# First real terrarium...



## Misskiwi67 (Sep 24, 2007)

So I've built several planted tanks with silicone/peat backgrounds for my geckos, but this is the first time I've attempted a water feature and used great stuff.

If anyone has any tips as I slowly make the vision in my head into something realistic (ie, its changing as I go) so I don't make any really big mistakes, please speak up!! The terrarium is for a single Azureus. I might want to add another if I think there's space, but chances are I'll want a bigger better terrarium long before I'm able to sex my frog and acquire an opposite sex mate for it...

Here's the terrarium as a whole... I will hopefully figure out where to put the water tubing this evening, and then finish the great stuff this weekend. I probably won't have time to do anything else with it until next week, but I'll continue to post pics as I go.










I did read the top ten newbie mistakes thread, and have tried to go slow with the great stuff, but I still think I might have it a bit thick... oh well. I also made sure I had access to the water pump, it won't be easy access since I"ll have to tear out the substrate, but the only way I could figure it out was to hide the pump behind the waterfall and make a portion of the waterfall moveable... what do you think??


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## memnoch1970 (Apr 17, 2007)

a little trick i use; is to put that pump in a margerine tub or some thing similiar. poke holes all in the tub. this keeps debris out of your pump. cut a hole in the top of the lid for your wire and tube. read this link it will help you keep it simple but very usable http://www.saurian.net/htm05/froginfo_t ... setup.html


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## Misskiwi67 (Sep 24, 2007)

oh nice! What a stellar idea. Too bad the majority of my pump is already great-stuffed to the tank, I only left the pump itself and not the splitter accessible... I'm not sure I could get a tub of any sort to fit in the corner now, but I'll definately save that idea for the future!


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## memnoch1970 (Apr 17, 2007)

you can always cut a little of the foam back; put the tub in and re apply some extra foam. its very important to have acsess to your pump. sooner or later your gonna have to service or clean it. its just better in the long run; ive been through it trust me 8)


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

I agree that you will want to be able to remove your entire pump for servicing or even replacement, and the tub is a really good idea--will save you a lot of cleaning and blockage grief in the long run. These small pumps don't last forever, although preventing detritus aspiration really helps. I find the most common problem is having to replace impellers. I have hard water, so they tend to get crudded up with calcium deposits. If you are using spring or other soft water, this may not be a problem for you. If a plastic tub won't fit back there, you might consider encasing it in fine wire mesh. Just bend a "cage" around it. Nylon cloth mesh might also work even better. I've never tried this, but it seems like a good idea. You could tie the pump in a mesh bag full of something like the ceramic-like hollow rounds that are sometimes used in fish tank filters. These become colonized with nitrifying bacteria, which also helps with the water quality.


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## memnoch1970 (Apr 17, 2007)

thats what i do lol. i put the filter media inside the tub; it acts like a filter after bacteria colonize; [ good bacteria].


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## Misskiwi67 (Sep 24, 2007)

I've got plenty of filter material and mesh screen, so I'll try to rig something up that way.

Thanks!!

How's the rest look so far? Would you extend the pool all the way to the front, or try to keep it to the back and save surface area for the frog?


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## Misskiwi67 (Sep 24, 2007)

The great stuff pulled away from the glass as it cured, and now there is a gap between the great stuff and the glass on several edges of the tank, as well as behind the waterfall, allowing the water to fall behind the waterfall instead of down the rocks like it should... any ideas as to why this happened so I can prevent it from happening again?


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## roxrgneiss (Sep 30, 2007)

Hey Misskiwi67,

That's unfortunate - maybe the weight of the rocks pulled the GS away from the glass before it finished curing? Maybe fewer rocks or some way to support/adhere them independently to the glass besides the GS would help? Perhaps, making the rock portion first with silicone, allowing it to cure for a few days, and then doing wet tests before the GS application could work. Just some guesses...

Hope it works out okay. =)

Mike


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## Misskiwi67 (Sep 24, 2007)

Its not just the great stuff around the waterfall thats the problem, unfortunately. It seems like the entire third application (filling in gaps around the waterfall and the entire left side shrank back down during curing. I don't know if it was the humidity or what... 

I might take the waterfall apart and cure it with silicone anyway... which is sad though, because I like the way it looks and I'm afraid I won't be able to reproduce it. I don't want to just fill in the back corner with great stuff either though... I don't want to shatter the glass.


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## roxrgneiss (Sep 30, 2007)

Hey don't feel bad, it's one huge learning experience.  

I recently made a water feature kind of similar to yours - I'll PM you about it...

Mike


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