they could dry out and be picked through. I then boiled the sticks and the leaves for 1 hour. After that everything was rinsed several times with de chlorinated tap water and then left in a tub to soak in the same type of water for 24 hours.




Tonight I ripped the leaves into smaller pieces and started lining the bottom of the tank with leaves and dropping a few sticks in the water. Once I was done and I sat back to look at it I realized the water was not deep enough for the look I was going for. So I reworked the bottom and middle layer of rocks and raised the whole top landmass by 2 inches or so. I added 2 more gallons of water and then added some more leaves in.






I don't have the hinge or handle for the glass top yet but I placed the 2 pieces on top of the tank after I placed the aquatic heater where left space for it and setup the sponge filter. I placed a crappy analog Thermometer and Hydrometer in the tank so I can test out heating the tank with the water heater. It took it all of 2 mins to fog the glass up so I can't see into it. So now I will let it sit and let the water do it's thing for 24 hours or so. I might go buy some shrimp tomorrow and place them in the water to see how they do. I am not going to do anything to treat the water further and will the the nitrogen cycle start on it's own when it is ready.

[deranged chipmunk]

That's looking great Paul! Nice build!

[DigitalPunk]

Thanks Bill. I am loving this one. It is going very slowly, but I am enjoying it a lot!


Well the pet store had a whole mess of shrimp in stock so I bought 28 Ghost shrimp and then decided to get 2 Piecostomus (they are babies and about the size of the shrimp at this point.

Here is a really awful picture of a shrimp saying Hi to one of the piecostomus.




And here is a top view of the tank while the shrimp and Sucker fish were waiting to be added



I also bought a sponge insert for the filter. I let the carbon filter do its thing over night and it pulled a lot of debris front he water over night.

Hopefully the next round of supplies arrives this week...

[deranged chipmunk]

I really hope you bought bristle nose plecos. Anything else will need to be removed soon. You could have went with otocinclus, they are shrimp friendly and only grow to about 2".

[DigitalPunk]

They are Bristle Nose. They did not have any Otocinclus that looks healthy unfortunately. Right now I will be happy if the dead loss on this first round of shrimp and Bristle nose is low...

[deranged chipmunk]

Bn's are awesome. I have a few friends who breed them. I figured you knew to get them, but other's reading might not have

[DigitalPunk]

Good Point. Yeah the employee at Petco was no help. You def have to do your own research before going to the store to purchase anything. I am not planning on adding any more aquatic life. I will be getting some plants for the water at some point, but first I need to save up for the LED lights.

[DigitalPunk]

I should add that I also bought some algae wafers and Frozen bloodworms to supplement the shrimp and BN's diet while the algae in the tank takes off to feed them. I will most likely restrict the Wafers and Bloodworms to being a treat once a week or less after the algae has taken off in the tank.

[deranged chipmunk]

I'll give ya a tip.... Both bristle nose and shrimp love boiled zucchini.

[deranged chipmunk]

And most employees at petsmart don't have a clue. The last time I bought fish from them was a few years ago. I was stocking my 125 (it was heavily planted at the time) and it was during the $1 cardinal tetra sale should have seen the girl's face when I told her I wanted all of them lol it ended up being 75 or so. Told the girl they were going in a 55 but I had a huge filter hooked up to handle the bio load, she said "oh, they should be fine then" dummy!! Lol

[DigitalPunk]

lol that is hilarious. There is this one lady at the local Petco who is a planted tank nut and is fun to talk to. She is forever showing pictures of her tanks and custom stands, but yes they are largely idiots when it comes to caring for the animals they sale.

[deranged chipmunk]

Yes they are!!

[DigitalPunk]

So 28 shrimp in the bottom of a 40B tank are hard to find when you can only see the edges of the tank lol.



I am not prepared to admit that I spent 15 mins looking at the tank trying to find one of the sucker fish, but here is a pic of one of them



I also picked up 3 plants at Home Depot tonight. I will get some pics up later. They are not anything special, but will help fill the tank

I should also add that Josh's Frogs showed me today that they have the absolute best customer service. I emailed them to let them know that the plants I bought 3 or so weeks ago to let them know they arrived frozen, but I went ahead and planted them to try and save them. They have all since died. I am way outside of their live arrival window and I ordered during the coldest part of winter around here. I sent them the email this afternoon. The email was more of a informational email and was not asking for replacement plants. Well a couple hours later I got an email from them and they are sending me out all the plants again free of charge. That level of service is just unheard of. I love those guys and gals!

