Some terrarium plans!

[aquaman3680]

Hey all,

Here is what I am thinking of doing for a fire belly toad setup-

I plan on doing a standard 20 gallon tank with a really nice water feature.

I want to have there be about a 5" pond area that goes 10" along the front of the tank and goes back about 5" in back. I want to have a false bottom on the tank and use hydro balls to cover the eggcrate and mesh so that none is viewable from the front of the tank. I want to use expanding foam as a background and mold a waterfall out of this foam going along the back side of the tank. I also want to include a spray bar in the tank. I want to have two pumps one for the water fall and one for the spray bar. As far as filtration I just want to use a bag of chemi pure to help keep the water clean. I was planning on using some type of moss on top of the hydro balls and plantation soil in other areas.

I also want to keep some live plants in the tank.

Several questions-

What type of moss should I use?

What type of soil?

Does this sound like a proper setup?

Is there another frog that might be better suited for this type of setup?

Any problems you might see with this setup?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

[Kurt]

This being your first set-up, I would keep it simple. Water features can be difficult to build. I grow my plants in either sphagnum moss and/or ground coconut shell.

[aquaman3680]

This being your first set-up, I would keep it simple. Water features can be difficult to build. I grow my plants in either sphagnum moss and/or ground coconut shell.

I have set up many many terrariums for other people. This would be my first attempt at doing one for myself. I have never done the false bottom before so that will be a new thing but other than that it is all normal. I really enjoy designing and laying out water features, I think that that is what I am looking forward to the most. I am also looking forward to finally setting up one for myself and not have to give it away after I had put a lot of work into the setup itself.

How many frogs do you think I could keep in this type of setup?

[1beataway]

I hate the hydroballs. I thought they would be great, but they're such a mess. So I would say try to find something else. lol.

Otherwise...I had a friend who had a 20 gallon for fire-bellied toads. She kept 10 in there with no problem. She used pillow moss on top of rocks (I'm not sure if she had soil under the moss but I would assume she did). I have a picture of a really nice fire-bellied toad tank setup at an aquarium in Boston that looks very nice but is also pretty simple. If you would like, I'll send you the picture somehow.

[Deku]

Even if you can keep more frogs in a set up like this... Just go for a maximum of 5 fire bellied toads.


You should'nt mix other species (not saying you were suggesting so), here is a list of more aquatic frogs:
1)Green Frog(Rana pipens?) only keep a pair at most
2)Indonesian floating frog(heard it somewhere but know nothing about it)
3)Budgett's frog(Only keep ONE these little b@$tOrds have sharp teeth and a nasty attitude. My friend got bit by one, not really a nice bite.)


I am s ure there are more frogs. But thats all I can think of for now. As for the water features. Make sure its a gentle water feature. Don't try to make it into a rain chamber as a set up. I wanted to do that once, but learnt its not really good to be constantly "raining". Even the amazonian forests dont have that much rain. For doing that water feature I would recommend getting a duetto pump.

[1beataway]

I was going to recommend not going with 10, but for some reason I left it out. I was using the example to show you can get at least a couple in there. lol

[Kurt]

You should'nt mix other species (not saying you were suggesting so), here is a list of more aquatic frogs:
1)Green Frog(Rana pipens?) only keep a pair at most
2)Indonesian floating frog(heard it somewhere but know nothing about it)

I would avoid most Ranids in a tank of this size, especially green frogs Lithobates clamitans melanota. These frogs have powerful legs that can launch them quickly away from danger. They can be skittish as well. You combine those two elements in a small tank like a 20 and you will have a bruised and battered frog. BTW. Lithobates pipiens is the northern leopard frog.