Hello, new member!!

[drufrog]

My name is Drew and I am obviously a new member on these boards. A little about myself. I am an avid scuba diver and have kept reef and fresh water aquariums for 5 years. I have recently moved to Virginia and have had to take down all my tanks and decided to look into building terrariums with tree frogs with freshwater fish (rasbora, tetras, killies) or snails. Really interested in mossy frogs. Also looking into dark frog species only tanks. Interested to see how many people on here went from salt water reefs to frogging and if you still maintain a reef tank. Since I broke down my tank, I felt like it was time for a change and I like the frogs as most are captive breed. Anyway, that is me and I will be lurking the boards and asking questions if I can't find answers through browsing and searching.

[Ebony]

Welcome to the forum drufrog. You have certainly come to the right place to get your questions answered.

[bshmerlie]

Welcome to the forum. I had a very elaborate 75 gallon reef set up years back but decided not to relocate it when I moved. They take such a long time to setup and establish I just didn't want to go through it again. Frogs tanks are much easier to set up and if you get creative they can be just as much fun. I enjoy the making of a mini rainforest as much as I do the keeping of the actual frogs. I'm constently looking for ways to improve my setup and make it look more natural just like I did with my reef. And you'll find it can be just as addictive.

[drufrog]

I hear that!!! Reefing got too expensive but I see this as having a dry land reef with the exotic plants. I am very excited to do plant research on the different broms, ferns and even aquatic plants.

[JimO]

I'm a reef convert myself, but I still keep a small reef set up (27-gal bowfront) with mostly mushroom and soft corals. It's been stable for over 8 years and with some lighting adjustments and hair algae control measures, it has really improved recently. I even have a moon coral that had died back to about the size of a petri dish (half its skeleton) and now it is actually growing back over the dead skeleton. I also have a bubble tip anemone that went from healthy brown, six inches in diameter, to a white pathetic looking thing the size of a quarter. With my new high output T-5 fixture, that darn anemone has recovered its symbiotic algae, looks great and is back up to over half its original size. My maroon clown fish is much happier.

I just can't part with the reef, but now I have seven dart frog vivs as well. One thing I like about the dart frogs is that losing power isn't a crisis. I had to buy a substantial generator a number of years back when all those hurricanes hit Florida. We were out of power for a total of about 11 days over a 2-month period. If if wasn't for the generator, I would have had a stinking mess. Five days straight without power in a viv probably wouldn't permanently harm the plants and the worst thing might be changing out some stagnate water.

Oh, and welcome to the site. Do your research if you want dart frogs. They aren't hard to keep as long as you understand the conditions required and the limited number of some species that can be kept in a single viv. If you would be content with a pair of the larger terrestrial species in a 20-gal long or 29-gal, then dart frogs are in your future. But, it's like a reef tank with the frogs being the fish and the plants being the corals. You keep fewer fish in a reef setup, but the corals and inverts are just as interesting. I was never a plant person, but the viv plants have really grown on me (no pun intended). Former fish folks who liked lots of fish in their tanks often don't adjust well to dart frogs.

Feel free to ask questions. We like to help people.

Jim

[Kurt]

Welcome aboard.

[drufrog]

Jim0, I may keep a 20 gal species tank with a warty skin frogfish and some LPS's and some softies. Nothing too fancy. I was more into the coral rather than the fish when I did saltwater. I had a 40 breeder acro dominated tank with 3 fish in it for 4 years. I enjoyed the challenge of keeping stony corals but halide bulbs are too expensive and wanted to get a controller and all sorts of expensive toys and thought that since its down that I might try something different. I also had a major crash during a power outage right before I moved but didn't lose much and was able to sell or give my stuff to my reef club members.

[John]

Welcome to the forum Drew.