purpose of a false bottom?

[ColleenT]

i have been reading about builds and seeing instructions to make them, but i am not sure of their purpose? Is it only for an intricate setup with a water feature? Or is it for looks? other reason?

[poison]

It's to prevent the water from building up in the soil and drowning the plants and microfauna that you have in the enclosure.

[ColleenT]

oh, i see. Thank you. I am probably going to get an exo terra but have gray tree frogs and for now i will not get intricate with design.

[awelcome]

I could be wrong, but I think some people also refer to the things like hydroballs as "false bottom". What I think of when I see it is like the egg carton/pipes type set up I see on build threads, but if you don't want that hassle you could and probably should at least get something like hydroballs covered with a barrier to lift your substrate off the bottom and allow it to drain.

[ColleenT]

i was going to have a water bowl for them, and mist daily.

[awelcome]

Are you having fake or live plants? I don't know if your substrate would get swamped out if you didn't have live plants and weren't misting quite as much (but hopefully someone with MUCH more experience can chime in on that) but if you had live plants they'd need more water obviously and the drainage layer might be more necessary then. I just redid mine after I took the advice from the petshop and had a bit too simple of a setup and I went with live plants. I did the whole drainage layer, barrier, substrate, moss, leaf litter, I mist multiple times a day and I still have a water dish, but I have a dart frog and they need it really humid.