# how Often Do You Drain Your Viv?



## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

Long story short, my viv has its water table to the top of the soil and I didn't notice because of the leaf litter. Now I am going to drain it every single week to be safe (I haven't drained them since I built them  ) 

I was wondering, how often do you drain your vivs?


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## BOOSHIFIED (Jun 23, 2009)

If you are just misting then a lot of tanks you may never have to drain or drain every year or so. 

The key here is misting doesn't not equalfull blown drenching. 

Obviously a misting system would probably need more drainIng then hand misting.


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## Erikb3113 (Oct 1, 2008)

i keep my hydroton layer visible and drain when the water level approaches the top. no rule to follow as far as time, on an as needed basis. not good to let your substrate become completely saturated.


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

If you have plants you care about in there besides aquatics, I'd remove them and the frogs and leave the viv to air out with the top off, or better yet, remove the substrate and let it dry out so the plant roots won't rot.

I drain mine before the water reaches the soil level.


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

no frogs, oddly enough the plants haven;t shown any rotting signs...


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## bsr8129 (Sep 23, 2010)

i never remove water from my 20, actually I add water since i have 2 small water falls and as the water level gets to low i add a little bit to top it off.


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## gio (Nov 9, 2010)

i drain my viv every once or so when the water color is more dark brown than light brown a nother way i know when to change the water is if it starts to smell it depens on if the water has contact with your substrait i tend to change the water every 3moths to clean bottled water with no chemicals


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

I've never needed to really unless I'm tearing down a tank with a water feature or something since I don't mist enough for it to accumulate that much.
Bryan


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## gio (Nov 9, 2010)

what tipe of viv set up do you have and what (g??) is your tank


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.


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## gio (Nov 9, 2010)

i use the vivarium zoomed pump it easy to use and its very nice to have


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## gio (Nov 9, 2010)

its $40 but its a good cleaning pump that rarely needs a justing or cleaning


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

Depends on the time of year. I only had to drain once last spring/summer, but the dry winter air here sucks the moisture out of the tanks, so I mist more often.. I probably drain once a month through that part of the year. 



gio said:


> its $40 but its a good cleaning pump that rarely needs a justing or cleaning


Tom's mini canister is really cheap and could easily be used for that too... IIRC it's like $20 even.... I'm now really pissed I threw mine out


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Probably once every couple or few weeks. I mist by hand, and probably keep my tanks on the drier side than most. Everything is on a false bottom, so whenever the water gets close to the egg crate, I do a session of siphoning.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

bsr8129 said:


> i never remove water from my 20, actually I add water since i have 2 small water falls and as the water level gets to low i add a little bit to top it off.


If you aren't using RO or distilled to top up the tank you are eventually going to have issues with salt build up as you are constantly adding salts with the water. Think of what happens in a salt lake.


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## LookinRound (May 1, 2011)

Ed said:


> I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.


What do you do to sterilize your water before discarding it?


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

I drain each tank once a season then start again.


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## PeanutbuttER (Jan 1, 2011)

When I first put java moss and riccia in my tank I misted very heavily and was draining some water out every couple weeks. Now that they're adapted and growing I don't really drain any more.


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## SmackoftheGods (Jan 28, 2009)

You have to drain your tank?

I've never drained any of my tanks. The air out here is so dry if I'm not religious about misting the water in my false bottoms simply evaporate. I have, however, needed to fill my tanks enough to keep my water features (those that I have, that is) running....


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

every few months


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## PeanutbuttER (Jan 1, 2011)

SmackoftheGods said:


> You have to drain your tank?


I was still super-excited about maybe having moss in my tank so I was misting fanatically at the time  

It worked though, the moss didn't die (which I admit felt like some kind of herculean feat, even though I now know that the stuffs actually pretty hardy...)


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

I must be doing something very wrong, I use an unused chemical sprayer from lowes and go through a gallon of distilled between my two 20s in less than a week. Imma drain them today and hope that my vivs arent ruined XD....


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

OH MY GOD... 

The whole bottom panel of one of the vivs is popping out, I don't know what to do...


