Thinking of getting a clawed frog... Couple questions

[DVirginiana]

Thanks for the info, everybody

In regards to the heater, yes it's one of the ones with a plastic guard. Our apartment has really poor insulation, and our air conditioner has a tendency to **** out on us, so I like to have emergency heat options for all my reptiles/amphibians. The heater is one of the ones that self-monitors its own temp. So, like... If I set it to 64 degrees, it would only come on if the tank temp got below that. If that's still a bad idea it's obviously no problem to just take it out though.

I'll probably be back in a week or so with pictures of my tank. I'll get everything set up, and planted and everything. May go ahead and put in some ghost shrimp like someone recommended.

Oh, and just wondering... Do these frogs like to feel like they're burrowing in any way? The reason I ask is that I'm making my turtle a burrow using some PVC pipe, and if I could easily turn the excess into a large underwater 'cave' with smooth sides that is easy to remove and clean.
Any recommendations for covers btw? Like, do you use the hood ones with the lights built in, or just the little mesh covers with holes for the filters?

[DVirginiana]

Huh... Well I'm not sure what I wrote that needed to be replaced with ******, but suffice to say the heating/air isn't reliable

[mpmistr]

Thanks for the info, everybody

In regards to the heater, yes it's one of the ones with a plastic guard. Our apartment has really poor insulation, and our air conditioner has a tendency to **** out on us, so I like to have emergency heat options for all my reptiles/amphibians. The heater is one of the ones that self-monitors its own temp. So, like... If I set it to 64 degrees, it would only come on if the tank temp got below that. If that's still a bad idea it's obviously no problem to just take it out though.

I'll probably be back in a week or so with pictures of my tank. I'll get everything set up, and planted and everything. May go ahead and put in some ghost shrimp like someone recommended.

Oh, and just wondering... Do these frogs like to feel like they're burrowing in any way? The reason I ask is that I'm making my turtle a burrow using some PVC pipe, and if I could easily turn the excess into a large underwater 'cave' with smooth sides that is easy to remove and clean.
Any recommendations for covers btw? Like, do you use the hood ones with the lights built in, or just the little mesh covers with holes for the filters?

Heater with a guard as a safeguard to prevent chilling is perfectly fine. It's the ones without the guard you gotta worry about.

Some people say their frogs dig at the substrate, mine don't, so never observed this. What I do notice is when they're startled they will use their hind legs to 'stir up' the sand to create a smoke screen. A lot of times they wind up covered in sand because of this, which is kind of funny. So plants without a strong root system tend to get uprooted because of this.

Your frogs would like PVC pipe, just make sure it's something they can figure out and not get lost in and drown, they aren't the brightest animals so keep it very simple. Perhaps they are smarter than I give them credit for but i would be worried they'd panic and drown if the cave system was overly complex.. Jenste said they can't figure out 'aqua bridges' (the ones that link one tank to another) so I doubt they'd figure out a complex cave system.

I use a glass lid, with holes cut for my intake/outtake canister filter hoses myself. Works fine, my lights are LED and designed for a planted tank, and they clip on to the sides of the aquarium above the lid but I could rest it on the lid if i wanted to. Since my LEDs are stupidly bright and I don't want my frogs to become blind, I went to Home Depot and cut some clear plastic that they use under CFL lights to diffuse the light and placed it under the LEDs, works great and my frogs can bask safely.