UTH and the Drainage Layer

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Well Keeshe... sorry to be the harbinger of bad news to you; but your present enclosure is a disaster waiting to happen. UTHs in frog tanks do not belong to the bottom since frogs natural tendency is to burry in order to cool off. You can use on the sides if so desired; but they are inefficient done that way. A basking type light on a dimmer dome is a much better choice and will help provide the needed 85F basking spot.

As Bill mentioned; a false bottom or drainage layer to collect extra water is not an optional necessity. No matter which design you go with; it is necessary to prevent the substrate from flooding and becoming a bacteria breeding bog. Talking of substrate, if using live plants need ABG type soil since shredded coco is not a good substrate for them.

Recommend visit the Vivarium section and search for Bill's build threads; specially one called Mantella Paladurium. Know is crazy to tell you to tear up your vivarium and start again; but it will save you lots of problems in the future to start it right now .

[Keeshe]

Thanks for the both of your responses. I found it confusing while searching through the forums reading how people used an UTH and a drainage layer with no problems, and other were so against the idea. It makes sense though.

I have not had problems with flooding before adding this waterfall. I talked with ZooMed CS this morning and they said that the pressure on the waterfall is likely turned up too high and that is what is causing the sponge to move. So, we will be checking on that during cleaning. But just to clarify, we are manually misting so only if see the humidity starting to drop. That has caused the substrate to remain moist but far from saturate. Is that moist state what you mean by excess water?

Bummer about the UTH. I was following the advise on the Foster and Smith Website. - How to Create the Ideal White's Tree Frog Habitat. Had heard about the back of tank placement option from the LLLReptile video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YaYQEYonvg#t=457. But had also read that like you said that is an inefficient way to heat. Also seemed like kind of a hazard with the heated glass then touching a foam background. Paranoid, I am sure.

Had not heard of Whites Three Frogs burrowing though, interesting new bit to do some more research on. That being said, the UTH was basically there for supplemental heat. They have a dome basking light running along with Exo Terra Full Spectrum and UVB bulbs (found a research article that pointed to lengthening life spans of captive Whites Tree Frogs). The house is unfortunately drafty, which means AC units during the summer and some unpredictable heat (and cold) throughout the house. We went with both because we were getting too much fluctuation in the heat levels through out the day.

I also had not heard anything about the Eco Earth not working with live plants. All the roots seem to be growing out and one plant has even started sending up new shoots. I will have to do some additional research there also.

Thanks again for your help.

[Keeshe]

For what ever reason, I didn't have the option to edit my post. Figured I would give more info cause now I am all paranoid I am doing it wrong.

The lights are 2 26watt CF style bulbs. One is the Exo Terra Full Spectrum one for promoting plant growth. The other is the UVB bulb for tropical (2.0 I think?) The heath bulbs are both ZooMed, a 50W Red during the day and a 50W night blue one for after hours.

At this point though, I have read through about 50 forum posts and will be off to the hardware store tomorrow to get the materials for the false bottom made with egg crate. Going off the plans from - http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...se-bottom.html. (Bill's sticky was epic!) It looks like Bill advises 2-3in diameter PVC for the couplings. Do you think 1.5 in would work? I have a pair of PVC cutters, that say they can cut up to 2 in, but it is much easier with a smaller diameter. Last question based on the http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-te...se-bottom.html build. Do you put anything in between the bottom and the egg crate such as gravel or hydroballs? I would think that you would need to provide insulation, and to make it look a little better from the front?

Thanks again! Love this forum.

[Mentat]

Think the wider PVC is preferred because it adds stability and contacts more of the eggcrate distributing the weight better. If using smaller PVC tubes, would just add more of them in a similar ratio of the decrease in diameter. For example, 1.5 in. is half the diameter of 3 in.; so just double the amount of PVC supports.

Nothing needs to go in the false bottom space, it's there just to collect extra water until you drain it as needed (either through drilled hole and bulkhead or via a tube access and aquarium siphon from top).

Don't forget to ^ notch the bottoms of PVC "legs" so that water does not pool inside them. Another trick myself do is to very carefully (have someone with work gloves hold PVC and start drill very slowly or much better, use a vise to hold it) drill two opposite holes in the PVC top area, large enough to pass a very small and long enough cable tie that will hold together the PVC piece, egg crate, and plastic screen .

[Keeshe]

OK last question. How long after constructing on of the PVC egg crate false bottoms is it safe to return the frogs to the enclosure. This assumes that the PVC and egg crate will be completely washes down with hot water prior to assembly.

Thanks as always!