Frog room overhaul

[deranged chipmunk]

To go with Lynn's sharpie idear, I always keep whiteboards. I have them at work and I always have a couple in my animal room. I even have been known to have arguments with myself between white boards. I sometimes make Sheldon cooper look normal lol


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

[DigitalPunk]

Ok I did some rearranging in the frog room, but no pictures yet. I did go out and get some new things to hold Springtail cultures in. Hoping it works out. I setup new culture in it to test it out before I move all my cultures over.





I also finally printed up my dusting schedule and posted it by the fruit flies and supplements to others in the house would know what they need to dust flies and crickets with. (Yep I am aware Repashy is spelled wrong in the picture but it has since been fixed lol)



Also got some Spice shakers from Bed Bath and Beyond (they were dented so I talked the manager into selling them to me for $1.00 instead of $4.00 they were asking for them. I then put some of the supplements in them and then just shake them over some flies. This allows me to put the remaining supplements in the refrigerator until I need them. (Still going to replace the jars every 4 - 5 months regardless, but I feel better at least trying to keep them fresher.



Just twist and shake



Got my eye on some shelves and such. Might get them in a few weeks.

[deranged chipmunk]

Nice! Love the shaker idea! (Gonna steal that one )


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

[DigitalPunk]

Sweet . I only open up one hole on the shaker. 2 has worked too but one keeps me from drowning the flies in supplements lol

Oh and the shakers have magnets on the bottom of them. Don't think they are strong enough to use to hang them with but it lets you stack them without worrying about them sliding off.

[Mentat]

... Myself though, I have been searching for an old autopsy table to use as a workbench in my new frog room. Stainless steel and a built in drain. And I get the added benefit having a place to rid myself of enemies...

You crack me up and made me cough too... ouch ! Don't give any ideas to the Bed Bully !

[deranged chipmunk]

You crack me up and made me cough too... ouch ! Don't give any ideas to the Bed Bully !

Ahhhh, she needs me to pay the mortgage. So for now, I am safe. But will be checking for new life insurance policies. Lol

Turns out that even used autopsy tables are in the thousands. Crud!!! I'll just weld up a steel table over a weekend.


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

[DigitalPunk]

Lynn stop holding back on us Lets see your tadpole setup :P

[DigitalPunk]

The drawers for springtail cultures are working great. I moved all but one culture into them and will be getting 3 more drawers and supplies to bump the cultures up to 9. Thinking of doing the same thing for the isopods, but I will test it with a few of them first to see if they climb out of it before I dump the whole culture into it.

[DigitalPunk]

Tackled an part of the basement that had no light and we used to store garage sale items in. I am working on turning this little corner into a plant area. I all use it to keep plants and plant clippings alive and grown them out some before adding them to a vivarium.

We call this the "Scary side of the basement or our Silence of the Lambs section



I installed a 48" dual fluorescent light fixture with 2 daylight 6500k bulbs in it over the future plant area.



Cleaned out all the junk and spiderwebs.



Strung a wire up to hand Bromeliads and other air plants from.




More to come for the plant area. Want to get some trays with domes and replace the wood table with some plastic shelves.

[ColleenT]

looks good. i wish i had some extra space in my house.

[LilyPad]

Looks good! Even if it is extra creepy looking.

[Heatheranne]

Hi all! Great post!

As we all know, I do not currently have a frog room. My racks, tanks, and supplies are in my bedroom.

I have two black metal racks from walmart. One 5'x18"x as tall as you like and a 3'x18"as tall as you like. Shelves are adjustable.

I have a metal utility rack for the ff cultures. The springtail and isopod cultures are on a high top shelf of the dart frog rack.

Darts on one rack. Retf, Melvina gold dust day gecko on the top of the other rack and pacs on lower rack.

Extra supplies in Rubbermaid bins on bottom shelves of both racks. I mounted under-cabinet light fixtures on the undersides of the top shelves for lighting of each shelf. Each holds an 18" 6500k cfl. I need more though. I also have random dome lights with the spiral cfl full spectrum bulbs for different plants.

My Cuban tree frog is in the living room in his 18x18x24" Exo terra.

I do still hand mist with a pump sprayer.

The crickets... Yuck! Are in a ten gallon tank which I empty and clean out every 2 weeks. I am liking the rotating tank idea and will very likely switch to that. Only my reds and Cuban eat crickets. Since my Cuban never has left overs (little piggy!), I can put the retf crickets back in if not eaten. My reds are bowl fed.

