Dart Frog Vivarium Pic.......

[Double J]

Here is a pic of one of the vivariums I recently set up. This one is actually a wedding gift for my sister-in-law. It now houses two juvenile Dendrobates azureus (blue dart frogs), that were part of the wedding gift from myself as well. These are of course, offspring from my pair, so that made things rather inexpensive from that end of the scale for me.

This is a 20 gallon tank. The bottom is gravel, with a layer of my home-made soil mix on top, with some oak leaves on top of that. For plants, they are simply cheap greenhouse plants that include calathea, fittonia, and a malaysian birds nest fern. All of the plants were around two dollars each. The background was made from expanding foam, with a layer of peat moss painstakingly siliconed to the foam. This actually helps to raise th humidity, and provides a good substrate for mosses and algae.. which looks great after a few months of growth under good lighting. There is a small slab of cork bark leaning againt the background behnd the fern. Also, I have some cork bark keeping the soil from eroding into the drainage area on the right side. This will keep the exposed gravel from getting loaded with the soil.
For lighting, I am using a flukers incandescent hood (simply for looks), with one cool white, and one daylight screw-in compact fluorescent bulbs. Altogether, these two bulbs crank out around 2200 lumens. Keep in mind, the photo was taken without the flash.

Anyway, enjoy the pic.

[the_frog_man]

nice tank man i wish i had one like that lol
but im to lazy to make it maby ill get some darts at the next show!
and hire u to come over and help me make the tank LOL




thanx froggy

[Double J]

Thanks for the compliment frog man! The thing about dart frog tanks is this... they take a little more work to set up, but they are far less work than any other enclosure in the long run. When a dart tank is set up, you really need-not gut it ever, so long as there is water going into and coming out of the system (through misting and drainage) on a regular basis. The only maintenance with dart frog tanks generally is limited to misting daily, draining excess water in the gravel basin bi-weekly or-so with a turkey baster, trimming plants, wiping off the glass, and feeding the frogs. That is about all the work a properly set-up dart frog tank encompasses.

Here is a closer pic of the left side of the interior. It will gie you a better idea of what is actually going on inside the tank.

[silent_truth]

now that's a great looking vivarium! nice DoubleJ! It's interesting how a change in elevation of the substrate makes things look so much more intriguing and natural.

Wish I had friends/family that would make something like that for me for a gift.

I'm sure your sister-in-law will love it!

-Adam

[RepTylE]

Impressive setup. I saw the thead and had to take a peek.

All and all beautiful vivarium and your sister in law should be more than pleased with it.

[JonD]

Wow that looks really good. Looks like you put alot of time into it. That is one cool gift. You should put a few set ups together and sell em at the next St. Jacoobs show

[meow_mix450]

that good!

Meow