10-28-2011, 03:10 AM
Hey everyone,
Happened to stumble into this wonder forum. As my subject indicates, I'm new to the hobby. I went to the Repticon ICE convention in Myrtle Beach, SC a little over a month ago and saw the most awesome little frogs in the world and didn't know they were legal to sell. I've seen them at the many aquariums i've visited over the years and always said I'd love to have them. Well, my 2 1/2 year old son was even more mesmerized than I was with them. He's spoiled and gets what he wants (and if daddy wants it to, he really get it). My hopes are to work on my tank little by little until the next ICE convention next year if there is one. There aren't any pet shops near me that are worth anything (the only fish I have are guppies because everything else looked horrible) and don't feel completely comfortable mail ordering these expensive lil things and I always like to see what i'm buying. So, I've got a year to research and come up with as many ideas as possible to try and make things as perfect as possible. I do know what I want to do but there are other questions I do have.
Things I know I'm going to have and use other than typical things I've been reasearching:
-egg crated false bottom tank
-great stuff foam background
-I'm going to incorporate a drain tube coming out of the top of the foam out of the top of the tank so this will make water changes easier. I'll have a pump on the outside and just suck the water out this way when changing the water.
-the frogs I want are Dendrobates auratus 'Nicaraguan Green & Black' or the 'Panamanian Blue and Black' unless others have an objection and don't think this would be a good starter frog.
As of right now, I'm impatiently waiting for my parents to come on a vacation to see me to bring one (or 2) of my old fish tanks, that I have sitting in their shed, here to me. I really only have 3 choices from my fish keeping/breeding days. i have a few 10 gallons and 2, 29 gallons and 1 OLD 28 gal slate bottom tank. I know that I want at least 1, 10 gal for quarantine purposes. The slate bottom is REALLY heavy and don't want to move it (if issues arise) full of stuff so I'm wanting one of the 29 gals. I am going to keep it vertical this I do know. My first question is, should I use a glass lid or a screen mesh top and cover part of it with glass to keep humidity up?
My second question is what type of lighting should I use? I've done a reef tank so I do have a metal halide light that's currently being used as over kill, but perfect, for my turtles (no the turtles and frogs will not be in the same tank). I also have a few florescent fixtures. The metal halide puts of very hot heat. I had to remove my screen mesh top on the 20 gal long turtle tank as it was getting well into the 90's inside the tank. Just removing the mesh has lowered the temp by 10 degrees. Which would be best to use? If I do use the florescent, I'll be using a T3 bulb since I have one laying around that I'm not currently using.
I have a bunch of nice rocks, driftwood ect that i'm going to try and incorporate into the frog tank much to the dismay of my turtles that are currently using my prized piece of drift wood and some of my nicer rocks. If boiled, will these be ok? I've had the drift wood for years and has been submerged and dried out many times as I constantly change themes of my fish tanks and it still holds up great.
I'd really like to do a water fall and a decent sized pond which will be the entire length of the front of my tank and about 3-4 inches back. I know that these frogs don't need to have that much area, if any, for ponds as they won't use it. I just have a vision in my head of what I want and it's pretty difficult for me to even change my own mind when I want things set up a certain way. I'll keep the water shallowish by using gravel and java moss.
I've read other places that the water in the tanks HAVE to be RO water. I've never used RO water when specified for any of my fish and was very successful in keeping and breeding (this is one of my methods to making money in my teenage years). So, since I've never used it, this is one supply that I don't have and don't really feel like spending $300+ on a RO system. I can go get some from a pet shop that sells it but that's also over an hour away from me.
How do you guys get the moss going so nice? I tried years ago to do something similar to a vivarium but not nearly as nice. My land section (which wasn't much) I tried to grow moss I dug up in my back yard but it died not long after i put it in there despite of keeping it fairly moist.
Money for me is kinda tight so, my whole plan, once I get my tanks here, is to do things a little at a time over the next 10-11 months. Let me know if my steps are out of order here. My first step was to do the background and the false bottom as well as mess around with the water fall system. I've read that they can be a pain but I've done these types of things with partial land set ups for turtles, newts and many other reps and amphibians. If the ICE convention does come back to my area it shouldn't be until around September of next year so get my tank planted and introduce my micro fauna by May-June to let everything root and grow. This will also give me time to figure out my temps and humidity levels.
Comments, concerns and criticisms are very welcomed as you vets have forgotten more than I've read about the past month of doing hours upon hours of research and you tube videos.
