# Drainage question



## maxmlax (Aug 13, 2006)

Ok maybe this is a beginner question and should go in there, but for those of you out there who do NOT have a false bottom, how do you drain out the water so it does not reach soil level, which would cause sogging.

Cause my viv with the pea gravel drainage layer, its starting to get up there, and its inevitable to get up to the soil layer...any suggestions? how do you guys do it?

thanks again! 

-max


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## thumbnail (Sep 18, 2005)

*drainage*

I have several tanks without false bottoms. What I have done is either discretely hidden a tube in the back from the very bottom and it hangs out the top on the back or made a little cavern with larger rocks in place that I can slide a small tube in between for periodic draining.

Look in the left front corner of this tank. I have put three river stones that leave me enough opening to slide an aerator tube in for draining.


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## Alan (Jan 12, 2005)

Thumbnail: How do you siphon the water out?


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

I use aquarium airline tubing from the bottom of the drainage layer, over the top and into a container located below the water level in the tank. I use a 60cc veterinarian syringe with a cannula tip to start the siphoning process. This tip fits neatly into the tubing. Remove the syringe after the water starts flowing, and it will drain itself. 

Some people just use a turkey baster periodically. 

If you want to remove the airline tubing in between siphoning, you can insert a short tube that is somewhat larger in diameter than the aquarium tubing down through the substrate and through the gravel layer, clean it out well, and this will preserve a permanent opening to the bottom that won't clog up easily, but will still be too narrow for most frogs to get into. (An exception might be some of the thumbs.)


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## maxmlax (Aug 13, 2006)

alright, I think the turkey baster is the best idea for me, because I had not previously set up an area to drain it out unfortunately

thanks guys!


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2006)

Hey thumbnail,

sorry for the newb question, but what is that stuff on the sides of your tank? Where can i get some?


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## thumbnail (Sep 18, 2005)

*drainage*

If you mean on the tank walls its two layers of black silicone 2 caulking and a layer of dried bed-a-beast. On the newer tanks I switched to the brown.


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Max--Since you still have to route out a hole to the bottom to use a turkey baster, you still have a choice of either method of siphoning off excess water.


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

I make a pond by dipping the media down in one corner and covering it with riccia and java moss. Then, as needed, I suck out some water with a turkey baster...at most 1x/mo.

None of my tanks have drains, and only I out of 35 has a false bottom (amd I may never do that again :wink: )

S


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Yeah...after arduously draining my son's first viv via the baster method, we made a point of having our next two tanks drilled for bulkheads...only to find out that that was more worrisome (in terms of breakage possibility when moving the tank) than it was necessary. So far I really like the corner pond route the best. My new female pumilio was hunting springtails in the pond this afternoon:










(BTW, the outline of that pond is a realistic looking piece of plastic aquarium wood that I siliconed to the bottom of the tank before doing anything else. It is irregular enough on the bottom that the water in the pond is just part of the water layer that covers the bottom of the tank...)

In most existing tanks I think you could figure out how to remove some substrate in one corner, add some strategic rocks, and have a fairly nice and natural looking feature that doubles as a drainage spot.


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## brian_ (Sep 16, 2006)

Do you have to have the tanks on an angle to make the water run to the pond corner?


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

No. Because your land area is over gravel, LECA, or a false bottom, there is one continuous layer of water across the entire bottom of the tank, beneath the land and on into the pond area. I'd say my water layer tends to stay somewhere between 0.5-1.0" deep. You make the walls of your pond area tight enough to keep frogs from getting through to the false bottom area (if you have one), but because the gravel or LECA packs with lots of space in between the pieces, the water drains down through your substrate and spreads out evenly across the bottom. 

Does that make sense?


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## brian_ (Sep 16, 2006)

Yeah, I just thought this was applied to tanks with just substrate for some reason.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

When I used a drainage layer, I played with drilling a small hole in the bottom of the tank (5/16") and stuck a cork in it, or used water proof duct tape. The cork worked pretty well, even the one I made out of silicone did a good job of keeping the water in. The water proof duct tape was a pain because the glass had to be absolutely dry for it to stick.


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## maxmlax (Aug 13, 2006)

defaced, that is an interesting idea, I would be way afraid to crack the glass by drilling a hole.


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

brian_ said:


> Yeah, I just thought this was applied to tanks with just substrate for some reason.


Well, we want it to look like that! I put a layer of LECA behind my fake-wood pond edge, covered that with AC filter, then pushed the LECA & filter away from the glass a bit on the front and sides, and filled in the resultant gap with black aquarium gravel. This tends to blend into the substrate layer that goes on top of the filter, and it can look like it's an all-substrate tank...but it's really an all gravel/LECA layer for, say, 1.5 - 2".


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

maxmlax said:


> defaced, that is an interesting idea, I would be way afraid to crack the glass by drilling a hole.


Actually drilling glass even in a tank that's set up isn't a big deal, you just have to be patient. When you get impatient and start trying to rush the process, that's when you get into trouble and start cracking tanks.


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

sports_doc

I Love that tank !!!

Marty


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## Josh_Leisenring (Jun 19, 2005)

Just to respond to the turkey baster method of siphoning, I've found that, if you take 2 qt bottle of say, V8 Splash or Juicy Juice or whatever, drill two holes through the cap and run a piece of tubing through each, you can make a pretty nifty aspirator that you can use to just suck the water out of a viv with. Much more effective and time-saving than a turkey baster 

- Josh


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2006)

Sport doc! Great moss growth man!!!
I also drain my tanks via ponds. Make getting to the water easy, and evaporation takes care of the work 80% of the time.


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Josh,

That sounds like a brilliant idea! I can't wait to try it!

--Diane


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## mack (May 17, 2005)

hey max,

i'm sending you a pm about the meetings of the austin chapter of texas dart frogs. come talk frogs and see how other froggers do things.

mack


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