# 29 Gallon Iquitos Vents Build



## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

This was my first dart frog build in many years. I had a couple D. auratus a while back, then ended up moving a few months later and got rid of my entire reptile/amphib collection (sadface), but now that I'm a bit more settled, this summer I really wanted to get back into the dart frog hobby. I had a 29 gallon tank that was a failed reef tank project, so I cleaned it out and it is now the home of 3 Iquitos vents, sent from the nice people at Herpetologic. This was my first build like this in a while so it was a little rough in places, re-learning some things as I went. Next build should go much smoother, and end up looking a little better than this one did, but on the whole, I'm pleased with the way everything came out. The frogs seem to be enjoying it immensely as well, chirping and calling the second day they were in the setup.










Started with a great stuff background. I didn't use any driftwood in this setup. I considered it, but I didn't have any good pieces, and to be honest, I just didn't want to mess with it. Next time I will though. 










Two of my fuzzy helpers on the back deck. 










This was the beginnings of the waterfall I wanted to build. Its a slow trickling type, I didn't want a gushing flow down it. It came out alright, and I just made a "cap/lid" for it out of GS foam, insulated the edges with moss so nothing can get into it. 










Hole to set water pump in. Easy access with the "lid" off. 










Carving out the waterfall. It ends up coming down a couple paths, and pooling in a few places as well. I like how it ended up turning out. 

I missed taking pictures of the rest of the setup process, just got too busy. But, frogs showed up about 3 days ago!










Beautiful froglets from Herpetologic! Barbara was wonderful to deal with, even though we had to work around Hurricane Irene to get them all the way up to Alaska. 



















Hanging out in the new setup, right next to the tillandsia.



















The finished setup! Someday soon here I'll wipe down the front and get a better picture of the whole thing. 

Comments, thoughts, criticisms appreciated! Bear in mind, this is my first real dart frog setup, so its not perfect, but it came out alright!


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## ocellaris123 (Jun 13, 2011)

looks really good. What do you have growing on the cocoa hut; Java moss?


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Its actually the side of the waterfall  but yeah, just some java moss I yanked from one of my planted fish tanks. There's probably 3-5 different species of locally collected moss in there, along with a few other Alaskan native plants.


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Some more pictures: 









Left side:









Right Side:









Full tank shot, It's super jungly right now, but the frogs seem to really like it, so that's the way its going to stay. 



















Couple orchid species, and an earth star, 










Enjoying the new setup!


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

The frogs look great! I love my Iquitos vents, I'm sure you will be very happy with yours too.
Good luck,
Bryan


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

Love the vents. They look great. Can't wait for my tads to leave the water.


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## dubloco (Sep 18, 2011)

Looks good. I need to pick me up a pair - love their colors!


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

They're definitely beautiful frogs! I'd recommend them to anyone. They're little pinballs, for sure. Bouncing around everywhere, eating like champions. Good first thumbnail sp., for sure.


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I have a 2.2 group and they breed constantly. I have about thirty just ootw and another 50-60 tadpoles coming along. They are a great frog, but be prepared to be overwhelmed with froglets!

Take care, Richard.


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## leuc11 (Nov 1, 2010)

Looks good I love inquitos vents and plan on getting them as a second frog


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

It's great to see some people finally giving these guys their due credit, I love mine and they are SUCH a beautiful frog. Nice pics!


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

I can't wait to have froglets! That will be yet another learning curve for me I"m sure, but I'm excited. I'll be browsing the tads forum intensely once they hopefully start laying. Especially up here in Alaska where this hobby is close to non-existent, it would be very cool to get more people into frog keeping. Thanks for the replies!


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

It must be expensive up in Alaska to have dart/reefing hobby. Do you have to ship all livestock rock ect. ?


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## Grrrit (May 30, 2011)

very cool viv dude! those frogs look great! and the java looks swell all the same!


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Alaska is expensive to have any live animal hobby in. I do have the good fortune of having an excellent reef store in town so I don't have to ship live rock (but I'm temporarily out of the reef hobby, my experiment with it did not go well), but paying shipping on light fixtures, animals, everything else is crazy. Even the places that offer free shipping, like fosters and smith, don't offer it for Alaska (which makes me really grumpy, we're part of the fricken US people!). But it's also totally worth it. Winters are long up here, so getting to stare into a tropical jungle filled with frogs, or a nice planted fish tank full of tropical fish and live green plants can help pass some long winter days and keep me sane. Thanks gritt, wait till the Alaskan mosses start taking over, I'm excited to see what they do.


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

If you don't mind me asking. What was your reef experiment?


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Heh.....that poor reef. I had been working/volunteering at the LFS up here for a while, and had wanted to try a reef tank. So I set it up, live rock, built a sump, etc., had it all nice and pretty, 4x T5HO light fixture, the works. And absolutely everything I put into it died. *Everything*. Couldn't figure it out for the longest time, till one day i was poking around the plumbing on the outside of my return valve, and discovered that I had stupidly, stupidly used a brass fitting to fit my tubes together. The brass was releasing all kinds of copper ions into the water and as we all know, marine organisms (especially the spineless kind) get upset when they get exposed to copper. So I tore it down, drained it, refilled several times, waited a few weeks and tried again, and still everything died, just too much copper embedded in the rock and sand. So I gave up. I'll try again here at some point, and I'm the wiser for my mistakes, but yeah, definitely an absolute failure at a reef tank.


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## 19jeffro83 (Sep 5, 2011)

That's a shame. It really is an exciting hobby similar to darts/vivs. 
One of the number ones no no's in a reef is copper. I believe it it may kill most inveterate especially aquatic ones.


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