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Thread: Old Terraruim Build for Azeurus Dart Frogs

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    Monterey, CA
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    Default Old Terraruim Build for Azeurus Dart Frogs

    I have about a million different tanks laying around my house so I chose a 30gal.

    I used the format from BriansTropicals on how to build for this tank. And I aplologize for the bad photo quality :( used the camera on my phone.


    It all began with the driftwood placement.


    Then of course it moved on to the Great Stuff Expanding Foam, but I didn't have the time to take an inbetween picture. I placed coco-fiber on top of the foam and let it cook for the 5 hours I was at work.


    Here it is after cooking and getting rid of the extra coco-fiber. (I used a LOT of the stuff, packed on at least 2-3 inches of coco-fiber)


    I used pea-gravel since I had a ton of the stuff laying around-- my house is magical and had a lot of excess things I could use to build this bad-boy.


    Used fiberglass window screening in-between the gravel and substrate. Substrate is a mix of coco-fiber and zillas jungle mix.


    Shoved dry sphagnum moss into any cracks that were left behind with the foam. Planted some live moss on the background in hopes that it will grow and basically made a lawn on the bottom. Planted a fern on the left side, and 2 different specie of bromeliad on the right. Placed a couple of coco-huts one hidden behind the driftwood that I placed on the bottom to plant the bromeliad in and one in the corner in front of the fern.


    Kinda did the ventilation ghetto style. Cut another piece of window screening for some stability and siliconed it to the edge of the tank and to the very edge of the glass hood, then cut an aquarium filter sock up and superglued it to the window screening.


    Then as a finishing touch, placed one of my old reptile lights on top with an old UVB/UVA bulb.


    And thats that. The brom that looks like its falling has since grown straight. I tried to get pictures of the frogglets when they came in but alas my camera phone just made them super blurry. Theres 4 of them in there and they are now about 6 months old All the plants are thriving and the frogs are surprisingly super active and don't hide everywhere.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Finger Lakes, NY
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    that looks amazing

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    Monterey, CA
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    Thanks it definatily was a fun project to do-- kinda did it on a whim though but it all turned out pretty well

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    WOW. That is so awsome ( I gave you a 5* rating ).I want to ask you how long do you have to wait for the foam to dry until you put the coco fiber on it ? what did you mean by letting the coco fiber cook ? what type of foam did you use ? isn't the foam toxic ?
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  5. #5
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    Jan 2008
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    Pennsylvania
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    Double Wow!!! That is verrrrry creative .. I have the same questions as Sam does above ???

  6. #6
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    Nov 2009
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    thanks for the rating

    As soon as you place the foam around the driftwood you automatically (within 5 minutes) put the coco-fiber on top of the foam and pat it down so it sticks on there-- your supposed to let the foam/coco-fiber sit for a day but after expirimenting with different builds, after 5-6 hours the foam and coco-fiber are ready to be sat upright.

    Cooking refers to the time that allows the foam and whatever substrate you want to use on the background merge together and for the foam to stop expanding. However within the next few days the foam will shrink, and you could either add another layer of foam or be lazy like I was and just shove sphagnum moss into and space left over.

    I used the red can of Great Stuff Expanding Foam from Home Depot. There is a terraruim specific can of foam that you could use but 1) Its super expensive and 2) it can only be ordered off of 1 site. When I first started building I was about to get that stuff as I thought anything else would be toxic as well, but a well exerienced dart frog keeper friend of mine informed me that the Great Stuff would not harm the frogs. But if you do get the great stuff foam make sure its the RED can as that is the one that is used for gaps and cracks and is water-tight.

  7. #7
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    Oct 2007
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    Your welcome . Thank you so much for all the great info. I'm going to try to do this to the enclosure I just bought for my two Tegu hatchlings. I hope they are not going to tear it up by trying to climb on it or bite it.
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

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  8. #8
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    If you want more info www.brianstropicals.com/building.html is an awesome format. You can ignore the part about pvc for tegus though because the pvc is used for egg laying chambers for frogs.

    If you dont want to put the foam directly on the glass you can put seran wrap where the foam will be so you can pop the background in and out.

    I thought about doing it on a tegu tank if you find a nice piece of driftwood you ciuld make it stick outwards into the tank and make a platform

  9. #9
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    Also, if the first time the substrate doesnt stick to the foam you can always add more foam where the substrate didnt stick and throw on more substrate and pat it down realllly hard.

    Here somes pics of the frogs




  10. #10
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    Oct 2007
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    They are sooooo tiny . I love the blue color on them . Thank you for the extra info .
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

    Our videos :

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