Hello...

[76brian]

Hey! I'm building a riparium and thought I'd sign up here and say hello. I'm planning on keeping 2 or 3 Fire Bellied toads (or some other terrestrial toad/frog), and a dozen or so small fish in a 35 gallon. Live plants as well I hope. I would like to keep it specific to a certain part of the world provided I can find easy species to keep from a single region. Obviously, firebellied toads are asia... but I'm open to suggestions on other species/regions.

I've kept fish and reptiles in the past but now I'm attempting amphibians. I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm sure I'll have lots of questions!  

[Greatwhite]

I once built a neat setup (wikipedia tells me it was a paludarium) with about 50/50 shallow water & "land" space with branches and climbing ivy, and had a chinese water dragon in there.  The trick was to keep the water moving, and a small submersible pump and some rockwork made for a neat little waterfall.  The humidity in the tank made my plants grow like mad!

I never got far enough into it to have it plumbed to sustain fish though.  I think that might have been real cool!  I don't think I had space for fish in the tank I had.

I don't know what the requirements are for fire belly toads, but be sure to have a good lid on the tank - because EVERYTHING will try to climb out!!  (RIP, water dragon)

[76brian]

I have yet to work out the actual difference between riparium or paludarium... What I'm using is a 36x13x18 tank. I built a stand, and an 8" high false bottom on one end, here's a pic with the water level about where I want it. I still have to cover the structure with fiberglass window screen.



I would have gone across the long side of the tank with the false bottom, but I thought the tank was too narrow at 13" to do that, plus from where it will be situated in the house, I want it to be viewed from both sides. I'll try to make it look as good as I can but I know it's not ideal for this kind of setup.

You can see in the back right corner, I built a cage to house an internal filter (using a whisper 40i). I'll be able to remove it easily for maintenance, and will be able to cover it for more dry area. The output of the filter is about 3" above the false floor, so I have room to build a waterfall/stream kind of thing in front of the pump as well.

Since the filter will be drawing its water through the false bottom, I've been toying with the idea of using the space under it for bio-balls or something similar for added surface area. Not sure how this will work in the long run though, so I might not do that.

I have no idea what substrate I'm going to use yet either. I'm thinking flourite probably, with a layer of moss or something on top for the land area. I might even change the structure a bit from what it is now, it might be a bit too big. As I said, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, I'm just winging it. So if anyone has any input on it, or see's potential problems, I'd love to hear it!

[Peekay]

No experience to help you along, but super interested to watch this progress!  Good luck!

[Greatwhite]

That definitely looks like you're off to a good start.   I'm very interested in seeing the progress of this one.. It may inspire me to build something!

[76brian]

Here it is with some dry scaping done... I used almost two 7 kg bags of flourite dark. That light is not the spectrum I'm going to want, I don't think.

I think I want another piece of wood too...



Now I have a question, if anyone would be able to help. Should I put water in it now, run the pump and let the chlorine and water clear over the weekend... and start the cycle monday? or should I plant it first, and then add water at that time?

[exv152]

Welcome to ovas. How did you get the flourite to stick to the plastic?

[Jkelley]

wow LOOKS WILD..NICE JOB BRIAN

[bizfromqc]

Looks great, can't wait to see how it develops.
And welcome to OVAS 

[Stussi613]

Welcome to OVAS!

Wow, I'm looking forward to seeing this progress. Hopefully Charlie will chime in with some suggestions on how best to start this up, he's the club president and knows his way around plants!

[76brian]

Posted an update in a new thread in freshwater builds. I'll continue the updates over there!

Thanks for the welcome everyone

[Rybren]

Welcome.  It looks like you're on your way to a great build.

Oh yeah, WE LIKE LOTS OF PICTURES.

[sas]

Welcome to OVAS .