New Build in Progress

[Strider18]

Lol, I always thought that aquatics would be easy to kill. But I guess I was wrong

[LilyPad]

I'm at work so I will have to get a few pictures when I get home. The plant was Rotala Rotundifolia, it's a very common aquarium plant that grows both in and out of water and supposedly difficult to kill. I do not think it handled the shock of being replanted though, it never thrived and died completely within 2 weeks. The garden center had it planted in sand in cold water though and in hindsight, I should have probably done more work to acclimate it slowly. Either way, I cant say I miss it. When I bought it, it trailed out of the container. When I put it in my viv, it grew straight up which didn't work well because I had it planted at the front of the viv.

Temps have been 70-75 degrees F and humidity has been around 75-85%. I will adjust that once I decide what frog to get, I'm leaning more towards 2 red eyes at the moment.

So far the mini submersible filter I bought has been working great, much better than the pump and waterfall system I was trying to build.

[Strider18]

Do you know were you got the filter? I am going to need one if I build a tank

[LilyPad]

Strider, I'm not 100% sure. I got my supplies from all over, Amazon and a few different local pet stores. I could look for the box when I get home, but you may need something completely different than what I'm using depending on your water area. If you're looking to build a waterfall, the submersible filter that I have isn't going to work.

[Strider18]

Thanks that would be great I already know what I would need for a waterfall. I just to a way to filter out any ABG mix that will get in the water. For my tank I might end up needing more than 1 pump to build the tank Thanks again!

[LilyPad]

Mold ---





Mystery plant (tall one with leaves still curled up) ---



Star moss ---



Full viv ---

[Strider18]

Nice mold, lol.

[deranged chipmunk]

looks like the usual "new viv" mold. could take up to a month or so to finished cycling it's self. i would either pull the moss or relocate it temporarily so it isn't close to the mold. mosses are very susceptible to mold, and i would hate to see you lose that gorgeous moss. also, the mystery plant is a dracaena sp. not sure the sepecific one at the moment. i have one in my grow out tank, i keep forgetting to find out which one it is. lol

[LilyPad]

Thanks Bill!

I will move the moss out for the time, I am in love with it and do not want it ruined!

I dislike that plant in the middle also, trying to talk myself into liking it and it's just not happening. I may move that one to my grey's tank and find a taller, narrow, broad leafed plant for that spot. The mystery plant may actually work out there. Since I'm thinking it's going to be red eyes, I need to get some taller, broader plants and branches in there. I do want a couple of small tillandsias for the background because they're pretty.

Sorry, I'm half using this thread to talk myself through some of this haha.

This weekend I'm actually going to break down my grey tree frog viv too and redo a few things too...I just have a bug right now!

[Strider18]

Haha, well goodluck building/rebuilding. Hope you have fun

[LilyPad]

Well, my springtail population in the viv has suddenly become fairly large. I guess I was successful at transferring some and now they've reproduced! The mold has gone down considerably in just a few days as a result.

I did decide to get two Red-Eyed Leaf Frog's. I ordered them from LLLreptile today. They will go into the quarantine tank for a bit so I have time to tweak their tank to my liking. I added a nice tall caladium yesterday and some more branches. Hopefully the pothos gets growing to add some more big leaves in there. I also took out the plant in the middle that I really wasn't happy with and put it in my grey tree frog tank as I rebuilt that this week.

I ended up doing more to my grey tree frog viv than I had originally planned. I just moved them back into it tonight and they're really ticked off at me, they will not wake up and they're usually up long before now. I think part of the issue was cramming 4 grey tree frogs into a 10 gallon tank for 3 days. I didn't intend it to take that long and do as much as I did though. It's nothing crazy awesome, but I'm much happier with it like this. I also blocked the cracks the crickets used to escape from and may try letting them hunt again instead of bowl feeding. I have to take Paddy out of the tank during feeding times and feed her separately because she gets aggressive and stays at the edge of the bowl and bites at anyone that comes near it. I think that if she had the entire tank to hunt, there would be less aggression. It's worth a try anyway.

