Poison Dart Frogs - my build and general info

jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Thanks for the info Joe. Yeah, I have no doubt flies will get out of the terrarium its one of the joys of frogs.

I was trying to get photos of the plant stand it'll go in, but I need more light. I'll keep this thread updated over the long build.
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
How useful are springtails? From what I read they can help subsidize the nutritional need, but you still need to feed dusted FF or other live food. Do springtails realistically help lower the amount of FF that I'd need to feed or are they just a supplement for the frogs to snack on during the day?
 
jayjigga

jayjigga

Active member
I definitely was thinking you were thinking the acrylic shoebox for keeping the cultures, as opposed to housing the culture containers. The only time I had escapees was when a maggot would crawl through the container vents; that rarely happened.

jrpark22000 said:
How useful are springtails? From what I read they can help subsidize the nutritional need, but you still need to feed dusted FF or other live food. Do springtails realistically help lower the amount of FF that I'd need to feed or are they just a supplement for the frogs to snack on during the day?
Click to expand...
I think if you can get a substantial springtail population, you might be able to get away a week without feeding if the situation arose. I did it because I like having as much of an ecosystem as possible; whether or not it benefited my frogs, I haven't the slightest, but springtails are easy to keep :)
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
jayjigga said:
I definitely was thinking you were thinking the acrylic shoebox for keeping the cultures, as opposed to housing the culture containers. The only time I had escapees was when a maggot would crawl through the container vents; that rarely happened.

I think if you can get a substantial springtail population, you might be able to get away a week without feeding if the situation arose. I did it because I like having as much of an ecosystem as possible; whether or not it benefited my frogs, I haven't the slightest, but springtails are easy to keep :)
Click to expand...
Ok it sounds overkill, I'll start w/o the acrylic box. Thanks for the info on the springtails, I'll incorpoprate them as well.

Here is the plant stand as of today. It's all cedar and all of the shelves are adjustable. I'll take out the shelf the existing plants are on and move them to the bottom shelf. I'll then lower the top empty shelf for the vivarium. It'll put the frogs and plants at a nice viewing height for adults, kids will need a stool. The shelves are 4'x2' so it'll allow for 6 inches of gap on either side of the vivarium for gear, tools, and working space. The plant in front is the wifes hibiscus I'm wintering over.

View attachment 14828
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Epic is setting the bar high, I'll settle for overengineered :dance3:

Now If I could only find the terrarium at a decent price. The 36x18x18 is $160 on sale, why is the 36x24x18 $280!!
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
Craigslist Score!! I didn’t get my kidneys taken and I got a steal of a deal. Albeit a pain in the a$$ due to the guy skipping out on our first appointment. The build is officially underway.

Exo terra terrarium - 36 W, 18 D, 24 H
Exo terra terrarium stand (did not want so left behind)
Exo terra Terrarium screen top
Exo terra Terrarium double sided light fixture – 4 CFL
Zoo med– repti fogger
Zoo med – digital HygroTherm Humidity and Temperature Controller
digital 7 day programmable power strip
Plus a bunch of miscellaneous vines and other fake terrarium plants.
Various substrate materials
$200 FOR EVERYTHING

Everything but the stand is in my car waiting for me to take it home. I’ll start to inventory and cleaning tonight. I’ll get photos once stuff is clean and I verify stuff works. Anyone need any gecko or lizard stuff; substrate, fake plants, etc?
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
After cleaning, descaling and sanitizing everything last night, I did quite well. The terrarium is perfect condition. I’ve already removed the screens from the screen top in preparation for glass inserts. I got 2 bags of zoomed hydro balls which I might be able to use. The fogger has seen better days and I’ll use it for spare parts. The temp/humidity controller looks to be in great operational shape as does the light canopy. The fake plants and rock background were all in pretty rough shape so they were all trashed.

$250 Terrarium and screen top
$80 Canopy – 4 used uvb cfl bulbs
$50 temp/humidity controller
$20 zilla power center
$20 cricket pen
$15 hydroballs
$5 fogger parts
$440+ Total

I still need to upgrade my T5 light to a 6 bulb, another $200 and pick up a mistking. My next step will be to continue to work on choosing plants. Then I’ll work in designing the water feature and cork bark structures. I’ll then add the foam walls and cocoa bark.

I’ll rearrange the plant stand shelves this weekend and get a photo of the terrarium in its new home.
 
jayjigga

jayjigga

Active member
Wahoo for deals!! Glad I'm lazy cause that's a better route than piecing it together. Idk about that much light...you want to have enough to grow plants, but even the slower growers will eat it up and eventually take over. If you want, TL will have some of my plant I'll PIF your way. It makes excellent tiny ground cover. Can't wait for more (I'm living vicariously).
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
No worries, I created an account on plantedtank. It looks pretty cool. It'll be a while before I'm ready for the PIF.

You really think 6 T5s will be too much? I had a 4 T5s over my triopicals and they did marginally until I moved them to the other shelf with the 6 bulb fixture. I burn the same GE ecolux 6500k bulbs in both fixtures.
 
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