What I want to do:

[honeybeze]

I have a 35 or 40 (can't remember which, and don't really care that much LOL) gallon hex aquarium I previously used for a nano-reef. What I was wanting to do was have a false bottom in the middle rectangle. The front hex area and the back hex area would both be the real bottom. The front would house a water reservoir which could be removed and dumped/changed daily. The rear area would house live plants, which would be in pots, thereby not limiting my plant choices to those which only grow in sphagnum. The middle rectangle/false bottom and the rear section would be covered with sphagnum. Into this set-up I will put either green or golden tree frogs.

If I were to be sure to do daily water changes, would this negate the need for a filter? I have a filter, I just don't want to deal with the worry of a bacteria colony. UGH! It just makes me tired contemplating water quality and testing and sheesh...I want a frog, not a fish tank.

On to the live plants. Are there houseplants readily available that are bad and should be avoided? I am thinking I will do a plastic canvas backdrop to train some type of ivy up, and perhaps antherium or philodendron...one of the smaller variety.

Under the reservoir I will be wanting to put some sort of sand to hold it up, as it won't be nearly as deep as the false bottom because of the live plants. As long as the sand is nowhere accessible to the frogs is it OK to use?

I will once again utilize plastic canvas as the top for the entire thing. It's cheap, light and I have lost the glass for the aquarium...reefs go topless (whoot-whoot)

Any critique would be helpful. Also, I am completely CLUELESS about crickets so any help there would be awesome.

[Paul Rust]

What many of us do is lay down a 2" or 3" layer of rock or LECA for drainage and then 3" or 4" of coco fibre for the plants and then a layer of moss or leaf litter or both. You can build the pond right into the rock as you are forming the shape. This way you are not limited to any kind of plants. My A.moreletii album has this kind of setup if you want to see how it looks. In this setup I have Forest Floor wood product under the moss to give it something to hold onto and grow into, I find that my mosses grow much better when I do this.

[Tropicok]

Really long, wordy posts (and I'm guilty of this too) are just as tiring to read as studying about pumps and/or lighting. It's possible that every question on this subject has been answered somewhere on this forum.

I have found out the critters we put in our tanks can be very forgiving as most of us don't spend many, many dollars on really special, touchy amphibs. I found out that I did better when I just jumped in, set up a simple tank and then studied how to make it better or change procedure on the next one.

It is difficult to follow one's train of thought when each person's descriptive vocabulary is different.

I am still working on a tank after a year that was going to really creative.

[honeybeze]

So...just plain old pea gravel? Or 3/4 minus drain rock? OK, that works for me. I just do not want to deal with water changes and filters. It is why I haven't reset my reef. Well, that and the darn things cost a fortune!

[honeybeze]

@tropicok...While I understand that you are obviously frustrated at my overly wordy question, I would like to point out that you weren't really required to answer or read it. I don't have much leisure time being the mother of 5, so, rather than track 50 threads I tried to get all into one. This saves me time. And I have no lighting or filtration questions. I am an advanced (extremely) aquarist. Simply put I refuse to have any filter of any sort. As for 'jumping in' I have to disagree with that particular philosophy, simply because as with our reefs, frogs are over-hunted for the hobby trade. If I can avoid killing one or more through ignorance then I am being responsible, not annoying. Were I to have jumped in and just thrown together a hab, without any research, I would have killed one right off using bare gravel and sand, as I have tons of the stuff

[Kurt]

I would use LECA over pea gravel any day. It weighs considerably less than gravel. You can find it under the names Hydroballs (ZooMed) and Hydroton. The ZooMed product may be easier to find as Petsmart carries it. I prefer Hydroton, as it is a better product, quality-wise.

You will also need atleast three filters per tank. Just kidding! Seriously, they only tanks of mine that have filters are the rain chambers/tadpole tanks.

[honeybeze]

:P OK, Kurt, now I have your number. LOL Thanks for the info.

[JimO]

You will be happy to know that if you recirculate the water via a water fall or drip wall, you won't have to change the water very often at all. I have a 36-gallon bow front in which I have not changed the water in two years. Since I hand mist the tank, I remove some water occasionally, but you don't have to worrying about complex water quality testing, nitrifying bacteria, kalkwasser, bioballs or any of that stuff. That is, unless you want to keep fish in the water feature, which I don't. In fact, you want the water to look like tea.

There are tons of step by step plans for constructing various designs, complete with photographs. A common design includes a false bottom of eggcrate held up by PVC pipe sections, with a screen over the eggcrate and then whatever substrate you choose. Using an inexpensive powerhead you can pump the water to a waterfall, drip wall, stream, etc. This oxygenates the water and provides more damp areas for moss and certain plants to grow.

I have a 35 or 40 (can't remember which, and don't really care that much LOL) gallon hex aquarium I previously used for a nano-reef. What I was wanting to do was have a false bottom in the middle rectangle. The front hex area and the back hex area would both be the real bottom. The front would house a water reservoir which could be removed and dumped/changed daily. The rear area would house live plants, which would be in pots, thereby not limiting my plant choices to those which only grow in sphagnum. The middle rectangle/false bottom and the rear section would be covered with sphagnum. Into this set-up I will put either green or golden tree frogs.

