My FBT Vivarium

[Jumpshot724]

This topic is kinda dead so thought I'd liven it up a bit lol.


Here are some pics of my viv and my fellas:

[John]

That's a beautiful terrarium. How many toads do you have? I really like the decorations in the room beside the terrarium . Are those Exoterra lights?

[Kurt]

Nicely done set-up. Mine are just in a Rubbermaid box with some plastic plants, a styroform tray, and water, of course.

[Jumpshot724]

That's a beautiful terrarium. How many toads do you have? I really like the decorations in the room beside the terrarium . Are those Exoterra lights?

Thanks much!! Currently, I have 7 in there. 3 "Bronze" and 4 of the classic OFBT coloration. Yes it's 2 Exo-Terra compact hoods. I've switched em around so the left one is over the plants. It has a 25W Sun Glo bulb and the right one has a 25W Night Glo bulb, gives a very nice "moonlight" effect at night.

Here are some of them:

Nicely done set-up. Mine are just in a Rubbermaid box with some plastic plants, a styroform tray, and water, of course.

Lol. My first tank was a 10gal with just a T-Rex Styrofoam "Turtle Beach" with a Repti-flo pump, some aquarium gravel, and a lone aquarium plant.

[tattooed81]

That`s really nice could you explain how you made it I could use some ideas

[Jumpshot724]

That`s really nice could you explain how you made it I could use some ideas

Sure thing. Here's step-by-step for how I made my background:

Materials needed:
100% Black Silicone (Home Depot)
"GreatStuff" triple expanding foam (Home Depot)
Plastic tubing (Home Depot)
ReptiFlo pump (Pet Store)
EcoEarth (Pet Store)
Animal friendly tree branch (pet store)
Glass aquarium (Pet Store)


Step-By-Step For Background:
1) Lay aquarium on its back, cover the back side of the aquarium and the back half of the tank sides with black silicone, let dry for 36 hours. You can spread it with a spatula (well, a spatula you never want to use again)

2) Place plastic tubing and tree branch on top of dried silicone. The tubing was used for my waterfall, but you don't need this if you don't want one. Make sure there is enough length of tube on both ends, it can be easily cut later.

3) Once tree branch and tubing are in place, liberally apply "GreaStuff" onto the black silicone. This stuff is super sticky, and be liberal when applying as if you glob it too much, when it triple expands as it dries it may crack your glass. You can always add more later. This will also hold the tree branch in place and conceal the plastic tubing. Let "GreatStuff" dry for 36 hours, and repeat step 3 as necessary until you're satisfied with your coverage.

4) For my waterfall, when I applied the "GreatStuff" I made a large mound of it in the upper right hand corner where one end of my plastic tubing ended. Once dry, "GreatStuff" is like regular styrofoam, and you can cut/shape it with a regular kitchen knife. I then cut out a bowl from this glob, revealing the buried end of the tubing. This will serve as a pool where water is pumped up from the bottom and into this bowl, where I then cut a lip out on the front to direct the water out and waterfall back down to the aquarium's floor.

5) Cover the interior of the waterfall bowl with black silicone, make sure you don't block the tubing end and make sure you cover the interior well, as any missed spots can (and did in my case) lead to water seeping out into the "GreatStuff" and thus trickling out from various places in the background. Not a big deal if you like that look. Let dry for 36 hours.

6) Working in small areas at a time, apply silicone on top of the "GreatStuff" and place EcoEarth on top of it. The silicone will "glue" the EcoEarth to the "GreatStuff", and since "GreatStuff" dries white, the black silicone will make the background look more natural. You have to work in small areas so the silicone doesn't dry before you place the EcoEarth.

And voila, that's it for the background!!



For the rest of the vivarium I placed HydroBalls (clay balls, very lightweight) in the left side, buried the ReptiFlo pump (connected to the bottom end of the plastic tubing) in them, then layed nylon screen on top of this. The screen is regular window screening, and this serves to prevent the substrate from mixing with the water table. I then layed EcoEarth down on top of the screen, and planted my plants. On the right side, I put regular aquarium gravel. I sperated the land from water section with stacked slate rocks I bought from a local pet store. The slate comes in large chunks, but a few hits with a rubber mallet and it easily breaks into manageable pieces. I then bought a ReptoFilter, placed that against the right side of the glass and surrounded it with smaller chunks of slate.





I'm getting ready to completely clean out the tank. Being that I have live plants, I only need to clean the tank about once a year (if even) because they soak up and feces and toxins etc. When I'm done cleaning I'm going to replace the aquarium gravel with Riverbed Sand, which I found online from ReptileDepot.com but I'm going to try and find it at a local store first. I'm also going to place a piece of plaxiglass behnd the seperating slate rocks, as when I fill the vivarium with full water it soaks my soil which is never a really good thing. So, I'm trying to make my land side a lot drier.

I'm also going to experiment with making a removeable rain-making system I can put on top of or hang underneath the top screen. I'm thinking I can just buy a connector so I can connect the rain-maker tubing to the top end of my waterfall tubing. Obviously this will stop my waterfall for a bit but it will give my toads a nice refreshing rain shower

[tattooed81]

Thanks

[Ribbet]

Very interesting choice of materials, I am trying to figure out how to make the same sort of environment, easy to clean, cool looking, for the frogs I will get. The gravel decision is becoming difficult due to conflicting information. Why did you decide to switch from gravel to sand?

[SludgeMunkey]

Just recently, I finished the first part of a three part article on vivaria substrates for amphibians. I'm not sure if you have seen it yet, but while written with newts and salamanders in mind, it is very useful for frogs and toads. (the second part covering terrestrial substrates will be finished shortly and available to read soon!)

Have a look at it, as it covers the reasoning behind dumping gravel for sand, and low cost alternatives to those very pricey off the shelf products. The references are very useful to frog folks also, and many of them are readily available online to read.