Easy and Cheap Waterfall Set Up, Perfect for Beginners!

[Kisa]

Hey everyone, I wanted to post this great easy and cheap way to set up a waterfall for your tank. It's cheap and easy, just like the title says, and will take you hardly any time at all! Everything cost a little less than $50 and took about an hour to put together, maybe two, tops. This set up is especially good for beginners as it doesn't use Egg Crate and shows an alternative to using this material as part of your waterfall set up. Here you go!

You will need...
A tank of your choice.
Decor of your choice (wood and plants/moss, etc).
Substrate of your choice.
aaaaaand...

The amaaaAAAzing Zoo Med Waterfall Kit! This bundle comes with a pump, the tubing, a bag of hydro balls, and the screen mesh used to separate the substrates from each other.

If you prefer to buy all of this separately you can, just make sure you get a pump that is adjustable so you can choose the level of power you want to use in your viv. If you are going longer distances you will need more psi, less for shorter, etc.

Anyway, on to the main attraction!

Step I
Grab whatever substrate you've decided on. For this build we used Plantation Soil by Exo Terra.


Aaaand soak it for about thirty minutes, until all the clumps are out. You may have to work through some of it with your hands before it's finally ready.


Step II
Fill the bottom of your chosen tank with pre-washed (by you), clean Hydro Balls. For this set up we used a 12x12 tank and used 3/4 of the bag of Hydro Balls.


Step III
Section off a small part of the viv where you would like to place the pump. You can do this with wood, rock, etc. as Hydro Balls are light and will not put too much pressure on whatever material you choose.


At this time you will also want to cut the mesh you received to fit your particular tank, the mesh that comes with the Waterfall kit is 18x18. We cut it to 13x13 to give it a lip so that soil doesn't drip down the sides and mix with the balls.


Step IV
Place your pump inside the sectioned area you gave created and wrap it in a piece of left over mesh to reduce the chances of a clog. Make sure not to place the wood for the waterfall over the actual pump to allow easy access just in case you find it has stopped working or has a problem.


Step V
Begin adding soil at a slope for your waterfall so that the water will trickle downward and into a water area. Don't add soil to the portion of the viv where you plan to put your pond, and add more where the top of your waterfall will be.


As for the exposed tubing, it's best just to cover it lightly with some moss or leaves. If you would rather not see it at all just cover it up, don't bury it too deep or put too much weight on it.

An interesting concept a friend told me about would be to silicone the tubing and add soil to make it into a part of a vine, adding to the "decor" of your viv while using existing materials. Just a thought.

Step VI
Next you'll want to place rocks where your pond will be. We used gravel under some larger river stones. Make sure to use bigger stones if you're worried your frog may eat them.


Step VII
Set in the wood you've chosen for your waterfall. For ours we used Mopani wood as it has natural grooves and can withstand the constant running water. It also looks very natural and is a great edition to any viv.
You can see the wood in the picture above.

Step VIII
Next you'll want to test the water flow and make sure it's right for the size of your waterfall. If it runs over the sides of your wood and wets the soil, you've got too much pressure, if there isn't enough water coming out, you have too little. This part you'll have to judge by sight. Make sure you keep the water level below the soil line. If you want your pond to be deeper just pull a little of the gravel out and reshape your pool to your desire, just make sure you won't drown your frogs.


Step IX
Dig holes for you preferred plants and begin placing your moss, leaf litter, or other decor you would like to use once you've planted all of your plants. Make sure to plant the plants deep so they can take root in the so and will hold up for whatever animals you plan to put inside.

And here's the finished product! Enjoy, I hope this has helped you guys, it was a great learning experience for me. ^ ^

[Ryan]

This is great! I'm planning on using this setup for my 20 gal with my Red Eyes. The only thing stopping me would be concerns about water levels for a frog that doesn't particularly like water. I've heard great things about the ZooMed kit though. I really want to try it.

[Kisa]

This is great! I'm planning on using this setup for my 20 gal with my Red Eyes. The only thing stopping me would be concerns about water levels for a frog that doesn't particularly like water. I've heard great things about the ZooMed kit though. I really want to try it.

Thanks! What I wanted is to inspire people to build Waterfalls, be them experienced or not. I'm glad you've decided to use this design. Give it a try and post your results here so everyone can see your take, I'm sure it would only expand the knowledge people can gain from this thread.

What I would do is keep the water level a bit shallow and use a piece of wood that is wide and shallow (like the mopani used above) as opposed to one that is skinny and deep. Create a pond area that covers one whole corner of your 20 gallon, but is only about a half an inch deep. This way, the frogs and simply walk into it and sit for a while without being overwhelmed by the water level. This way the water will cover a large portion of your tank, but your frogs won't be afraid to use it if they need to.

Do your Red Eyes not like water? I heard they're actually fans of the stuff. XD Though I don't keep them myself.

[bshmerlie]

My red eyes love the water....I have about a third of my sixty gallon as a pond. The water is shallow so the can walk around in it. If you have a lot of frogs make a bigger pond so they're not crowding each other. If you only have a couple it doesn't have to be so big. A half inch deep is fine. Just make it deep enough where they feel they can get a good soak but not struggling to keep their heads above water.

[bshmerlie]

By the way Kisa thanks for putting this together for us. A lot of the time we all try to build elaborate designs no one stops to document just the basic concepts. Simple, easy to follow, with pictures, I love it.

[Amphigorey]

Wow this was really helpful. Thank you very much. : D It helped with overall tank setup, not just creating a waterfall,

[Ryan]

I guess I was wrong then about the Red Eyes, I read in a care sheet somewhere that they didn't like water very much. I think you guys would know though you've owned and bred many of these animals. I'm gonna go ahead and take your advice and make half pond half and, I was planning on doing kind of a small pond with a stream. I'm really excited to make my viv look as great as yours does!

[Kisa]

Thanks everyone for your compliments, I just wanted to share an idea that would help beginners (and maybe some experts that didn't wanna spend too much time and money) find a way to make their vivs unique. ^ ^ As long as it's easy to read and the pictures are clear, I'm satisfied and glad I could help you out with your designs.

I'm going to use this set up for my future Red Eye tank as well, but nothing is going in the tank used for this instruction manual, it's going to be torn down and was completely for educational purposes. But I'm going to expand on this and make a waterfall/stream fixture into a pond for my Red Eyes this summer, and maybe do a smaller scale for a Clown Tree Frog tank I'm going to be setting up. And hell, why not do it for my future darts too? XD

That's why I think this design is so great, because you can use it anywhere and for any tank, as long as you make the size fit the area you're working with, the possibilities are endless!