# Ameerega 90-gallon Build



## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Hello, again, Folks.
Here is my build thread for my 90-gallon tank that used to be a planted tank. I finally had to do one-too-many water changes and it is now a frog tank  My goal is to put some Ameerega in here. If you have some for sale and think they would do well in here, feel free to contact me  I have a line on chromes, but am interested in what else is out there.

This build started with my "self-contained" water feature detailed in this thread:

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...tained-water-feature-pic-heavy-wall-text.html

I will try hard to keep this thread shorter! I think it will broaden the appeal...

Anyway, I started with an empty 90, as in the photo below.










I am just using left-over lighting from my planted tank, but it will work really well, I think. I have three rows of 3-watt RapidLEDs (two of which I will continue to use) and a double Jungle Hobbies Advanced LED Lighting System. 










Here is the trough from the self-contained water feature. It doesn't quite fit into the corner of the tank because of the silcone bead that seals the 90. I went ahead and filled the gap between the trough and the glass with expansion foam when I secured the water feature into the corner. The picture below shows a piece of wood I used to hold the water feature in place while the expansion foam dried. 










The next picture shows the water feature with the expansion foam behind it along with the PVC that will hold up the remainder of the false bottom.










Next picture! This one shows the remainder of the false bottom with the bead of silicone around it that I use to keep the substrate from falling into the drainage layer. The PVC pipe in the middle is where I will be able to siphon water later. Unlike just about every other tank at my house, I didn't drill a drainage hole into this tank. The bottom of the PVC section has gaps cut into it so the water can drain in. I jam some foam in the top to seal the hole.










Close-up of the same PVC coming through the false bottom.










Here is a picture of the water feature in its native habitat in the 90-gallon. Notice that the silicone is mainly in the bottom of the stream channel. This was my undoing on the first round of setting this feature up. Once the tree fern fiber was wet, it freely wicked water out of the channel and out of the trough. This was bad. I think I may have fixed the issue by putting a band of silicone to the top of the channel. This seems to be preventing further wicking. I also ended up pulling out the rocks from the channel (seen in pictures below). They were increasing the water level and encouraging further wicking. It's a little uglier because I just have shiny silicone in there right now, but it is more important for me for the water feature to work for a long time than be pretty 










Here is a picture of the process of doing a cork mosaic while the tank is vertical. Because I put the water feature in first, and because the tank is really heavy, I decided not to put the tank on its back to silicone the cork in (how I ordinarily do a cork mosaic). That meant, though, that I had to help the cork stay up on the vertical surface by bracing it with lots of other wood. The good part is that you still have no idea how the tank is going to look!










Here is a picture of how I ran the power cord for the pump and the tubing that goes from the sump to the top of the waterfall. I ran the cord in one of the cracks that I filled with sphagnum moss. The tubing, I ran behind one of the arched pieces of bark. You can just see the blue foam at the bottom that is the little cap that I mentioned in the previous build log.










Here is what it looks like when the cork mosaic background is complete. I have to admit that I cheated a little bit because I wanted to try a more 3D background with more rounded pieces of cork than I would usually use. This left big voids in the back that would have taken all of the sphagnum that both Lowe's and Home Depot had to fill them. Instead, I filled the largest of the voids with expansion foam. You can't see it in the picture because it is behind the cork and/or covered up in the gaps with sphagnum. 










I went off my usual menu yet again with the sides of the tank. I would usually do tree fern pressed into silicone for the sides, but, again, because the tank was vertical, that would have been challenging. Instead, I decided to try dark cork tiles from Michael's. They look a bit artificial at the beginning, especially before they are moist from misting and have plants growing over them. Fortunately, I had seen them work very well at pdfCrazy's house so I know they will look OK eventually. Watch in the later pics and you can hardly tell what I used over there because the attention of the tank should not be on the sides. They blend into the background visually, for me at least. They were a ton easier, too, and they will probably be available longer than loose tree fern. One other warning, though: the cork tiles have a strange, smoky smell to them that I am hoping will go away eventually. I think it probably will 










Here is my first picture of the wood I decided to use. My parents have land in the Sierras (California) and I always come back with a boat load of Manzanita on the top of my car, like a big, blue burrito. The big one was a piece I had really been looking forward to using  I am sorry the picture is such garbage. It just doesn't do the wood justice. It has a beautiful, red-brown bark with gray, dead wood showing through in spots. Also, you can see my substrate layer. I always use Turface All-Sport Pro. It just works great, is dirt-cheap (so to speak), grows plants well and is basically permanent.