This is kind of what it looked like before, plants have changed a bit though. The pothos had completely overtaken the front part blocking the view of most of the viv. I had built a raised structure for the water dish so that I wouldn't have to reach into the bottom of the tank every day to clean it out. The tank is tall and my arms aren't very long. Unfortunately, the piece I built really took up a lot of space that my frogs could have been using. I was going to break it all down and try to figure out if moving that piece somewhere else would give the illusion of more space. Instead, I completely got rid of it and decided to build a filtered water area along the bottom.



Here is the new -



Getting rid of the big piece gave me so much space!! I used piece of garden edging and silicone to create the bottom pond area in the front. I have a mini submersible filter in there and oak leaves and sticks along with a few pond stones. I have to hide the filter a little better, but I'm done messing with it for a few days to let the frogs reacquaint themselves to it. The top area is kind of sparse yet but the pothos in there has been growing like crazy, and hopefully continues to, and should fill a bit more in over the next few months. I have read that caladium grows fairly tall and pretty quickly too, so that should help. I don't mind having to trim it up to keep it from getting too crazy.





Willow is the only one to check out the water so far.



Here is the plant I hated in the other viv, works out much better in this one.


I think the frogs will be happier once they get over the fact that everything is different.

[DigitalPunk]

Looking really good Amy. I am sure they are going to love ti once they are done pouting about being relocated and things changing lol.

[LilyPad]

Thanks Paul. I hear someone is up and about now, I don't want to turn the light on to check on them and send them back to sleep though LOL

[DigitalPunk]

I can't resist but going to peak in on my reds once a night with a little flash light lol.

[deranged chipmunk]

That looks great Amy!! Looks so much better now! You did an awesome job with it


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[LilyPad]

Thanks Bill! They have so much more space now. Last night they were out and about like crazy, I can tell because the glass is quite dirty this morning. Silvermist has been hanging out in the pond area. She is sure a strange one because she loves water more than any tree frog I've ever known. When I had a waterfall in the viv, back when I very first built it, she used to sit in it all day long.

My red eyes will be delivered to me at work on Wednesday. I have a large critter keeper here at the office to put them in when they get here, then they'll go into the 10 gallon quarantine tank once I get them home for the next month or so while I finish tweaking their viv. The mystery dracaena plant is going to really work out to my benefit. It is growing nice and tall and healthy. The leaves are just starting to open this morning. I will have to take more pictures in a couple weeks. I did cut back some of the ferns because they were going crazy. Mold seems to be almost completely gone thanks to the isopods and springtails I transferred over.

I'm really excited!

[LilyPad]

I spent about an hour identifying my plants yesterday. I apparently love dracaenas, as several of my plants are some species of dracaena. I did remove the pineapple dracaena and put a spotted dracaena in its place. I also added caladium and took out the moss for the time being. Mold seems to be under control so I will move the moss back in next week or so. Baked and added oak leaf litter over the weekend. Also baked and added branches. Will get updated pics in about a week.



Edit: I believe I have mixed species of ferns and it's nearly impossible to identify just by looking at pictures, so I'm sticking with "assorted ferns" there.

[deranged chipmunk]

Looking good amy! Very full and lush. That water bowl though, man, what a distraction. Have you considered on of the naturalistic water bowls?


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[LilyPad]

I have been looking for something that will work. I can't seal off the section like I did on the other viv because the background is in the way. I have measurements and am looking online. I thought I would be able to hide it better but nothing is working so it needs to be changed.

ETA: I may just cut the lip off the bowl and sand the sharp edges smooth and see how that looks.

[deranged chipmunk]

Go to the craft store and get some synthetic moss or plant leaves and super glue it to the rim just stay away from the preserved and dyed mosses.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela