# Biopod setup ideas



## Kyman (Sep 18, 2015)

So biopod was just funded and hopefully shipping in a couple months but I was wondering about what people are planning on doing with theirs? Water features? What plants and wood? Any thing with silicone? Just basic stuff... I personally got the aqua and plan to do a water feature with fish ??


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

I'm doing D. leucomelas and cardinal tetras in the grand. Also going to try and source as many Venezuelan plants as I possibly can for it.


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

I'm hoping to do leucs not sure if I'll have room for a water feature in the aqua. We will see when it gets here I guess. I did order the plant pack and the waterfall.


----------



## austin (Dec 6, 2013)

I may do a Phyllomedusa species or darts, probably will end up with darts. I got the aqua so I think having water in the bottom and tree frogs would be fun though!


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

C los7 said:


> I'm hoping to do leucs not sure if I'll have room for a water feature in the aqua. We will see when it gets here I guess. I did order the plant pack and the waterfall.


You should be able to have it configured for one of the smaller sized pools with plenty of land area. I wouldn't do more than a trio in the Aqua though. I'm probably doing 4-6 in the Grand depending on how I end up arranging everything. Want a good enough chance for a pair but I do want it a bit understocked since these are my first darts.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

i got the grand with the plant package, waterfall, and feeder and i put down a deposit for 5 understory vanzolinis. i told them i'd be ready for my frogs in march but incase i dont get my grand in time, i can push back the delivery date to june.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Ya I certainly hope I get mine at least a month or two before it gets hot here in TX otherwise I'll have to push frogs off to next fall or drive down to Houston to Genesis Exotics. I really want to do a one to two month growout/cycling period, partly to just make sure the enviro controls work well.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

i'm not too concerned with the weather. i'm sure understory has shipping all figured out. i plan to take the day off and pick my frogs up at whatever shipping facility they arrive at. i'll probably get there before the place opens to make sure my frogs dont spend any more time in the box then they have to.


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

I guess being here in Toronto Canada I'm lucky that I can get frogs from UE directly at reptile expos.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Ohhh ya I keep forgetting about expos....haven't been to one yet. I think Genesis occasionally comes up to Austin expos too so that might work out. That would be great too as I was thinking about trying to split my leucs from two separate documented lines so hopefully I'll get unrelated pairs.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

C los7 said:


> I guess being here in Toronto Canada I'm lucky that I can get frogs from UE directly at reptile expos.


yea, especially if you're in the market for some cool frogs!


----------



## Kyman (Sep 18, 2015)

I'm getting thumbnails next weekend at the Phoenix reptile expo for my first tank!!! I'm pretty siked!!!! But I wanna do either a tree frog or another thumbnail species for my Aqua and idk what fish I wanna do yet


----------



## tth2010 (Aug 11, 2015)

I am getting the aqua and am probably going to put a couple of Epipedobates trivittatus 'Huallaga Canyon' Poison Dart Frogs in there. I am looking forward to it being an easy paludarium to build, since it will be my first one. I plan on putting some micro fish in the bottom area. Maybe some very small gouramis and tetras of sorts.


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

I'd like to put water and darts with the Aqua too. But I don't think there will be much land left in the biopod that size for darts too.


----------



## Kyman (Sep 18, 2015)

C los7 said:


> I'd like to put water and darts with the Aqua too. But I don't think there will be much land left in the biopod that size for darts too.


oh yah i totally agree there will be plenty of room for both i just need to find what fish i want to put in the water feature? I'm thinking 5-8 tetras but I'm not sure and also i will need to find some aquatic plants also


----------



## ulyssis (Aug 12, 2015)

I added the waterfall feature to the aqua I purchased. Looks pretty plain to just have water pour from seemingly nowhere. I'll probably use it as the pump to send water cascading through a series of rock cliffs. Hopefully you can control the flow.


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

Kyman said:


> C los7 said:
> 
> 
> > I'd like to put water and darts with the Aqua too. But I don't think there will be much land left in the biopod that size for darts too.
> ...



I don't think there will be enough room in the Aqua for darts and fish. The footprint is only like 25" X 15" or something like that. Then add water prob like 3-4" around the island so that would only leave you a footprint of about 18-19" X 12" or so not really that great.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

C los7 said:


> I don't think there will be enough room in the Aqua for darts and fish. The footprint is only like 25" X 15" or something like that. Then add water prob like 3-4" around the island so that would only leave you a footprint of about 18-19" X 12" or so not really that great.


BTW it's a gap of 2" from island to edge on the aqua, it's got a tad bit more land than you think.....its about 21x13ish.....about the footprint of a standard 10g. You would certainly want to do as much as you can to maximize the space like perhpas bridges over the pond with driftwood butting in the glass. Conversely there are different arrangements you can make with the island to make it a little bigger and the pond smaller. The overall gallonage of water doesn't change, just what's available to the fish. Granted that doesn't leave you a ton of room but the filtering should be able to handle a small school of tetras fine.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Hmmm just looked at the picture....stock config actually might be closer to 2 1/2" of water on 3 sides. With some creative planning you can make it work imo.


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

Rushthezeppelin said:


> Hmmm just looked at the picture....stock config actually might be closer to 2 1/2" of water on 3 sides. With some creative planning you can make it work imo.


Yeah it just makes the footprint a little small. What I was thinking of doing was to maybe only have a pool on two side like maybe the front and one of the sides. Or to do half the front and one side. Just so that I can increase the land area and still have a small pool for a few fish and the waterfall feature to flow into somehow. 

It will interesting to see how everyone sets these biopods up. I really wish I splurged for the grand. Lol


----------



## LifelessForm (Jun 8, 2013)

I snagged a terra with plant package and auto feeder, will be adding the waterfall too. Mine will certainly be for darts, although I've not picked a species. It's too small to move my 5 cobalts into, my leuc trio just got a brand new setup and my azereus is a violent lone female so she will stay in her current setup. I was thinking of a group of strawberrys or something in the thumbnail range. 

I'm relatively new to dendros, so I'm always open to the more experienced opinions...


----------



## mongo77 (Apr 28, 2008)

LifelessForm said:


> I snagged a terra with plant package and auto feeder, will be adding the waterfall too. Mine will certainly be for darts, although I've not picked a species. It's too small to move my 5 cobalts into, my leuc trio just got a brand new setup and my azereus is a violent lone female so she will stay in her current setup. I was thinking of a group of strawberrys or something in the thumbnail range.
> 
> I'm relatively new to dendros, so I'm always open to the more experienced opinions...


A trio of southern variabilis would look great in there


----------



## C los7 (Sep 24, 2015)

Do you guys think 3-4 leucs would be fine in the Aqua? Or should I be thinking thumbs. I myself like the bigger bolder frogs. But I'm open to some ideas.


----------



## mongo77 (Apr 28, 2008)

Leucs would be fine.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

C los7 said:


> Do you guys think 3-4 leucs would be fine in the Aqua? Or should I be thinking thumbs. I myself like the bigger bolder frogs. But I'm open to some ideas.


Depends on how you have it arranged honestly. Even in the full land mode I would do no more than a trio though, preferably a pair.


----------



## Kyman (Sep 18, 2015)

Rushthezeppelin said:


> C los7 said:
> 
> 
> > I don't think there will be enough room in the Aqua for darts and fish. The footprint is only like 25" X 15" or something like that. Then add water prob like 3-4" around the island so that would only leave you a footprint of about 18-19" X 12" or so not really that great.
> ...


For the wood over the water is anyone planing on using silicone to make the wood stay on the glass? Or what's the plan for the suspended wood over the water feature if doing one?


----------



## TJ_Burton (Jul 22, 2015)

I am personally going to wait until I have it in front of me before I start planning anything. I really want to see exactly what I have to work with, and then start making definitive plans.

For now, I am just patiently waiting for these things to ship out!


----------



## LifelessForm (Jun 8, 2013)

mongo77 said:


> A trio of southern variabilis would look great in there


Thoughts on A. galactonotus?


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

has anyone new to the hobby started buying things for their biopod? does anyone have any suggestions on things i should get before winter comes?

i plan to start breeding 6 different types of isopods and springtails later next week. other then plants, i cant think of anything else.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

I already have some temperate species of springs and isos (W. buski and A. vulgare) for my garters (to clean not for them to eat). Need to def get some F. candida and some P. scabers and w/e species dwarf whites are and start culturing them too.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

Rushthezeppelin said:


> I already have some temperate species of springs and isos (W. buski and A. vulgare) for my garters (to clean not for them to eat). Need to def get some F. candida and some P. scabers and w/e species dwarf whites are and start culturing them too.


do different types of bugs provide different tank cleaning services? i got the dwarf white, purple, grey striped, powdery blue, p scaber porceline and p scaber orange. the springtails are temperate. is there a tank cleaner/food a thumbnail frog would like that i'm missing?


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Also going to start culturing my other feeders a month or two beforehand to get the hang of that.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

macuser said:


> do different types of bugs provide different tank cleaning services? i got the dwarf white, purple, grey striped, powdery blue, p scaber porceline and p scaber orange. the springtails are temperate. is there a tank cleaner/food a thumbnail frog would like that i'm missing?


Not many people really have the temperate species....I just happen to since I have my garters on a bioactive setup where I need more temperate species Although I do create enough of microclime on my cool end to keep more tropical species happy. I need to add some to that tank as every species has a certain niche they like to fill....diversity in custodians is a good thing imo.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

Rushthezeppelin said:


> Also going to start culturing my other feeders a month or two beforehand to get the hang of that.


yea, i plan to start my first fruit fly culture about a month before i get my frogs and make 1 cuture every week until they arrive. i read that the flys will die of overcrowding so i'll be feeding the toilet every other day, but i also want to create a maturish tank so i'll probably put a few flies in the biopod so they can do whatever they would do if they didnt end up getting eaten by frogs.

and i'm getting p scaber dalmation, not porcelain. i'm getting my bugs from agrosse and i need 25 posts to write a positive review for him later next week so i'm just typing instead of searching and reading like i normally do


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

Rushthezeppelin said:


> Not many people really have the temperate species....I just happen to since I have my garters on a bioactive setup where I need more temperate species Although I do create enough of microclime on my cool end to keep more tropical species happy. I need to add some to that tank as every species has a certain niche they like to fill....diversity in custodians is a good thing imo.


agrosse said the springtails he's sending are temerate so i assume they are. for the powdery blue and p scabers i plan to put them in my big containers from neherp and half of it will be more wet then the other half. the dwarfs will be going into smaller ziplock containers for a month or 2 so they can find each other easier to breed. below is the thread i'll be using. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html


----------



## MisterMan (Nov 2, 2015)

Thinking about getting a Grand. Any ideas about plants for a water area? Specifically, I'm thinking something fairly short, but that is at home growing up and out of the water, thus perhaps able to thrive without injected CO2.


----------



## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

MisterMan said:


> Thinking about getting a Grand. Any ideas about plants for a water area? Specifically, I'm thinking something fairly short, but that is at home growing up and out of the water, thus perhaps able to thrive without injected CO2.


i havent done much research on the water area. i'd probably go to a fish forum and a local fish store and ask what plants i need. below is probably the nicest water section of a paludarium i've seen. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...oom-display-tank-pics-i-go-4.html#post1796930


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

MisterMan said:


> Thinking about getting a Grand. Any ideas about plants for a water area? Specifically, I'm thinking something fairly short, but that is at home growing up and out of the water, thus perhaps able to thrive without injected CO2.


You are looking for a category of plants called marginals then. Anubias are a great plant for this application. There are tons of others. Another big advantage of floaters and marginals is that they can clean the water much more quickly than full submerged plants. This is partly because as you mentioned they don't have to rely on dissolved CO2 levels in the water and they also don't have to fight with the water robbing them of PAR.


----------



## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

No water area in my vivs, but I have Anubias, Microsorum and Hydrocotyle on the background or on the ground. They thrive. Ever tried Cryptocorynes and Bucephalandra in vivs, but they should be fine. So you have a wide choice of plants for your water area, also because the light of Biopod looks high.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

What do you mean by "the light of the biopod looks high"? You talking about high output or high above the substrate?


----------



## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Sorry. I write in English, but I think in Italian: I mean that the light of Biopod looks so bright that also plants on the bottom can thrive.


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Ohhhh ya they are pumping some serious wattage into these things. 3w 6000K diodes. 36 watts on the original models and an astounding 90w on the grand. I wonder if he's putting out enough par with these to grow lawn grass lol ^_^ Of course he is going to need alot of par for anyone wanting to use these things to grow food in I'd imagine. Then again he does do a dawn/dusk dimming cycle so it's not getting peak output all day (unless you want to turn off the dawn/dusk feature).


----------



## jarteta97 (Jun 13, 2014)

I wonder, does the dawn/dusk cycles work like the finnex 24/7 with an all day cycle, or do you think it merely has 30 minutes or an hour during dusk and dawn where it ramps up/ramps down?


----------



## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

I'm guessing the way he's designing this to where you could do either. With it being web connected he would be really smart to have thing able to firmware updates that way he can add features that are easily computer managed like this would be. He hasn't given us specifics obviously but this is the way I would certainly design it. I guess we will have to wait and see though ^_^ Perhaps soon he will finally give us a lengthy features overview vid.


----------



## jmowbray (Jan 3, 2016)

C los7 said:


> Yeah it just makes the footprint a little small. What I was thinking of doing was to maybe only have a pool on two side like maybe the front and one of the sides. Or to do half the front and one side. Just so that I can increase the land area and still have a small pool for a few fish and the waterfall feature to flow into somehow.
> 
> It will interesting to see how everyone sets these biopods up. I really wish I splurged for the grand. Lol


So if I'm understanding this right. The "island" in the aqua is movable? Is it also expandable? For instance say I wanted to shift everything to the left. That would ive me 2.5 in the front and 5 on the right side. Can I add to the island and make that 5 2.5 again?


----------



## jmowbray (Jan 3, 2016)

jarteta97 said:


> I wonder, does the dawn/dusk cycles work like the finnex 24/7 with an all day cycle, or do you think it merely has 30 minutes or an hour during dusk and dawn where it ramps up/ramps down?


I know this post is older and peple may know now but after talkign with Jared this feature is a 10min ramp. 

Also if anyone still see's this I have never has a viv. but I have a LARGE assortment of aquariums FW and SW reef. I was looking at the aqua but would like some Dendrobates tinctorius 'Azureus'. How many would people suggest in a aqua versus a tera? I would love to have fish but being I have so many already I can part with then if that means I can get another frog.


----------