Finally got it planted and the first couple of pics are of the water feature. You can even see in the pictures where the tree fern is dark because it was wet. It wicked away incredibly quickly. This was before I increased the height of the silicone. It also has gravel in it, which the water feature no longer does.



















Finally, you can see the tank after it has been planted. In typical Mark style, the planting doesn't look all that great yet. I usually just choose broms that aren't doing very well in other tanks. They will grow in just fine. I also plant things fairly sparsely, knowing that the plants will eventually fill in the gaps. I also usually suffer a bit of die-back at first with my plants, but they usually settle in just fine eventually. Also in typical fashion, the picture is horrid  Hopefully it gives you a good idea of what it looks like right now, though, and you can use your mind's eye to guess at how it will look eventually. I also have to say that it looks much better in person!










Ok, that's it for this one. My next goal is to get a real camera out to take some pictures of my "living room" because quite a bit has changed since the last time I updated my thread. 

As I said at the beginning, I am looking for some really cool Ameerega to try in here. Maybe some green-back trivittata? pepperi? some of those cool black bassleri with the yellow backs and blue bellies? Whatever you have that might be cool in there. PM me if you have any ideas.

Thanks for reading my thread!

Mark


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## AOA (Jan 19, 2017)

nicely done mark....i love the wood! very cool tank and i think the water feature turned out great!

did the silicone stop the wicking?? I just added some to my river in hopes it would do the same. I have been double checking for anything that will wik my water up and over into my soil. It looks like the tank in a tank might be the ticket!

JD


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## Carlito (Mar 9, 2015)

Looks great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

AOA said:


> nicely done mark....i love the wood! very cool tank and i think the water feature turned out great!
> 
> did the silicone stop the wicking?? I just added some to my river in hopes it would do the same. I have been double checking for anything that will wik my water up and over into my soil. It looks like the tank in a tank might be the ticket!
> 
> JD


Thanks!

Yeah, the silicone is working great, so far. One decision I made that is really helping me is to minimize the water level and speed of water down the water feature. There is very little splashing and, as long as the water stays below the top of the silicone, it all seems to stay in there just fine.

Mark


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## Ian Hiler (Apr 9, 2009)

I produce a few types of Ameerega's. Let me know what your looking for?


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## RasecEsp (Jan 7, 2016)

This tank looks awesome! This is a good example of how one should build the habitat around the species and not the other way around.


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## Caden (Jan 9, 2010)

chrome bassleri!


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

Very Nice, Looks like a very workable water feature. Please post again when it's hoppin"!


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## froggorf (Nov 22, 2008)

Looks good Mark! I vote Huallaga Canyon trivittatus, but I'm biased because I'm getting some soon


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Ian Hiler said:


> I produce a few types of Ameerega's. Let me know what your looking for?


Sent you a PM, Ian.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Oooh, do please tell us what you plan to get!!!


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## Smith463 (Jun 27, 2017)

i must ask, do you think using the entire drainage layer as a sump is a bad idea? i want to recreate something like this feature on a smaller scale, i was going to use 2" pipe and a smaller pump, and just give my self access to it, but i would like to hear what you think. or are you making the water from the feature entirely separate from the rest of the water.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Smith463 said:


> i must ask, do you think using the entire drainage layer as a sump is a bad idea? i want to recreate something like this feature on a smaller scale, i was going to use 2" pipe and a smaller pump, and just give my self access to it, but i would like to hear what you think. or are you making the water from the feature entirely separate from the rest of the water.


