WATER The next
thing to do is start pouring in the water. We suggest the best type
of water to use is regular tap water that has been sitting for a
couple of days. So really before you even begin this project you
should fill up a lot of empty milk containers and let them sit. This
will let any chemicals like chlorine evaporate into the air before
the water comes in to contact with your frogs. If you feel safer you
could purchase a water filter and use the same method. Fill up your
tank about an inch and a half below the top of the gravel that is on
your land side.
Make
sure you test the pump before you do any of the above and make sure
the water is circulating properly after you have placed it in the
tank. Take the
artificial lily pads and place them in the water, these are not only
for decoration and are easier to take care of than live lily's but
provide a way for your frog to get out of the water if they fall in.
Not all frogs enjoy a lot of water especially the red eyed tree
frog, they spend most of there time high up of the ground in trees.
BACKGROUND Place
your background on the back of your tank, you can use any number of
ways to attach it. Masking tape, duct tape, don't use a glue that
has a lot of chemicals as this could in fact and up effecting the
environment your frog lives in. Rule of thumb is if the glue smells
bad or causes your eyes to water it could do the same for your frog
even when it is dry. Before you purchase the glue or tape read all
the labels, that should help and give you some helpful information
on the product. We used electrical tape to attach our background,
not only did it work well but being black it blended in with the
structure of the tank and is almost unnoticeable.
AIR
PUMP Take
the air pump and attach the airline tubing to it. We used a pump
that was for a 60 gallon tank and has two airline connectors coming
out of it. We ran airline tubing from each connector to an airline
tee with two shut off valves, this allows us to adjust the air flow.
Then we ran two separate lines from the tee to each side of the
tank. This provides a source of fresh air for your frogs and keeps
air circulating in the tank.
ENVIRONMENT You
need to keep an eye on the temperature and humidity of your tank,
the reason for the gauges. The best place for the gauges are in the
front corner away from the water and air lines, this way you can
easily read them and do not get a false reading. During the day the
temperature should be around 70 to 80 degrees and the humidity
should be around 60 percent. At night time this should be a little
lower. You can adjust the flow of air to help accommodate these
conditions by turning the air pump on during the night to drop the
temperature and off to raise the temperature during the day although
this may not have much of an effect. There are other things you can
do depending on the type of cover for your tank. We took the regular
aquarium cover that came with ours and cut out the front flap
leaving about an inch all the way around next we used a
non-toxic/non-harmful to frogs glue to attach screen mesh to it
allowing for greater air flow.
This used a fluorescent lamp, which we replaced with a reptile ultra
violet full spectrum lamp. This provides a natural source of light
during the day. If your humidity gets to low you can cover up the
part of the screen mesh with a piece of plastic to trap more of the
air inside the tank. You may have to experiment to see what is best
for your particular setup. At night time we use a red night light
reptile lamp that is suspended over our tank about 2 feet. Sometimes
these lamps produce a lot of heat and warm up the tank, we found
that this distance allows us to view our frogs at night time when
they are active and does not cause the tank to warm up. This is
another thing you will have to experiment with. All of the lamps and
the ultra sonic fogger are set up on timers. We adjust the timers
according to the seasons for the frogs natural habitat, for example
during the winter the days are shorter and during the summer they
are longer. We try to simulate the actual amount of day light
according to the current season to give our frogs a more natural
environment. The timers are set up so that when the day lamp goes on
the night lamp goes off. The ultra sonic fogger is timed to come on
about 30 minutes before the day lamp comes on and shuts off 30
minutes after, so it is on for a total time of one hour. This
provides an excellent source of humidity. Make sure that when you
connect all the cables to the timers and into the electrical outlet
in the wall that you put a loop in each one, this will divert any
water that trickles down them away from the electric source avoiding
either an electric shock or a circuit breaker or fuse to shut off.
FINISHED Some
of these things we mentioned you may have to experiment with
depending on the type of tank you buy and what your budget is. There
are a lot of resources on the internet in this field and not all of
them agree. This is what we have found to be ideal and maybe it will
be for you as well.
Take the
artificial lily pads and place them in the water, these are not only
for decoration and are easier to take care of than live lily's but
provide a way for your frog to get out of the water if they fall in.
Not all frogs enjoy a lot of water especially the red eyed tree
frog, they spend most of there time high up of the ground in trees.
Place
your background on the back of your tank, you can use any number of
ways to attach it. Masking tape, duct tape, don't use a glue that
has a lot of chemicals as this could in fact and up effecting the
environment your frog lives in. Rule of thumb is if the glue smells
bad or causes your eyes to water it could do the same for your frog
even when it is dry. Before you purchase the glue or tape read all
the labels, that should help and give you some helpful information
on the product. We used electrical tape to attach our background,
not only did it work well but being black it blended in with the
structure of the tank and is almost unnoticeable.
Take
the air pump and attach the airline tubing to it. We used a pump
that was for a 60 gallon tank and has two airline connectors coming
out of it. We ran airline tubing from each connector to an airline
tee with two shut off valves, this allows us to adjust the air flow.
Then we ran two separate lines from the tee to each side of the
tank. This provides a source of fresh air for your frogs and keeps
air circulating in the tank.
You
need to keep an eye on the temperature and humidity of your tank,
the reason for the gauges. The best place for the gauges are in the
front corner away from the water and air lines, this way you can
easily read them and do not get a false reading. During the day the
temperature should be around 70 to 80 degrees and the humidity
should be around 60 percent. At night time this should be a little
lower. You can adjust the flow of air to help accommodate these
conditions by turning the air pump on during the night to drop the
temperature and off to raise the temperature during the day although
this may not have much of an effect. There are other things you can
do depending on the type of cover for your tank. We took the regular
aquarium cover that came with ours and cut out the front flap
leaving about an inch all the way around next we used a
non-toxic/non-harmful to frogs glue to attach screen mesh to it
allowing for greater air flow.
This used a fluorescent lamp, which we replaced with a reptile ultra
violet full spectrum lamp. This provides a natural source of light
during the day. If your humidity gets to low you can cover up the
part of the screen mesh with a piece of plastic to trap more of the
air inside the tank. You may have to experiment to see what is best
for your particular setup. At night time we use a red night light
reptile lamp that is suspended over our tank about 2 feet. Sometimes
these lamps produce a lot of heat and warm up the tank, we found
that this distance allows us to view our frogs at night time when
they are active and does not cause the tank to warm up. This is
another thing you will have to experiment with. All of the lamps and
the ultra sonic fogger are set up on timers. We adjust the timers
according to the seasons for the frogs natural habitat, for example
during the winter the days are shorter and during the summer they
are longer. We try to simulate the actual amount of day light
according to the current season to give our frogs a more natural
environment. The timers are set up so that when the day lamp goes on
the night lamp goes off. The ultra sonic fogger is timed to come on
about 30 minutes before the day lamp comes on and shuts off 30
minutes after, so it is on for a total time of one hour. This
provides an excellent source of humidity. Make sure that when you
connect all the cables to the timers and into the electrical outlet
in the wall that you put a loop in each one, this will divert any
water that trickles down them away from the electric source avoiding
either an electric shock or a circuit breaker or fuse to shut off.
Some
of these things we mentioned you may have to experiment with
depending on the type of tank you buy and what your budget is. There
are a lot of resources on the internet in this field and not all of
them agree. This is what we have found to be ideal and maybe it will
be for you as well.