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## Erikb3113 (Oct 1, 2008)

i just got a new sprayer that puts out too much water so with it being summer and higher humidity here, i foresee draining every couple of weeks. at least until i find a syphon that will take it all the way down to the bottom. after i drain more trickles it's way down and i end up with a half inch of water in the bottom that my syphon wont start with. 
Think i will look into drains on future tanks. once my tanks reach the point where water actually makes it through the subtrate without being absorbed (this can take a couple months), it seems i start having to drain all to often


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Wallace Grover said:


> OH MY GOD...
> 
> The whole bottom panel of one of the vivs is popping out, I don't know what to do...


Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

Ed said:


> Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.


Should I sand the trim to roughen it then try again?


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## gio (Nov 9, 2010)

can you post a picture it would really help alot


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

Ed said:


> Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.


Same thing happened to me with a couple of my verts. I will probably end up scraping off the silicone, roughing up the trim, re-siliconing, and then maybe even add a bit of Gorilla Glue or something on the outside to keep it from popping out.
Bryan


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

Ed said:


> I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.


I have almost the exact same setup. All tanks drilled and drained into a 5 gal bucket, which then gets bleached then discarded.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Wallace Grover said:


> Should I sand the trim to roughen it then try again?


If you can pull the frogs this is the easiest method to resolve it.. as Bryan noted in his subsequent post. 

Ed


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

Luckily no frogs...


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## BOOSHIFIED (Jun 23, 2009)

Wallace Grover said:


> I must be doing something very wrong, I use an unused chemical sprayer from lowes and go through a gallon of distilled between my two 20s in less than a week. Imma drain them today and hope that my vivs arent ruined XD....


I use one of those sprayers on my 100 gal but on my 20s I feel it is way too much. Less then 10 pumps (probably more like 5) of a normal spray bottle on "mist" is good enough.


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## RNKot (Jun 9, 2010)

Think will help a lot.
Seen from Mworks photo.


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

Ok, I took the front off both since the one started to peel. I sanded the plastic rims for better silicone grip, but unfortunately one of the doors broke so I'm going to have to rebuild it. this does give me a chance to add handles and aquarium tubing to frog proof though


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## randommind (Sep 14, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Since your having to rebuild one, here is an idea for you...there is a conversion kit out on the market that uses a second piece of glass on the bottom. It is the exact same size as the outer piece but this one goes inside the lip. This way the glass and rim absorbs all the pressure as opposed to just the silicone if only one piece is on the outside. Secure a piece of tubing to edge of glass to make it frog safe and your good to go.


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## Wallace Grover (Dec 6, 2009)

The doors can cure without the vivs being on their backs, right? (too late, already did it, but Im curious)


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## moose12 (Nov 16, 2009)

More often during heavy misting for breeding season...every couple of weeks. Just use a bit of air tubing a small amound of rigid tubing at the end to push down through substrate/hydroton layer with little disturbance. siphon into a deli cup. done. Not too much trouble.


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## Atmus (Mar 3, 2010)

Ed said:


> I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.


Why do you sterilize it?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Atmus said:


> Why do you sterilize it?


So I don't have to worry about introducing pathogens or parasites from my frogs to the local amphibians. It is considered to be one of the best practices a hobbyist can do to help native populations. 

Ed


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## Atmus (Mar 3, 2010)

Ed said:


> So I don't have to worry about introducing pathogens or parasites from my frogs to the local amphibians. It is considered to be one of the best practices a hobbyist can do to help native populations.
> 
> Ed


That makes sense. I figured you would dump it down the drain or something, and if you did that here, it would go to the treatment plant and wouldn't be a problem.

How do you sterilize it?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Atmus said:


> That makes sense. I figured you would dump it down the drain or something, and if you did that here, it would go to the treatment plant and wouldn't be a problem.
> 
> How do you sterilize it?


Treatment plants are often not set up to deal with the pathogens we are concerned about and in many cities the storm runoff runs into the sewer lines which results in the flushing of untreated water into the discharge areas during heavy snowmelt or rain events. 

It is easy to disinfect, use household bleach and let sit until the water clears and neutralize it with dechlorinator. 

Ed


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Wallace Grover said:


> I was wondering, how often do you drain your vivs?


Me....never....

S


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## daryl34 (Feb 24, 2007)

I only drain when it gets too swampy. I use 1/2 gallon for 50 vivs daily.


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