Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just finished building stand for a 40 gallon aquarium, but I can't decide how to set up the tank up as a vivarium. One idea I had was to put a layer of rinsed pea gravel on the bottom and cover it over with several inches of topsoil. What kind of plants could I grow in this setup? I plan to mount a flourescent tube (full-spectrum, of course) plus two 40 watt incandescent bulbs over the vivarium.

As far as plant species, I've considered pothos and snakeplants. Any other suggsions would be appreciated. As far as herps, I would like to maintain dart frogs in the vivarium, along with something like baho anoles or maye dwarf chameleons. Sound good?

I have a 40 gallon tank like you described with poison dart frogs in it. I would keep it to a single species. The tank may be large, but the lights needed for chams and anoles would dry it out and it wouldn't be humid enough. 40 gallons are really awesome to work with, lots of space. In mine I put gravel down, then a layer of screening then charcoal then bed a beast beeding. Then there is sphagnum moss scattered around with some leaf litter. I have some pothos, bromeliads, draceana, and some peporiama and some unknown plant. Link at bottom of page to some pictures. Sorry bout' the poor picture quality, I didn't realize all my water would leave such bad stains!!
40 Gallon Dendrobates Auratus Vivarium