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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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newbie starting a 120 g viv
#1
:twisted: I have been doing my research for about 3 months now and I am getting ready to start. I have 120 gallon acrilic tank that I will be using. I will be using two canaster filters one to supply the watter feature and the other to do a drip wall. I will use cork bark on most of the wall with some help from great stuff to hold branches and a little sculpting. I was wondering about misting. If I do need misting I will run a set up 5 gal bucked set-up ext. I would like a good amount of plants. Is all this to much water the drip wall, water fall, and misting? P.S. the tank does have two holes for under gravel filters wich I will use and three holes for filters one the drip wall two the watter fall and the thrird misting lines "if needed". do not want over saturate the plants and frogs.
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#2
Your planned set up sounds a bit complicated to me, but then I'm not a techno-Bill and keep things more simple than most people do. In my view, you don't need all that stuff. A nice false bottom with a single pump, no canisters or outside filters will suffice rather well, and probably be more maintenance-free in the long run. Maybe this post will goose up some answers you haven't received yet. All of my own vivariums are totally enclosed, no outside canisters or filters or automated misting systems. They work for me, and have for over six years without losses or major maintenance. Plants have thrived. On the other hand, I really don't know anything about the more automated systems with filtering of water, etc., except I don't think you truly need them with dart frogs.
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#3
What kind of frogs are you planning on putting in there? With all that water you could cover the background with java moss.
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#4
You could consider a drip wall of Fern bark fiber. Java grows great on a drip wall, purifies and filters the water as well as maintaining a very high humidity.
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#5
I do want moss on the wall but I really enjoy the look of the cork bark. I will let the moss slowly grow on the bark. Over the weekend I bought my drift wood I have a total of 8 pieces 3 are pretty large.I have am image of Budda that I think will go in there also. I am excited about the terrarium I hope to do the plumbing this weekend. I am thinking about putting Dendrobates tinctorius in the terrarium.
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#6
You can drip water down the cork bark, too. If you just wash it off and don't sterilize it, it will eventually sprout all kinds of interesting mosses and such. I've even had "mushroom surprises" and odd ferns crop up on cork bark. You can get it in bulk at the Cork Store. http://www.thecorkstore.com

Even with shipping, you can get a nice bunch of it a lot cheaper than buying it by the piece at a pet store, and have a great choice of shapes and sizes from flat to complete rounds.
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#7
Thank you vary much for the site have you had much luck with it? They do not tell you vary much about what you are getting.
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#8
I have had very good luck with it. You CAN specify a bit about rounds and half rounds, but if you just want the flatter pieces, they send a nice selection of pretty large pieces you can adapt easily with some sawing and breaking off if needed. They are all somewhat concave on the back of course, so you will need to stuff the backs with something like sphagnum moss when you silicone them on to the glass to keep the frogs from getting behind it. They will sometimes do this anyway, and make themselves little caves in the sphagnum behind the bark, but that's really no big deal. You can run falls down cork bark, as well. It doesn't deteriorate rapidly.
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#9
Hi Voodoo,
If that is your real name. Idea
Viv construction is as much your personal aesthetic preferences as it is science. There is just not that much science involved in making and maintaining a nice big working viv.
My only suggestion is the need to understand that most Darts in the wild do not do a ton of hanging around in or around large amounts of water. They can swim very well, will play in water, and such, but the main need for water is humidity and areas for tad depositing. For most species I would much rather have a lot of small, non running water areas (film cans, pods, broms, whatever) for breeding purposes.
A paladarium (know I spelled that wrong) looks cool and can function very well, I have just found that Darts really use water as if it were rain water more than anything, i.e. they don't need streams and rivers but do need a constant supply of areas to deposit tads, even if they are not quite of breeding age this gives them the "ease of mind" to know that they have depositing options.
I use small pumps ( no can filters at all) to move the water in my "show" tanks just enough to keep minimal flow spreading through the viv. Be it drip wall (which I have basically stopped making) or a single hose strategically placed to "spill" some water across my scaping.
Anyway, I guess my input would be not to worry too much about tons of water flow of filtration. Most of the plants, medium, critters, bacteria, ect. will filter your water just fine.
Misting will depend on the species kept. If they are eggfeeders, you may need to mist. I have some very good producers (non-eggfeeders) that never get misted.

Hope this helps,
Rich
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#10
O.K it has been a while but I have been working on my viv. I take an artist approach to making my viv. I did serve in the military in Panama and I fell in love with this one spot that is my inspiration for my viv. I plumb the tank like I planed it worked out GREAT. I used a zoo med 501 turtle filter. My tank was a fresh water tank and had two holes drilled in the bottom. I patched one hole and used the other for the water to the filter and split the water tube going out of the filter into two tubes one to the waterfall and the other to my drip system which is a manifold and eight drip tubes. I then spent a week or two placing the drift wood once I was happy I used great stuff to hold it in place. Forgot I did spend two weeks finding the right wood. I then placed cork bark in spaces and foamed the back to make it stay in place. When that was dry I foamed the rest of the back ground and tried to form the foam into the bark and wood the drip system was in place before I started foaming. I am now cutting places out for large plants. The next step is silicone and coco bedding mixed with moss on the foam. I want to try a 90% to 10% mix of coco to moss. I like the coco on the foam but I think it would look more natural to break it up with a little moss and then let it grow as it will. Any more help or suggestions of the next step or steps would be greatly appreciated
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