If I were to be sure to do daily water changes, would this negate the need for a filter? I have a filter, I just don't want to deal with the worry of a bacteria colony. UGH! It just makes me tired contemplating water quality and testing and sheesh...I want a frog, not a fish tank.

On to the live plants. Are there houseplants readily available that are bad and should be avoided? I am thinking I will do a plastic canvas backdrop to train some type of ivy up, and perhaps antherium or philodendron...one of the smaller variety.

Under the reservoir I will be wanting to put some sort of sand to hold it up, as it won't be nearly as deep as the false bottom because of the live plants. As long as the sand is nowhere accessible to the frogs is it OK to use?

I will once again utilize plastic canvas as the top for the entire thing. It's cheap, light and I have lost the glass for the aquarium...reefs go topless (whoot-whoot)

Any critique would be helpful. Also, I am completely CLUELESS about crickets so any help there would be awesome.

If you go with tree frogs, you can probably feed crickets, but if you go with dart frogs, you'll need to culture flightless fruit flies - which is no more difficult than raising brine shrimp.

[Paul Rust]

So...just plain old pea gravel? Or 3/4 minus drain rock? OK, that works for me. I just do not want to deal with water changes and filters. It is why I haven't reset my reef. Well, that and the darn things cost a fortune!

If you use any rock you must be careful that the frogs can't ingest it. When they catch crickets they bring in everything around the cricket also. Small rocks can become lodged in the intestines and kill your frogs. I cover all my rock with moss.

[Paul Rust]

@tropicok...While I understand that you are obviously frustrated at my overly wordy question, I would like to point out that you weren't really required to answer or read it. I don't have much leisure time being the mother of 5, so, rather than track 50 threads I tried to get all into one. This saves me time. And I have no lighting or filtration questions. I am an advanced (extremely) aquarist. Simply put I refuse to have any filter of any sort. As for 'jumping in' I have to disagree with that particular philosophy, simply because as with our reefs, frogs are over-hunted for the hobby trade. If I can avoid killing one or more through ignorance then I am being responsible, not annoying. Were I to have jumped in and just thrown together a hab, without any research, I would have killed one right off using bare gravel and sand, as I have tons of the stuff

A mother of 5? Is that all? I have 8 children and tons of frogs, get with it girl.

[JimO]

A mother of 5? Is that all? I have 8 children and tons of frogs, get with it girl.

Outstanding!

[Tropicok]

You are right, Honeybeze, sorry for being snippy. I am also the mother of 5 children (all grown and gone now).

[honeybeze]

I have 'only' 5 because I have a really rare condition of pregnancy called ICP, or intrahepatic cholestatsis of pregnancy. It makes me very sick and itchy and it poisons both the baby and I. It also has no outward signs or symptoms. Doctors assume all pregnant women itch, and it's no big deal. BUT this particular woman itches everywhere, all the time. It is the type of itching that makes you insane a little.

I think what I am going to start with is a relatively bare tank. Just until I get better at this.

[bshmerlie]

Honeybeze I think you're doing the right thing about researching as much as you can before you get your frogs. It's the responsible thing to do. I also had a reef set up when I was in my early 20's for about 10 years. When I first started I lost some fish during the "learning" process. But had I gone to a forum like this before my set up the results would have been different. Although, of course we didn't have the internet back then, but that's beside the point. Now I'm older and very careful when getting a new pet and do quite a bit of research before hand. I have 10 frogs in my household and I've never lost a single one. They are living things and we all need to treat them with the respect they deserve. If some alien race came and scooped up some humans and put them into a "habitat" I sure hope they would do some research before hand or we might find ourselves living in a frozen artic environment in a bikini.

[honeybeze]

@JimO...powerheads I got, and trust me, my kids can culture fruit flies like nobody's business! LOL

[honeybeze]

me in a bikini? Everyone else would die of fright...

[Paul Rust]

me in a bikini? Everyone else would die of fright...

I won't wear a bikini either.

[honeybeze]

Oh, c'mon Paul...Hoo-rah!

[JimO]

@JimO...powerheads I got, and trust me, my kids can culture fruit flies like nobody's business! LOL

I know what you mean. I have probably violated some child labor laws. One time, one of the boys got the bright idea to catch fruit flies from the compost heap and add them to the new cultures since we were low. I found out that it only takes a few ffs that can actually fly to pass the gene on. We were swatting fruit flies for a week and I had to buy a new starter culture. I had to commend him for being industrious, and it became a teaching moment on genetics.

If you consider a 40 gallon tank a nano-reef, then you were way ahead of me. I bet you have enough powerheads to power Powdunk, Iowa's drinking water supply.

[honeybeze]

and 175 watts of metal halide goodness beaming down upon my pretties. *insert Tim-the Toolman monkey sounds here*...Oh yeah, I was reefing!

YouTube - Tim Allen grunt collection