Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey all,

Does anyone have a Vivarium where there are absolutely NO live plants??? Is it possible to have no plants and no substrate other than aquarium gravel and have a successful setup??? If you do have one, can you please!!!!!! post a pic. I love the astetic look of Vivariums with plants and all but I would love to see if it works without the hassel of live plants and dirt substrate. If you do have one can you list the material that you have in it? Thanks!!!!

cresty

Well I used to fall into this categorie with some tanks, but ive always and will always use live plants. I find nothing wrong with gravel tanks (besides now, and thats the way they look) and have used them for darts with great success. If you are going to go all gravel you get to be creative in your plant selection. Me being a Anubias fanatic had tanks with tons of Anubias, (from Anubias Lanceolata, to my mutant Nana/normal Nana, to Barteri var Barteri). With wood covered Javamoss and Lilaeopsis sp. Id also use Oak leaves and Sphagnum to break up the gravel visually. In a dart tank I think half the fun is useing live plants, not to mention all their benefits (O2 being one). Springtails (the white kind) seem to do just fine on gravel and if you ever want to flush them out you just raise the water level. The main reason I went with gravel in the first place was I planned to use a siphon and gravel siphon every 6 months or so to keep the tank clean. After haveing kept darts for a few years now I realize that its not really required.

All in all its 'doable'(cant believe thats a word) but, IMO ive got enough fish tanks to look at without needing to look at darts in the same type of setup.

Live plants and substrate are actually less of a hassle in the long run than keeping a "live plant"-free vivarium sanitary. The objective of most dart frog vivarium keepers is to create a biologically active recycling system, that in the long run, needs less maintenance to keep in a healthy condition. The plants recycle frog poop, dead insects-- beneficial nitrifying bacteria colonize tubing used to pump water, remove ammonia, filter water. A live plant dart vivarium, even the most simple and least automatically controlled, will need a lot less maintenance and be more healthy for the frogs in the long run, than a plastic environment where one has to change the water, remove frog poop, clean and monitor daily. A well designed dart tank will last from 5 to 10 years without a major take-down and cleaning except for wiping off the glass, top-dressing the leaf litter, trimming off over-enthusiastic plants, and renewing the water on the false bottom if it becomes low--or doing partial water changes on occasion. Without live plants to recycle the waste from the frogs, filter the water, the gravel is going to get dirty, become a noticablly unsanitary frog toilet, requiring many take-downs and sanitizing. Live plants and organic substrates aren't a hassle-- they are a decided advantage.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

Thanks!!!!

I decided to go with plants and after I set it up I felt your advice to be the best decision for my frogs. Now I have 2 Vivariums up and running and they look really nice and hopefully will produce an ecosystem worthy of a dart frog.

cresty