Here's my 75g dart tank, now I just need to get some frogs for it. I tried counting the plant species in it, probably well over 50, including alot of rare montane orchids and other epiphytes. All plants are native to S. America, cause I like keeping things biotopic.
~Josh
Great job!!! Nice vivarium. Which PDFs are you looking to move into your setup?
Thanks!
Well I would love to find some Atelopus spumarius, but I don't think that will happen anytime soon. That's what I had in there a long time ago but I had gotten rid of them.
So I'm thinking either D. pumilio and E. tricolor. I've kept all the larger species before so I want to get into the smaller, rarer ones again.
~Josh
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Hi Josh, that is a nice looking tank.
Can you tell us a little more about it, can't tell for sure, but it looks like it might have a water feature?
Well, as far as I know it's about 75 gallons, maybe a 75g tall? Anyway, the middle section has plexiglass partitions to hold a waterfall. The waterfall starts at the top in a small pool and then trickles down the moss covered lace rock.
The back and sides are covered in rock (rock) and roots. Basically I siliconed the rock slabs on to the glass and used a mixture of silicon and treefern fiber to hide the seams. The end result is a background that looks like solid rock.
I use the silicon/tree fern mixture to provide a place for epiphytes as well. You can take globs of it and put them on branchs and rocks, and form little pockets to stick the plants in.
There's a false bottom setup which is a piece of screen covered plastic eggcrate suspended about two inches from the bottom. I cover that with aquatic plant soil (laterite from Home Depot) and an epiphyte mix.
One idea of mine that seems to be working is to use super glue gel to hold small epiphytes to bare rocks and wood. I only use a little bit but it holds them in place until they root. I also use it in my reef tank, so it should be nontoxic.
The whole tank was designed for Atelopus in mind, that's why it has a large water feature.
~Josh
Here would be an example of where to use super glue gel. The Marcgravia cuttings were positioned in place using the glue and soon took root, and rapidly grew up the rock.
That is just amazing. I have a 75 I'm going to be setting up and I hope it comes out looking half this good. Any updates with frogs added?
Awesome, what a great setup.
