Setup
Terrarium setup
A straightforward recipe for an easy-to-maintain display terrarium for dart frogs, mantellas, tree frogs, and other amphibians. Plan the animal, the plants, and the light before you buy the box.
- Materials
- Expanded clay pellets (LECA). Fiberglass window screen and/or a cut-to-fit carbon filter pad made for aquarium filters. Coconut husk bedding such as Eco Earth. Wellaby wood or similar dense, rot-resistant wood, rocks or other furniture, and gravel or stone under any water. A water pump and tubing if you want flow. Plants. A light fixture and bulb. A container — most often a tank with a full glass top.
- Build
- A ten-gallon tank with a full hinged glass cover is a solid start. Wash it with no soap. Add rinsed clay pellets about 2 to 3 inches deep, and set the pump in that layer if you are using one. Cover the pellets with screen, folded up the sides. Cover the land area with filter pad so the soil stays put and the pad can work as a biological filter. Cut notches for tubing. Add moistened Eco Earth and shape the land. Different soil depths give plants different drainage. These basics are on our products shelves.
- Plants
- Match plants to light, humidity, and drainage. Reliable starters: pothos, peace lily, and arrow plants for cover; Java moss, Anubias, Selaginella, and some creeping fig for the undergrowth. Once the tank is settled, air plants, bromeliads, orchids, and other epiphytes. What you keep in the tank should decide how much cover you plant.
- Light
- Start with compact fluorescent or a screw-in coil bulb in a regular dome. You want enough light for the plants without cooking the animals. Some heat is unavoidable. The goal is tropical, not a sauna.
- Animals
- Frogs, toads, and salamanders are the usual inhabitants. Read the species before you add it. Fresh, clean water has to be available, and stagnant water turns toxic. A tank built this way can be low maintenance, but you will still change some water. How often depends on how many animals, the size of the box, and how fast water leaves the system.
See the reptiles and amphibians in the collection for what we can offer for a vivarium, and call if you are not sure which animal fits the tank you are building.
