The big tank is nearly finished

Had a great day pottering around with a good mate doing froggy stuff today. We managed to get the big tank on the racking , got the lights installed, planted it, cleaned up the outside of it and I have just finished installing some misting nozzles. Here are a few shots as it stands now will hopefully grow in great and cant wait to see some mosses spring up from everywhere.

Big Tank Big Ideas

I started putting together the big 3 foot tank today in preparation for some new frogs. I'm planning the most natural I can get it to look and have already got a good start.

I've used lots of dried oak leaves as a floor covering and added 2 cultures of springtails in the hope they will take hold and provide extra food for the new occupants.

I've added some sponge mushrooms for calling sites as well as a few branches so that I can plant some epiphytes later.

I've also raided the local orchid nursery for what they class as 'weeds', well they do damn fine in warmer vivs and this stuff provides a really wild look to a viv.

I have a box of plants and a few cuttings on stand by so that I can start the full planting once the new rack for the bedroom has arrived.

I have got some fittonia and some creeping fig and a couple of really nice ferns

and Im also going to use this nice big pothos stem to provide a 'canopy'. Hopefully  it will create some shaded spots for some of the plants that like the light a bit more low level.

I found out that I had for the first time, run out of coconut huts but luckily had a couple of coconuts in the cupboard which I smashed up and took a dremel to. Not perfect I know but they will serve the purpose and not look like I bought them off a shelf.

I thought to make some natural looking pools of water I would use some cork branch cut into 2/3 cm sections.

 I drilled out the centre to make a nice cork shroud.

 Then I took a standard 36mm film cannister and lopped the top off to match the cork shroud.

And here is the final product, they should make for a more natural pool and hopefully attract some breeding behaviour.

So far this is how the tank is looking, its just waiting for the rack to turn up so that I can sort out the heating and get it all installed, then on to the fun part.... planting.

Trying a few things out....

So after having a look around at other peoples vivs on various forums etc. I decided to try and add a more 'natural' feel to my vivarium's at home. I feel I have always designed vivarium's, especially those for the frogs to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. This however has led to vivs that in my opinion would look pretty good in any living room, but then, frogs don't come from you living room. I had a good look through reference shots of tropical rainforests and even had a quick walk around the local woods to see what sort of thing I've been missing. I came to the conclusion that although my vivs look good and 'clean' nature isn't clean. So with this in mind I got home and got my thinking cap on. I decided that using oak leaves as leaf litter would look a bit more natural than either bare floor or pillow moss etc. and a few broken up apple tree twigs would add to this effect. Bare in mind this is a work in progress and it will start looking better the more overgrown it becomes as again, nature has no gardener.
See what you think:

A few shots and an introduction

This morning I jumped out of bed and headed over to Paignton where I had arranged to collect a couple of young Azureus dart frogs from a member of http://www.dendroworld.co.uk. They are gorgeous and a nice healthy size. I had a nice day pottering around the frog tanks cleaning them up and doing a bit of gardening. I had my camera to hand and managed to get a few nice shots.

 Someone was watching me... hehe:

A few of my big male azzie:

 And Introducing the two news babies:

 And a couple of the other frogs...Green and black Auratus:

 And the Leucomelas:

sorry for the glare off the Azzies but the flash reflects badly off them.