Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[TAT2]

Okay I'm setting up a tank for fire bellied toads for my daughter. I'm going with a part land part water set up but I want to have live plants and live moss on the land section/s rather than just gravel so some sort of soil substrate will be needed. The water section will need completely 'sealing' from the land section to stop substrate washing away - the obvious solution would be strips of glass siliconed in place but i don't want loads of straight edges so Ill be playing with some plastic water pipe and a blowtorch

So to the question.........What substrate for the land section hydroleca and ?? - Would Dendrosoil work or would I just end up with dead custodian critters due to increased water in the substrate? I like the mini Eco-system idea and custodians would help with the 'house keeping'. Would this be possible or am I barking up the wrong tree so to speak?

[MJ]

here's the mix i use for my terrariums:

1 part orchid bark
1 part canna cocco (or and cocco/coir product free from anything but coir)
2 parts peat moss

this mixture holds moisture yet drains really well.

All this sits on a 2 inch layer of either LECA or gravel both work well but LECA is lighter... put weed block between the LECA and the substrate.
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Paul

For all your Tropical plant and Naturalistic Vivarium needs please enjoy Urban Bromeliad

[HanP]

Hi

It will be very difficult if not impossible to get a kind of "mini Eco-system"
in a (small) tank, imho, and what's more, the toads don't need a "natural"
environment, they need an easy to clean set-up, good water-quality
(filtration), a lot of ventilation, a lot of light, right temps and proper food,
things in fact, far more important than a care-taker's eye: some creative use of live water-plants, silk "plants" and slate and bricks ("land") will take care of that, i guess
Over the years my toads (and I) experienced such an hygienic set-up as very satisfying. For what it's worth.

Han.

[tim_hamblin]

I've done lots of different FBT tank setups.... Currently I keep my Yellow-Bellied Toads and Giant FBTs in a aquavarium...

It's an old TropiQuarium 88 tank = 130 litres (34.5 US Gallons/30 Imp Gallons), L: 85cm/33.5" x W: 37cm/14.5" x H: 55cm/21.5"
Interpet undergravel filter (whole bottom of tank), the water section uses gravel (washed/rinsed B&Q pea-gravel), then the land/water divid is a large section of cork bark trimmed to fit, then the raised land section is hydroleca, and an Aqua clear 20 powerhead (in deep end). 2/5 is raised land, rest is water (deep end is about 4", gradually going up to 1" in the shallows). Water is repti-safe conditioned, toppedup/siphoned weekly.
Once under-gravel/power-head water system is established its fairly low maintenance... The land section has sphagnum moss on the hydorleca, then local woodland moss and cork bark hides. The water section has various aquatic plants and duck-weed... Will sort out photo later...
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Tiger Salamanders (1.2)
Giant Fire-Bellied Toads (0.0.2)
Yellow-Bellied Toads (4.4)
Japanese Fire-Bellied Newts (1.1)

[sam]

I keep mine in a roughly 50/50 with gravel as a base, with this raised at the land end with compost and moss on top. It works quite well!

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