howdy!

[Happy Frog]

Are you saying im trying too hard?

What you are intending to do is a recipe for disaster. There is no one on this site that is more understanding of beginners than me, but you are already wanting to create things for your first vivarium than go beyond your level of experience.

First, you can not keep turtles and dart frogs together. Period. Case closed! Second, if you choose dart frogs that volcano is unnecessary and will only cause problems. You may not realize it but the first thing your frogs are going to do is crawl down the hole of that volcano. Forget any type of water feature. I've seen very few that work good and the really good ones have been created by people who are experienced in creating vivariums. Water features are cool to look at but they have to be done right.

Read, read, read. And then read some more. Start by learning the basic way a simple dart frog enclosure is created. You can create quite a little jungle with a 20 gallon tall. Cork tubes, driftwood, and lots of leaf litter are more important to a dart frog than a volcano and a little stream. Start by going to Josh's frogs. They have sections that show how to create a simple enclosure.

Now - as far as the turtle...I have three ponds that are filled with turtles that people thought were going to be neat to own and then got tired of them.

[Fbt123]

I agree with Happy Frog, the turtles will most likely attempt to eat the darts, plus the turtles need deep water and darts arent very good swimmers. Dont do anything too over the top as it may wreck everything else you do with the viv

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF ! Think when you mentioned the different pets you and girlfriend want; forum members presumed you were planing to mix them. Just in case; that is a no no.

Best thing to get you started is to head to the Vivarium Section and read some of the excellent build posts in there. Recommend look at those by Bill (Deranged Chipmunk); specially this one: http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...aludarium.html.

The issue with water is that in vivariums; it tends to go where it wants to without exactly following the builder's intention. Your substrate (ABG type soil for the plants) need to remain above the water level and not flooded by water features gone rampant. If it get's soaked, substrate will become a bacteria breeding bog. In the case of your desire to build a 360 degree observation peninsula type display; those planned water features are going to be challenging to build since there is no background in which to hide the equipment (pump and or filters) and tubing. And everything has to be sealed tight with no way for a frog to access the equipment area.

P. bicolor are outgoing frogs. We do not have a care guide for them yet; but you can use this one to get an idea of it's requirements: Frog Forum - Care & Breeding of the Golden Poison Frog, Phyllobates terribilis. Good luck !