Newcomer Looking For Advice

[Aaron_S]

Wow. Quite the undertaking. Interesting and very cool idea though.

Here are my thoughts, ( I haven't done a tank remotely close to this in a decade so take my thoughts with a grain of salt)

1. For the water, if you don't want to saturate the substrate then build in dividers. Plenty of people glue in plexiglass or real glass dividers. Just make them a few inches tall and voila, built in water area with the ability to keep your substrate dry.

2. Most filters will give off a current as they pump the water back out so you should be fine. Fluval has some nice ones for this.

3. Prey items - for a garter, you'd be fine with a variety of prey items like earthworms, mice and fish.

4. Frogs are not the easiest to breed so most people stay away from it but if you can do it it would be fine. I would recommend firebelly toads.

5. You can also look into rough or smooth green snakes. Insectivores, great colour and great display animals.