Frog room overhaul

[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

[LilyPad]

Yes, I hate throwing away all of those supplements too. With 6 tree frogs, I do not use more than 1/4 ever.

[DigitalPunk]

Lynn had reached out to Repashy and RepCal about how we can viably extend the supplements shelf life, haven't heard from her if she actually got a response. Would be great to learn that refrigerating or freezing makes them last a long time, but some vitamin supplements break down in the cold of a fridge... or so I think.

Who knows I just follow the directions on the stupid package that tells me to toss them before the 6th month mark and make Repcal and Repashy a bit more wealthy

[LilyPad]

Have you noticed a change using separate vit/calc btw? Still using multi vit/calc (repashy) myself.

[DigitalPunk]

No I can't say I noticed a difference, but Calcium w/D3 added is such an important supplement for them I just cant bring myself to use an all in one. That way I know that at least 4 times a week they are being offered the supplement. Now how many flies or crickets are still dusted by the time the frogs eat them who knows, but that is why I do it so often.

I do like Repashys Supervite (multivitamin) they claim to have a new/better way to deliver the vitamins which allow the frogs to absorb them, repcal apparently uses an older way that has been proven less effective recently.

The Calcium plus (which is basically a Calcium, Multivitamin, and Color enhancer w/a bit of Vit A) I use simply for the color enchancer properties, but didn't want to do just a day of trying to keep the frogs pretty.

I will say my frogs all seem healthy and happy. No unhappy comments in the comment box I leave outside of all the vivariums lol. No happy ones either, but rarely does anyone tell you they are happy. they just complain when they are unhappy.

[jarteta97]

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.

How much distilled water do you buy at a time?? The biggest I've found at the store are 2.5 gallons, and I go through a gallon in a week with just one tank! If only I could distill water myself . . . *sigh*

[Strider18]

Wow, looking at this thread has reminded me of a dream of mine that I have had for a few years. I can't wait until I get out of high school so I can start college and then after that (in 6 years or so :/) I will be good to go! Btw, great room Lynn!

[DigitalPunk]

Pretty big changes coming to the frog room this weekend (hope I get it all done this weekend). I will be relocating my tanks and tank racks up into the house out of the basement so they are on display a bit more. It will be in a "Den" area that is not in the main foot traffic area. The Plant area, insect cultures, and tank building will still take place in the basement. It will be nice to have the frogs in the main part of the house . I am excited to see how it looks once it is moved up!

[Bombina Bob]

Cant wait to see To get rid of those spiders, you can always throw in a Tokay gecko into your frog room (jk)

[DigitalPunk]

Spent about 6 hours today working on moving the tanks... Wow am I exhausted and I didn't get it all done. Here is a pic of the space before I moved the tanks and then one of where I ran out of gas today. I will have to do more tomorrow and hopefully I can get it all wrapped up.








It wouldn't have been so bad, but the Mantella tank must weigh a metric ton. I ended up having to take that tank all the way apart just to carry it up from the basement and then had to set it back up after.

[DigitalPunk]

As much as I liked the spring tail drawer system (super easy to feed them all) one of them got some kind of fly in it really bad that eventually killed all the springtails. Then the flies started showing up in the other drawers so I went out and bought new containers for them from the Dollar Tree.



Bought 6 and took them home. Washed them and set all 6 up to get ready for the great Springtail migration



One drawer at a time I flooded with water and then used a spoon to rescue as many springs as possible and stock the new containers. Being careful to leave all the fly larva behind. Look how many springs there are!!! that is just one drawer.... this will take a while lol



In the picture below you can see all the left over springs I had after I stocked the 6 new cultures with 1000s of springs and added a bunch to each of my tanks.



I will be shipping all of these leftovers off to a couple of my good friends!

[Strider18]

Well looks like you have some lucky friends! Will you be punching holes in the top of the containers for airflow? When I get spring cultures going I'll have to do something like that

[LilyPad]

Must be nice to have them out of the basement!

[DigitalPunk]

It has been great having the frogs upstairs. All the various insects are still in the basement and will remain there lol.

No I wont be punching holes for air. I open the cultures every day or 2 to feed them. The air exchange then should be enough. It it starts looking bad I will poke a couple hole in the lid for good measure, but should be fine.

[DigitalPunk]

Adding a Misting System to the Tank


5 Gallon Bucket with bulkhead and the Pump.





You can see the silicon on the glass around the hole from my first idea how to secure the mist heads. Decided to scrap that and go with the Connectors to the water line attaching to the Mist heads through the glass.





I have the system installed on my 2 24x18x24 tanks right now. Should have 2 more tanks done by Tuesday and then the 5th one (last one for now) done once the build is done.

[DigitalPunk]

I was emptying the 1 gallon jugs my tanks drain into when the false bottom water level gets to high and decided there had to be a better system for me to use. Here is what I ended up setting up recently.



This is the Barb I settled on using.



I used a 3/4" drill bit for the holes. It is just a tad to small which will allow the threads on the barb to grip the lid.



Barbs installed in bucket lid.



And the new Drainage reservoir is complete.