Smith, sorry I didn't see this question earlier. I tried both for this build. At first, I tried to contain the water separately from the rest of the drainage layer in its own little mini trough made of glass. This...did not work well. The water found a way out of my mini trough every single time, no matter what I did. So, I broke a hole in my mini trough and let the water from the whole drainage layer be the sump. That has worked better, though I am guessing I am going to have to get down in there with the pump pretty soon because the water flow is diminishing. I am guessing that the little bit of stuff that gets down there through the layers and into my false bottom is accumulating in the intake of the pump. No surprise. After watching the tank for a few months, I really wish I didn't need a water feature. As an update, though, I did get some Ameerega pepperi Abiseo in the tank and they really do seem to like the water feature. No breeding yet, but I am hopeful. I need to get an update into this or my other thread. The tank is looking great. Just need to be able to get some pictures of the elusive Abiseos!

Mark


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

Mark, this tank looks incredible. You should update us with some pics now that its had time to grow in a bit. What frogs did you end up with in there? How has the water feature worked for you? BTW, I have some chrome bassleri coming soon for myself

Chris


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

pdfCrazy said:


> Mark, this tank looks incredible. You should update us with some pics now that its had time to grow in a bit. What frogs did you end up with in there? How has the water feature worked for you? BTW, I have some chrome bassleri coming soon for myself
> 
> Chris


Thanks, Chris! I do need to update  I will take pictures when I can get around to it. I ended up with A. pepperi 'Abiseo'. I love them. They have laid once but nothing fertile yet. 

The water feature is still plugging away, but it tends to "pulse" water down the drip wall a bit. I imagine this is because it is gummed up a little bit. I am going to leave it alone for as long as I can because it is a real hassle to get to where the pump is. If it stops working entirely, I will need to get in there and dig it out. I planned for access, but with the wood, etc. in place, access would be really difficult. I still wish I didn't have to have a water feature in there, but I have to admit that the frogs seem to like it. They love to hunt the flies that accumulate on the edge of the stream 

Mark


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## Red Beard (Nov 4, 2015)

Great frog choice Mark! They are number one on my wish list for sure. Unfortunately, a few of us in Canada are finding it really hard to locate anyone who has any abiseo for sale. I can't wait to see your pics. Very inspiring build!


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Thanks, Redbeard  I was only fortunate enough to get these because Kevin Hoff was kind enough to sell me his breeders. I had a ton of trouble finding any Ameerega that didn't rhyme with Foam Stassleri. 

I would love to be able to get these to breed and offer froglets for sale so that we can get them back and readily available again. I will post if I ever get any viable tads.

Cheers,

Mark


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

pdfCrazy said:


> Mark, this tank looks incredible. You should update us with some pics now that its had time to grow in a bit. What frogs did you end up with in there? How has the water feature worked for you? BTW, I have some chrome bassleri coming soon for myself
> 
> Chris


Finally got around to getting some pictures of the tank as it stood a couple of weeks ago  That's as current as it gets around here...





































It is difficult to get pictures of this tank, especially the water feature. Hopefully you can see it well enough. I am pleased with how the tank is going. The abiseo seem happy and have dropped a few infertile clutches of eggs. I am hoping that I actually get some tads in the spring. I am cutting back on the misting on all of my tanks for the winter. The plants (with the exception of that leggy sucker in the front right) are growing in nicely and seem to be doing well with all of the light I have on the tank (72 watts of DIY Cree 3-watt arrays plus a double Jungle Hobbies Advanced LED unit plus lots of fans!). 

The water feature is still working but is showing small signs of water winning the battle. First, the water goes wherever it wants. I am just happy some of it chooses to stay in the channel I made. The water that doesn't stay in the channel is no big deal, though, because it just drips down into the drainage layer eventually. There are little signs that some of the adhesive is giving out, especially where silicone interfaces between materials. The water also seems to be getting into and saturating at least the top layers of the Great Stuff I used to make most of the water feature. I am not sure if the GS will break down over time or not. It is holding its form for now, though, for which I am thankful.

