Tree Frog Watering Idea(s)

[SmithPad]

Hello all:

Out of the shadows I come from months of lurking. What an amazing forum! I'm hoping anyone interested can give me a quick reality check on my idea here...

TL/DR: Are my ideas below any good? How can I assemble a tiny, easy-to-clean, filtered drinking water dish for small tree frogs? The stagnant dish with its daily changes is no bueno.

I have a 20 tall terrarium hosting about 3 local Baja tree frogs (I'm in Southern California), and I wanted to seriously upgrade their living conditions with something more than a stagnant water dish that I'm changing every day or so...I want to filter their water, reducing the frequency of water changes. Space is the biggest issue here. I don't want to increase the size of the tank, rather I want to get as micro as possible with a filtered watering dish. Like the ones you can get for dogs and cats, but smaller.

Requirements:

- It needs to be as small as possible. No more than 6"-8" wide and 1"-2" deep.
- It needs to be EASY to change filter cartridges. Meaning, I switch out cartridges once a week. I won't pull out and disassemble an entire filter. These frogs are jumpers. This rules out all submersible filters.
- It needs to not be ugly. Semi-ugly is okay if I can disguise it with leaves and branches.

Nitrogen cycling won't be a concern, as I have a cycled aquarium and can bring over water and cycled filter media to this tank.

I don't really want to partition the whole tank to have a large swimming area, because these are tree frogs, and this is really all about drinking water and the occasional soak. I need maximum land.

So these are the options I was thinking about:

Option 1: Reptofilter (stand it up in the water dish)


On the upside, it's easy to switch out cartridges to keep the water clean. On the downside, it's ugly standing up in a water dish, and I would need a pretty deep dish (almost 2" depth of water) to allow for it. And there's lots of splashing. And no way to regulate water flow.

Option 2: External Canister Filter (hang on back or side or below the tank)



This one from TOM seems to be small and out of the way. So does the ZooMed Nano 10. I can adapt tubing to get to the dish, and maybe can even flip the intake strainer on its side with an extra elbow or two. I'd have to crimp or clamp the hose to reduce flow, which is not ideal, but this is the least unattractive option. I like that I could clean the filter without getting into the tank.

Option 3: Tiny Hang on Back filter (half buried)



And this is my craziest idea. What I have 2"-3" of substrate and this filter was buried 2"+ in it, with the intake and lip right into the water dish? I could cut the intake stem very short, and maybe use a piece of flexible tubing to flip the strainer on its side. It's a little bit ugly, but not as bad as the Reptofilter, and I can get the cartridges in and out very easily. And it has flow control.

Anyway, that's as far as my creative thinking could take me. What do you guys think? How do YOU provide fresh water (short of daily water changes) to your small tree and dart frogs?

Thank you!

Bill

[Strider18]

First of, your frogs would die for a big water section! I have one myself and she LOVES the water! You could make the bottom of the tank all water with a hidden filter and foam up the sides for land sections. My frog spends almost all night swimming in the water. If I were you I would ditch all of the ideas and just go for an all water base with rocks in the water and foam for land and plants like I said! :-)

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[deranged chipmunk]

option 1 needs 4" of water to flow, actually. those are ok for some tanks, just not for the application you are looking for. option 2 is doable, but i think you would find a lot more trouble than it's worth. option 3 is bad, bad, BAD!! burying the impeller motor under the soil will most likely cause the motor to overheat and short out. why not just get one of the exoterra (?) stand alone water falls?

i have always built water features in for my tree frogs. they absolutely loved the water feature. darts don't require water features, but i still use them for aesthetics when the mood strikes me

[SmithPad]

Thanks for the comments.

Ah, I hadn't thought about the motor overheating; it would probably do that.

I'm not a fan of the exo-terra standalone waterfalls, because they can be hard to clean, but I will definitely look into the notion of going bigger with the water feature. Baja tree frogs are more ground dwelling than tree dwelling, so I definitely have to provide sufficient land for them...the canister filter option is looking more appealing. Building my own water feature is definitely an option, but it's GOT to have a pop-in, pop-out cartridge capability. The turtle cliff I have in my other vivarium is SUCH a pain to pull out the pump and clean out the whole filter every week.

Thanks again for the feedback! Nice to know I have a bad idea before I throw money at it!

Bill

[Strider18]

If you want I can show you the simple setup I have for my frog FYI Baja tree frogs is just a nickname, they are actually Pacific Chorus Frogs

[SmithPad]

Yes please, let's see it!!!!

Ah yes, I suspected they might be also chorus frogs; didn't realize Baja was the nickname. Noisy suckers, but full of personality and very active during the day.

Thank you!

[Strider18]

Here it is

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[SmithPad]

Ah, nice, I see. You're using the rocks as the majority of the land, very clever. What is the enclosure that holds this all? Some of my frogs definitely act like they want out. Probably because they preferred my back yard. What keeps yours from jumping away?

[Strider18]

I am currently using a 15 gallon tub with a lid on it. The lid has screen covering a whole to allow for ventilation. My frog always wants to get out and I can hear her thumping against the screen about 5-10 times everynight :P

[SmithPad]

LOL then you know why I don't want to use a submersible filter or anything that requires too much handling.

[Strider18]

Lol I just never had the money to get it nice. Might be getting a 120 gallon aquarium soon though

[Strider18]

But with the amount I have spent on crickets I could have a really nice tank by now lol

0.1.0 Psuedacris regilla

[SmithPad]

Thanks for the name, I thought mine were Pseudacris hypochondriaca, because they're all much more brown in color, no green at all. Some have light spots, some don't, but all have that telltale black stripe along the eyes. Also, I'm in San Diego, so that's why I went for Baja instead of Pacific Chorus.

Either way, I know it's at least a spinoff of Pacific Chorus, so care is the same.

Thanks!

Bill

[Strider18]

Yea I live near riverside so they are most likely the same

0.1.0 Psuedacris regilla