Thought I'd share my progress on a fire-bellied toad tank.

It's a 20gallon long, 12"x12"x30" that someone gave me for free (yipee!) including one of those snap on wire lids made for housing reptile-type things. Also included was a waterfall that I didn't really like, but I'm using its pump here. I'm planning on putting in 2 or 3 fire-bellies when it is done.

Here's a view from the front left (please excuse the ghetto photos, it is under construction after all!):



The green painters tape marked the water line and where I wanted the land areas to be. The land areas are made up of the same blue styrofoam used on the background, but cut into approximate rock shaped chunks then glued together using a hot glue gun. The background is one big piece carved with a sharp knife, plus a little ledge glued to it. the cracks will hopefully house moss, or I'll train some ivy to follow them.

At this point there were one or 2 layers of Quikrete mixed with acrylic fortifier and tinted brown or whitish on the land areas.

Top view:



The right hand land area will be filled with hydroballs to above the waterline, covered in landscape fabric, then a substrate (soil+cocofiber+leaf litter) for some moss and small ferns to grow in. The water in the drainage layer of hydroballs will be mixed in with the main water area. If I decide I can't live with the browness leeched from the substrate into the water I can later block it off, but I don't think it will be an issue.

This planted land area turned out smaller than I imagined, but I'm also planning on lots of water plants, so there should still be plenty of green stuff to hide in. This is also where I plan to drop feeders, though if drowning crickets turns out to be an issue I'll feed in an external container.

Front view:



The waterfall is on the left. The top bit is removable for access to the pump and filter stuff. There's a jacuzzi on the top part, and a wide waterfall area to spread out the water flow and keep the main water area fairly calm. There should also be enough room for a fire-belly to sit on one of the steps if they decide they want a nice aqua-massage.

At this stage, none of the fixtures were siliconed in- they were just posing in the tank for a picture. I did all of the carving and cementing outside of the tank. The above pics are also from about 2 weeks ago.

View of the finished water fall in operation (taken today):



The exposed hose will be cut down to below the water line so it's not going to be a fountain (this is a vivarium, not a golf course). The waterfall only flows to the left side of this picture, it's wet on the front from my messy splashing. An additional 1 or 2 thin darker coats of quikrete have been applied at this stage, then sanded down after it was dry but before it was fully cured. This exposes some of the lighter layers beneath in the higher areas to simulate wear and give more variation in the colour of the fake stone. The cementing has all been finished and everything has been siliconed into the tank at this stage.

I'm at the waiting stage now, 2-3 weeks to let the Quikrete cure. Cement is supposed to act as a buffer, raising the pH of the water so I'm then going to flood the tank to the top and do weekly water changes until the pH of the water is unchanged by the 'crete. This supposedly only takes another 2-3 weeks. Then it's planting time!

I'm open to any suggestions or modifications at this stage. I've never kept fire-bellies before, so I'm going on what I've read (especially the care sheet here) to make a home they'll be comfy in.