safe aquarium deco?

[shmush]

I know African clawed frogs have very delicate skin. should I only use super smooth decorations and hiding places? also, someone (I forget who, I'm really sorry) on this forum told me to use sand instead of river rocks as a substrate. does anyone know the reason for this? the river rocks are very large, larger than I think the froglets themselves. thank you! [emoji196]


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[shmush]

I know African clawed frogs have very delicate skin. should I only use super smooth decorations and hiding places? also, someone (I forget who, I'm really sorry) on this forum told me to use sand instead of river rocks as a substrate. does anyone know the reason for this? the river rocks are very large, larger than I think the froglets themselves. thank you! [emoji196]


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the person was spotfin by the way


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[mpmistr]

I know African clawed frogs have very delicate skin. should I only use super smooth decorations and hiding places? also, someone (I forget who, I'm really sorry) on this forum told me to use sand instead of river rocks as a substrate. does anyone know the reason for this? the river rocks are very large, larger than I think the froglets themselves. thank you! [emoji196]


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African clawed frogs tend to freak out really easily and dash around the aquarium and crash into things when sudden noises, or light changes occur. Anything rough or sharp has a good chance of injuring a frog.

I personally use malaysian driftwood with java fern attached to it for decor. It gives the frogs a nice hideaway and it looks nice.

For sand, caribsea makes a really fine grain white sand called moonlight, I've had it in my tank for years and it works great. You just need enough to cover the floor of the tank really, wouldn't go over an inch deep unless you need substrate for live plants.

Large river rocks work fine but you'll wind up with a dirty tank eventually, a lot of gross stuff will fall within the rocks and it's kind of a pain to clean it. With sand you can vacuum it right off easily when you do water changes.

[spotfin]

African clawed frogs tend to freak out really easily and dash around the aquarium and crash into things when sudden noises, or light changes occur. Anything rough or sharp has a good chance of injuring a frog.

I personally use malaysian driftwood with java fern attached to it for decor. It gives the frogs a nice hideaway and it looks nice.

For sand, caribsea makes a really fine grain white sand called moonlight, I've had it in my tank for years and it works great. You just need enough to cover the floor of the tank really, wouldn't go over an inch deep unless you need substrate for live plants.

Large river rocks work fine but you'll wind up with a dirty tank eventually, a lot of gross stuff will fall within the rocks and it's kind of a pain to clean it. With sand you can vacuum it right off easily when you do water changes.

X2.
I have river sand in my frog tank now, but will most likely be changing it to Caribsea Sunset Gold sand here in the near future when I upgrade their tank.

[celticstarb]

I use playsand that I rinse very well.

Like Michael said, river rocks allow a lot of detritus to fall under the rocks. This can lead to high nitrates and even increase the risk of pathogens.

Just don't pick any kind of calcium sand as will cause impaction.

[shmush]

thanks! and how might you vacuum it?


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[mpmistr]

thanks! and how might you vacuum it?


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Just a run of the mill aquarium hose/siphon that people use for fish tanks. You just need to pump it a few times and the water will start to go through the hose on its own.

So basically something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-Siphon.../dp/B004RK405A

Honestly I just use a rubber hose, you place one end in the water and briefly suck on the other end (ok I admit this is kind of gross but oh well) and the water comes, same as using the pump/hose thing.

I save my dirty aquarium water for my house plants and tomato plants personally, free fertilizer.

[shmush]

thanks for all the responses. if all goes well, I'll be setting up the aquarium this week or so. One last thing - do I need a filter or can I just clean it out every few days? also, what sort of lighting system do I need? can I just place a light on top of the lid or does it need to be more complex? do I even need lights at all?

so?many?question?marks?


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[celticstarb]

A filter is a must! Otherwise nitrites and ammonia will get out of hand. You will need to fully cycle the tank before adding the frogs. Cycling can take up to 6 weeks or more.

ACFs don't have any specific light requirements, so whatever light you choose is for your benefit.

[shmush]

A filter is a must! Otherwise nitrites and ammonia will get out of hand. You will need to fully cycle the tank before adding the frogs. Cycling can take up to 6 weeks or more.

ACFs don't have any specific light requirements, so whatever light you choose is for your benefit.

I was planning on doing the cycling where I put fish food in a sock and let that rot a bit. is that ok? and do the vibrations from the filter hurt the frogs? thanks.

[KMAC]

Only really quick way of cycling dechlorinated water very quickly is by adding bacteria in a bottle. I kept a lot of WC fish and the brand I used is tetra 'safe start' not to be confused with 'aqua safe'. My suggestions would be to keep a spare bottle for any mini cycles or crashes which does occasionally happen if you do to much water changes at the start. Before the release of safe start I used to use things like ammonia in a bottle to start the cycle but that also was a long process, thankfully for the impatient type like me with some seeding and safe start you can have a tank setup in under a day.

[KMAC]

Any fishless way is best, Long process though when adding food or dead shrimp etc to break down. The vast majority of NH3/4 is actually produced via fishes gills so if you add bacteria at the same time as your fish you will be sorted. Just do more frequent water tests until NH3 & NO2 are at zero then you dont need to test as often. You can work out water changes by monitoring NO3