[DigitalPunk]

Well in usually fashion I am looking at the frogs I want to get for this tank, even though it will be months before I am ready to order any. I won't go into to many details, but I have sunk a chunk of my money into the tank and the wife has been less involved finically with this tank. Today she gave me the green light to get whatever frog I wanted for the tank and not the Turquoise and Bronze Aratus she wants. So I started browsing to see if there was anything I wanted more and I was wondering who are some good Dart frog breeders. I am know of LLL Reptile and Josh's Frogs... LLL Reptile doesn't haven anything I am interested in other than the Bronze Mantellas and Josh's frogs has a lot of things out of stock right now. So If there are any other reputable breeders I would love to hear about them.

[DigitalPunk]

Replacement plans are in from Josh's frogs. I put all the plants (the replacement from Josh and the 3 from Home Depot) into a tub with some ABG mix to grow in till the tank is ready to be planted. Not all of these plants till make it into this tank.

[DigitalPunk]

Shipment came in today from NEHERP. We got the Cork Round, 2 pieces of Drift wood, Isopod, Springtails, moss, Handles for the glass top, and Hinges for the glass top.

I didn't get a picture of the cork round before I cut on it sorry, but it was roughly 24inchs long and between 5 and 7 inches in diameter. It was a real beauty. Was a shame to cut it down for my use.

We spent a long time figuring out how we wanted the wood to lay in the tank and how we wanted the cork round to look in the corner. Here are some pics of one of the wood layouts we almost stayed with.



and the same layout from the top.




What we were going for with the wood was to create some natural hides for the frogs between the wood and the rocks/substrate.

We ended up moving them to make the wood look like branches that had fallen from a tree.... We hope the cork round in the corner will make it look like this environment is at the base of a tree.

Here is the final wood locations from the front and then the top.







We ended up moving the little rock down onto the lower piece of slate. Here is a picture of the filter behind the cork round.




Hard to see but the filter is hidden behind it. We then added a mix of ABG mix and a bit of top soil to the top of the rocks. Then added moss on top of that. We left some of the soil open and covered it with Sphagnum moss.





Here are some pictures of the hides.





Still need to do a plant order. Some of the plants from Josh's frogs will make it into here, but not sure how many.

The springtails and Isopods are setup to breed. In about a month or so we will seed the tank with both and let them populate the tank and reproduce in there for a month or so before we consider adding frogs. We are hoping the tank will have 2 or more months of growth before frogs get added.

[Geo]

Dude! Cool!

Seriously Paul you have done a great start to the habitat. Keep up the updates as I am curious to see if your experiences are different then my own.

The one difference in our tanks is that you are using a horizontal layering of the rocks where as I went with creating a crater effect with the rocks. The island is a cone of rock with everything else in the middle. I did this to allow for a wider perimeter of water to surround the rocks underneath. As was pointed out earlier if you do that though you need to keep in mind that the weight distribution isn't as widely dispersed as your present layout but more center oriented and that can be a factor.

I am curious to see how your moss holds out as I find that the biggest challenge in regards to the plants in the habitat. They do well, then there is some die off, then some of it regrows and so on. BUT my issues are probably associated to the fact that I am presently not using tropical moss but temperate and they don't seem to like high humidity or consistent light.

[DigitalPunk]

Thanks Geo! I owe you and your tank for inspiring me to even try this. I wasn't happy with the depth of the water so I put the top big rock on top of 4 small rocks (Laid out on the corners like table legs). This gave me about 2 inches of space for additional water and has created a underwater cave that can be access from all sides of the tank. Its cool. If you put a light on one side of the tank and look through the other towards the light you can see everything under the water and watch the little shrimp go about their business in the dark. The sucker fish are near impossible to find, but every now and then I see them moving about. Not sure if 28 shrimp will be enough. Considering buying 20 more and adding them in in a few weeks.

I might add a few of the plants I have on hand to the enclosure, but I have my eye on some plants online, just need to save some money first.

Yeah I am curious to see what lives and dies in the tank as well I can't wait to see how things grow and change.

The waiting to add frogs is going to kill me, I can already tell.