Finally, I will tell you a story about my most recent bout of idiocy. I left the front of the drainage layer unpainted so I could see the water level. Fortunately, over time, the tank seems to lose water rather than accumulate it. I usually look for big bubbles up toward the top of the drainage layer to decide when I need to add water. I hadn't seen any bubbles in a while and the water feature stopped working. I figured the pump had finally clogged so I blocked out a chunk of Saturday to work on it. I dug up the Anubias in the back that I planted over the hatch I built in to access the pump. I reached in there and... there was no water. I had thought the drainage layer was full because I didn't see bubble in there. Turns out, it was one big bubble. I had let the pump go dry. Fortunately, I had unplugged it when it started making noises. I refilled the drainage layer and plugged it in and it works like a champ again. The whole incident gave me a chance to test the access to the pump (thumbs up) and to pull out all of the Java Fern I had growing on the water feature. It was just taking over the place and was a hassle to get out of there, too (thumbs down).

So, my water feature is still working almost 10 months after I put it in. I am cautiously optimistic about its long-term viability. I think I can get a few more years out of it, maybe. Looking back, if I didn't think I needed it to breed the Ameerega, I don't think I would have built the water feature. It's cool, but it adds brain damage to the maintenance and has challenges associated with what to grow on it. I am trying out different aquatic plants (mosses and baby tears) that I am trying to grow emersed but with their feet wet. 

That brings the latest update to a close.

Mark


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Encyclia said:


> Thanks, Redbeard  I was only fortunate enough to get these because Kevin Hoff was kind enough to sell me his breeders. I had a ton of trouble finding any Ameerega that didn't rhyme with Foam Stassleri.
> 
> I would love to be able to get these to breed and offer froglets for sale so that we can get them back and readily available again. I will post if I ever get any viable tads.
> 
> ...


I said I would post if I ever got Abiseo tads and that day has come  After probably 10 or more bad clutches, the trio finally produced what seem to be viable offspring. I got some good advice from Ian Hiler and others about how to get the ball rolling, but I don't know what it actually was that made things work. I suspect it was a combination of getting the supplementation figured out and maybe them just getting used to the tank.

Anyway, when they laid, I left the eggs in the tank, as advised by Ian. I tried to wait until just before the eggs would have hatched, but I jumped the gun by a few days. I didn't know what fully-developed tads look like in this species. Now I have a better idea. Anyway, my haste led to about 8 of the embryos stopping development but 12 kept going.

I don't know what will happen from here on out, but right now I have 12 swimming tads. Fingers crossed that they continue to develop into healthy froglets. I am also encouraged that the pair laid again a couple of days after pulling the eggs. This new batch hasn't fungused over yet, so who knows, I might have another batch of tads on the way, too.

Mark


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## Roscoe09 (Dec 30, 2017)

Tank looks amazing. Granted I haven’t one of yours that doesn’t look bad. Any thoughts of selling them to local “Coloradians?” If so I’m super interested if it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Good luck with the tads and eggs.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

Brilliant!
Good work. Keep the updates coming...


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Thanks, Guys! I certainly hope they morph out. SMenigoz has been giving me some great advice, so I hope to have some viable froglets out of this batch. The next batch appears to have some viable embryos in it, too. That's great news since it means the one batch wasn't a fluke.

It is way too early to know what I will do with any froglets that make it. Chandler, I am always happy to sell locally, but I am not sure that you will want these guys anytime soon. They seem to need a lot more room than most kinds of dart frogs. They are in a 90 gallon tank and I don't feel like that is too much room for them. Unlike all of my other darts, they are capable of jumping all the way across the 90 and they tend to move in larger leaps rather than the hops that most of my others seem to favor. They also seem to really enjoy the water feature in there. So, I would recommend starting with some other frogs and thinking about Ameerega once you have some experience under your belt. I don't think I would have been able to keep these if I hadn't been doing other darts for a few years.

Mark


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## Roscoe09 (Dec 30, 2017)

You bring up some good points. I don't think I can handle (or afford) hundred gallon tank. I barely have enough room for my 55-gallon plant tank on my shelf. Later though please keep up the updates.


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