Frog room overhaul

[DigitalPunk]

Yeah the more I looked at work benches the more I think It will take up to much room. I spent a lot of time in the "Frog Room" today cleaning things up and organizing things more. We went to the store and picked up 4 smaller bins to adopt Lynns 2 bin rotation for Crickets to try and cut the smell out of the process. I started measuring out the space to get an idea on how to best maximize the tanks we can fit in here without being to crowded. I think I have a planish for some future growth. The initial plan was to fill the big rack with the 3 tanks up with 6 - 8 tanks, but now I think I will leave the bottom shelf for storage. I can fit 2... maybe 3 more of those around the perimeter of the room if needed. Each shelf holding 3 - 4 tanks. even if we only put 3 per shelf that is 12 tanks which would be a lot lol. Still not certain though. I am not looking to buy enough shelves for the future right now.... just looking to see what can be improved with our current setup.


I raised the top of the current Tank shelf. The Reds Ceramic heater was to tall. I rearranged a few things and did general cleaning and organizing. Packed up my tank building supplies and put them aside to stop the temptation of starting another build right now lol.

[flybyferns]

It's good to make as many plans as possible to organize the day-to-day care supplies.
Those - drawer bins on wheels work nicely, plus rolling them around gets them out of your way.

The bin switch will work ! You'll see I'm actually doing a switch this AM. I set the bins side-by side
I put clean paper roll in the dirty bin....let the cricks crawl in--- then lift the paper roll out ( carefully ) move it to the clean bin and shake them in.
-repeat till your just about done there are always some stragglers the have to be picked out.

If you use a dirty paper roll for the transfer that 1st shake will be filled with.............well you get the picture

Enclosures on the bottom shelves ? I thought long an hard about this !
I decided not to do this; and want them as eye-level as possible..

A couple things I don't think we have addressed:
Things that keep it enjoyable
1) Spiders- you WILL get spiders !
- so think about his if someone in the family is squeamish
-I keep a feather duster handy-- I would say ----I use it daily !

2) buy a vacuum! You will want to keep the floor as clean as possible

3) tadpoles, off spring and supplies take up a lot of space
-the lower space on the rack could be used for this ?
-I decided against this because of all the bending
-I'm using the lower spaces for supplies

I could take some photos- I use the storage drawers and clear bins .

I think that my counter I recently built has been the most valuable addition to the work area thus far !
Or ....yo could use a small table ! It's nice to sit at a table with a chair.
I have an old wicker chair that I have to share with my 2 cats !

Have you considered an automatic misting system , or are you panning to develop arthritis

3)Spring tails: I keep a "master" culture ! The master is on ABG in a show box size container. The daily use are on charcoal. What are you feeding the springs?
I use powdered "Solgar" brewers ( health food store) yeast for the springs and green zucchini for the isopods
-freeze the left over zucchini
-and store the brewers yest in the frig

You want to become an expert with the springs !
If you have froglets --- and run out---- you are in deep doo-dah!

5) a typed and printed schedule for feeding ei trees vs PDFs, tadpole water changes and feeding schedules

6) black sharpie markers
-these are great to make notes on the outside of the glass
ie I use them to make dated notes as to when eggs are noted , date of when eggs were pulled, when tads come oow etc
-I keep a Mr clean pad handy---dampen it --- it removes the marker very easily - with very little pressure needed

TTYL

[DigitalPunk]

1. Spiders - Yep we have a lot of intricate webs that show up nearly daily lol. Still need to get something to clean the webs up with. Right now I just use some paper towels. I am the only one brave enough to shake the spiders off my hands :P

2. I have a broom downstairs and try to sweep the floor good once a week. Being the basement it gets dirty ALL the time

3. Tadpoles - Yeah I have been thinking about this a lot. We do plan to breed all of our frogs if possible. (Not sure about the Reds) I saw on FB the Tadpole food recipe you use. I wouldn't mind having that explained in detail. Or even seeing you set up with lots of details . Once eggs start showing up I will be in some serious new water and want to know as much as I can before then. I have actually considered getting one shelf and dedicating it to tads and grow out tanks, but I am sure whatever I do stands the risk of running out of space fast.

4. Springtails - I am in the process of upping my culturing. With so many tanks and now with the focus on Dart and Mantellas I was not able to add them to the tanks as often as I would like. I split my 1 culture into 3 a few weeks ago. My current plan is to split those 3 into 6 once I see a significant population boom. All 3 of them are in shoebox size cultures. Hoping to end up with so many springs I don't know what to do with them lol. I bought a drawer system last night on Amazon. Each Drawer is about the size of a shoebox (7 Quarts). I am going to test using them as cultures so I don't have to unstack them to do feedings. I feed my springs brewers yeast. They love that stuff!

5. A typed schedule is a great idea! I will have to do that! I sometimes have to sit and think what supplement I did last. I try to keep things going in a schedule, but my wife likes to help feed the Darts sometimes (She does the Red Eye feedings more often than not) so I think a typed schedule will help us all out.

6. Black sharpie for tank notes. I had noticed this in your pictures and think it is an excellent idea. We always have loads of sharpie markers on hand


I also bought some Rapashey Calcium Plus last night. I wanted to include some Superpig in the rotation of Supplements and their Calcium Plus as 6% superpig in it.

So followup items for you Lynn

Tadpole care system - All the details you can. I wrote your food recipe down, but go into all the detail you can on your system
The labels on your tanks - what do they all say?

[DigitalPunk]

Oh and Misting - I have a pressurized mister I use. Just pump, point, and spray. I may eventually set my misting system back up, but for now I love the one on one time with the tanks