Oh, and our Atelopus trio are still in QT on their own shelf I pulled into our room, temporarily.

My future plans are to make part of our old indoor garage area our new frog room. This is a long standing goal which will take months. It is currently used as storage.

After the crazy events of our life settle down, I will begin the frog room. This might not be until after the holidays.

I will also move my bazillion plants into one end of the frog room. We will likely run grow lights across that whole ceiling area on that side. I'm not looking forward to the electric bill, lol!

Lots of work to come!

[jarteta97]

Sheesh, a frog room is faaaar future for me. But then again, I am only 16, lol . I keep my tanks on my shelving unit in my room, I store most of my supplies in a long shallow storage bin under my bed (it's a mess), and keep my supplements, dechlorinator, and water in my closet.

I love your "silent of the lambs" section, Paul, lol. For some reason, the hanging plants make it look like the crafting table of some creepy alchemist, lol. It still amazes me how the darkest, dankiest (no offense) places can be used to grow plants.

Also, Paul, what's that giant tillandsia you have hung up? I didn't think there were any that big.

And Lynn, I believe that you should be sponsored by exo terra, zoo med, and every gardening center in a twenty mile radius, lol. How do you go on vacation?! Also, how long did it take you to build all that?? Serious jealousy vibes headed your way right now

[DigitalPunk]

Josh,

My Wife bought me that while she was on vacation in Florida I have another one a bit bigger than that but it is in a tank at the moment.


No offense taken. The basement is a dark danky place for sure. It has changed a lot in the past several months. Hoping it keeps looking less dark and Danky and more like a frog room .

And yes Lynn has an excellent setup for sure!

[canadian frog]

wow thought I had an addiction, glad to see im not the only one, awesome frog rooms cant wait to finish my basement, so I can get more tanks in the house, currently have five tanks set up and I'm in the beginning stages of another one, not to mention the empty ones I have stored in the basement, the amount of great ideas I have gotten and the help I have received from frog forum is simply amazing love this forum.

[DigitalPunk]

I now refer to it as a way of life and not an addiction. Now if I can just get my family to make the transition to the new name I will feel less bad about it all lol.

[LilyPad]

You inspire me to get my stuff organized, Paul. My frog necessities are spread all over the house!

[DigitalPunk]

UGh Amy that would drive me insane lol. I am so annoyed that I have to go upstairs to refill my gallon water jugs every few days that I actually spent time today tracing waterlines to find one I can cut into and splice off for a sink in the basement lol. I say it si to be more efficient but the truth is I am far to lazy to carry stuff around the house lol. I will have to add the sink to my wish list. Right now I need some Plant trays and domes. Then I want to get another shelf and upgrade the lighting in the basement as a whole. I either want some LED plant lights in front of each rack or I am going to get more florescent fixtures to put around the room.

Far to dim down there lol.

[LilyPad]

My house is small, but still, it's all everywhere. Vitamins in the kitchen (where they'll stay) dechlorinator in the bathroom, supplies I don't use regularly in the attic, spray bottle goes between the living room in my bedroom (one just broke about a week ago)....I need it all in a designated place. It's just annoying. I bought some new shelves so I will have to make room.

[DigitalPunk]

My house is small, but still, it's all everywhere. Vitamins in the kitchen (where they'll stay) dechlorinator in the bathroom, supplies I don't use regularly in the attic, spray bottle goes between the living room in my bedroom (one just broke about a week ago)....I need it all in a designated place. It's just annoying. I bought some new shelves so I will have to make room.

I turned my back on an automated misting system early on in my tank keeping, but lately I am considering purchasing a mist king and getting all my tanks on it. Between the tanks and the plants it takes me 30mins to mist everything and nearly a gallon of water... Though i suppose will be trading refilling the misting bottle for refilling the water reservoir for the pump lol.

I started out keeping the supplements in the kitchen, but have found no proof that refrigerating the supplements does anything to extend the life or maintain freshness. So I have switched to adding some of the powder to spice shakers I bought for $1.00 from Bed bath and beyond. I pretend that not opening the main containers but once every 2 weeks somehow keeps them fresher, but not that it matters. I will still be throwing half to 3/4 the jar away every 4 - 5 months because I am forced to buy more than I could possibly use in 6 months. /end rant lol