# dividing a 55 gallon tank into 3 tanks



## spikeleebd (May 9, 2012)

i am going to be starting my first project to take a 55 gallon tank and putting two glass divivders inside the tank to make it into 1 whole tank that has 3 tanks seperated by glass so i can house 3 different families in their own separate tanks but i don't have to go out and buy 3 separate tanks when i can just convert this big tank into 3. is this a good idea and could someone give me pointers on how to go about doing this.


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## suztor (Aug 14, 2011)

That's an idea I've been seriously considering so I can get away with more frogs without freaking out the boyfriend. An alternative to getting a rack.

sent from my incredible...mind


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

Dividing it into 3 sections may be making them a little too small unless you were considering 3 pairs of thumbnails. You most definitely would not want to cram 3 groups of frogs in those spaces.

Now... I'm going to assume that you are new to PDFs since this is your first post. (BTW, Welcome to the boards!) Personally I would recommend splitting the tank into 2 sections because that will expand it to basically the same dimensions as a 25 Gallon tank. That size would allow you to keep some of the frogs that are best for beginners, as most thumbnails are typically not best for beginners. A 25 should be fine for Leucomelas, Auratus, Vittatus, smaller Tinctorius morphs among many others.

If you do a search of the board you will see several people have pulled off splitting larger tanks up like you mentioned. I believe I saw a post about one in the last week or so.


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## Pacblu202 (May 8, 2012)

Agree. With Carroll's post.


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## edwardsatc (Feb 17, 2004)

Two words:

Cross contamination


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi "Spike",

Welcome to the hobby. I have two pairs of standard D. leucomelas side by side in a divided 55 gallon and this has worked out really well for breeding the frogs. The males can call against each other and the females can't get at each other's eggs.

Perhaps you should consider having the same species in your set-up, such as the D. leucomelas.

Take care, Richard.


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## R1ch13 (Apr 16, 2008)

edwardsatc said:


> Two words:
> 
> Cross contamination


Couldn't agree with this statement more! 

Imagine this situation; 

You put a pair or group of frogs in each section. Down the line you experience problems with one of the groups and find out they have parasites, Ranavirus, or Chytrid.

This would mean you would have potentially subjected the other groups to such nasties and will have to strip down and sterilize each and every section - relocate all of the frogs to quarantine etc etc.

Save yourself some trouble and opt for multiple vivs if you wish to keep multiple species.

Regards,
Richie


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I have had my D. leucomelas set up this way for 14 years.

Most of the "nasties" will cross-contaminate your whole collection pretty easily, even if you have frogs in seperate housings. Better to be more careful as to how frogs come into the collection in the first place.

Just my thoughts, Richard.



R1ch13 said:


> Couldn't agree with this statement more!
> 
> Imagine this situation;
> 
> ...


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## R1ch13 (Apr 16, 2008)

Hello Richard, I first of all respect your experience and 2nd of all am in no way saying this cannot work.

You are more than right in saying that you should be careful about how the frogs come into the collection in the first place. But being that this is the OP's first post I can only assume he is new to the hobby and will more than likely rather spend his money on the actual frogs as opposed to the appropriate repeat fecal examinations, chytrid swabs etc - again simply an assumption.

Keeping to a single species viv with frogs from a single reputable breeder would put the OP in good stead, cutting out the chances of cross contamination from other sources etc

Regarding your comment on nasties contaminating your collection regardless of separate housing - I would have to respectfully disagree. With good biosecurity and sanitation when going from viv to viv I would hope that any such diseases/parasites could be isolated fairly easily. That being said, your vivs would have to be 100% FF proof, each viv given its own feeding cup amongst other things. But in my opinion this is best practice more than anything.

Regards,
Richie


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## spikeleebd (May 9, 2012)

could i possibly converting it into a standing tank and getting a species that likes to climb


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## cobraden (Mar 6, 2007)

I divided a 75 gallon years back and kept Powder blues on one side and Azuerus on the other. I actually got carried away and made a plexi front that had front opening doors of each side. Worked out well for me. Maybe I was just lucky. Good luck with whatever you decide.


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## jermajestyg (Jan 28, 2012)

spikeleebd said:


> could i possibly converting it into a standing tank and getting a species that likes to climb


Yea spike, a ton of people like to do that. In the dart frog community, we call them vertical conversions, aka "verts"

If you just search "55 vert" with the search function (upper middle in the green bar thingy) and you should find a bunch of ideas and examples for what you are looking for.

THe main things to think about if you're doing a vert are:

--the lighting. It has to make it down almost 3 feet for a 55 gal so it has to be powerful

--the front. You pretty much have to make a custom front to the viv since the open top will become the front. A substrate barrier with a swinging door is the most common option, but some people get fancy and add a bunch of stuff; ventilation, sliding doors, etc.

--the top. Since you will be housing frogs, not reptiles, you wont need UVB light, which will not penetrate glass, but will probably have to drill or remove the top panel for other things such as ventilation and the misting system. Many people do this for their vivs, but some aren't comfortable doing it themselves and many glass stores will not drill an entire tank, merely single sheeets of glass. It is not hard, provided you read carefully and follow instructions, but you always risk breaking your tank if you are inexperienced.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing a vert, in fact, i encourage you to try one out! There's a lot of decoration ideas you can do with a vert and many frog choices. Just make sure its what you want to do before you start on it. 

Hope it helps

-Jeremy


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## Brian317 (Feb 11, 2011)

cobraden said:


> I divided a 75 gallon years back and kept Powder blues on one side and Azuerus on the other. I actually got carried away and made a plexi front that had front opening doors of each side. Worked out well for me. Maybe I was just lucky. Good luck with whatever you decide.


I have a split 55 now that has worked well for me so far. I've made a couple other 55's before this one that did not work as the seal between the 2 tanks never satisfied me. Would I make another? No, I'd rather have totally seperate tanks. Did this work for me in my case? Yeah, so far no issues.

It's doable, but I would prolly just say get seperate tanks for a number of different reasons...


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