Thank you in advance
Jon
Happened to stumble into this wonder forum. As my subject indicates, I'm new to the hobby. I went to the Repticon ICE convention in Myrtle Beach, SC a little over a month ago and saw the most awesome little frogs in the world and didn't know they were legal to sell. I've seen them at the many aquariums i've visited over the years and always said I'd love to have them. Well, my 2 1/2 year old son was even more mesmerized than I was with them. He's spoiled and gets what he wants (and if daddy wants it to, he really get it). My hopes are to work on my tank little by little until the next ICE convention next year if there is one. There aren't any pet shops near me that are worth anything (the only fish I have are guppies because everything else looked horrible) and don't feel completely comfortable mail ordering these expensive lil things and I always like to see what i'm buying. So, I've got a year to research and come up with as many ideas as possible to try and make things as perfect as possible. I do know what I want to do but there are other questions I do have.
Things I know I'm going to have and use other than typical things I've been reasearching:
-egg crated false bottom tank
-great stuff foam background
-I'm going to incorporate a drain tube coming out of the top of the foam out of the top of the tank so this will make water changes easier. I'll have a pump on the outside and just suck the water out this way when changing the water.
-the frogs I want are Dendrobates auratus 'Nicaraguan Green & Black' or the 'Panamanian Blue and Black' unless others have an objection and don't think this would be a good starter frog.
As of right now, I'm impatiently waiting for my parents to come on a vacation to see me to bring one (or 2) of my old fish tanks, that I have sitting in their shed, here to me. I really only have 3 choices from my fish keeping/breeding days. i have a few 10 gallons and 2, 29 gallons and 1 OLD 28 gal slate bottom tank. I know that I want at least 1, 10 gal for quarantine purposes. The slate bottom is REALLY heavy and don't want to move it (if issues arise) full of stuff so I'm wanting one of the 29 gals. I am going to keep it vertical this I do know. My first question is, should I use a glass lid or a screen mesh top and cover part of it with glass to keep humidity up?
My second question is what type of lighting should I use? I've done a reef tank so I do have a metal halide light that's currently being used as over kill, but perfect, for my turtles (no the turtles and frogs will not be in the same tank). I also have a few florescent fixtures. The metal halide puts of very hot heat. I had to remove my screen mesh top on the 20 gal long turtle tank as it was getting well into the 90's inside the tank. Just removing the mesh has lowered the temp by 10 degrees. Which would be best to use? If I do use the florescent, I'll be using a T3 bulb since I have one laying around that I'm not currently using.
I have a bunch of nice rocks, driftwood ect that i'm going to try and incorporate into the frog tank much to the dismay of my turtles that are currently using my prized piece of drift wood and some of my nicer rocks. If boiled, will these be ok? I've had the drift wood for years and has been submerged and dried out many times as I constantly change themes of my fish tanks and it still holds up great.
I'd really like to do a water fall and a decent sized pond which will be the entire length of the front of my tank and about 3-4 inches back. I know that these frogs don't need to have that much area, if any, for ponds as they won't use it. I just have a vision in my head of what I want and it's pretty difficult for me to even change my own mind when I want things set up a certain way. I'll keep the water shallowish by using gravel and java moss.
I've read other places that the water in the tanks HAVE to be RO water. I've never used RO water when specified for any of my fish and was very successful in keeping and breeding (this is one of my methods to making money in my teenage years). So, since I've never used it, this is one supply that I don't have and don't really feel like spending $300+ on a RO system. I can go get some from a pet shop that sells it but that's also over an hour away from me.
How do you guys get the moss going so nice? I tried years ago to do something similar to a vivarium but not nearly as nice. My land section (which wasn't much) I tried to grow moss I dug up in my back yard but it died not long after i put it in there despite of keeping it fairly moist.
Money for me is kinda tight so, my whole plan, once I get my tanks here, is to do things a little at a time over the next 10-11 months. Let me know if my steps are out of order here. My first step was to do the background and the false bottom as well as mess around with the water fall system. I've read that they can be a pain but I've done these types of things with partial land set ups for turtles, newts and many other reps and amphibians. If the ICE convention does come back to my area it shouldn't be until around September of next year so get my tank planted and introduce my micro fauna by May-June to let everything root and grow. This will also give me time to figure out my temps and humidity levels.
Comments, concerns and criticisms are very welcomed as you vets have forgotten more than I've read about the past month of doing hours upon hours of research and you tube videos.
Thank you in advance
Jon
Jon
1.0.6 D. Leucomelas
0.0.2 D. Azureus
