Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i am planning to set up a 5 gal tank for 1 FBT. i been looking at internal filters and i feel that the Duetto 50 (DJ50) is a pretty good choice, i would get the mini (DJ10) but it is not avail anywhere. my question is: i know the flowrate is adjustable from 13-66gph, but i wanted to know if anyone has used one of these, and if so, how strong is the actual current at 13gph (lowest)? i figure beacuse the tank is going to be only partially water, there is only going to be actually about 1~1.5 gal of water in the tank, so i don't know if the flowrate would cause such a big current in the water that the frog will be unable to control its movement in the water. for the rest of the tank i plan to make the land area out of a rubbermaid box turned upside down, with repta-moss as substrate. stick a piece of driftwood in the water as the bridge, a grapevine on the land area, and some smooth stones on the floor in the water.

the second question is would the 1~1.5 gal of water be too little, and poision the animal quickly even with the filter on? i dont know how toxic these guys are, so i dont know if circulating the 1~1.5 gal of water through a filter is going to get rid of all the toxins and prevent a build up?

PS: does anyone know how loud these Duetto 50s are (at lowest setting)? it is going to be like 6' from my head when i am sleeping.

I've never used the Duetto mini but have used many 50's and 100's. The current from all submersible filters can always be defused by placing a rock in front of the output if it is too strong. The only sound that you normally hear is the running of water and occasionally some loud chugs or buzzing while the filter is priming.

I think you may want to use a right-side up plastic container and then fill it with a few heavy rocks and then coconut husk fiber or sphagnum moss instead of an up-side down one because I have a feeling the moss on top would just fall into the water if there isn't a little lip to keep it inside.

As far as I'm aware, fire-bellied toads need to actually secrete their poison into the water for it to be a problem. They will only secrete it when they feel extremely threatened so make a point to not harrass the toad and everything should work out well. I also am not sure how much good a filter would do to help control the poison from harming an animal if it was released. It's possible that the activated carbon might remove some of it but I honestly don't know. You actually might consider not using a filter at all and just doing frequent water changes. With such a small volume of water and a simple setup it should be easy to remove the land island, dump the old water and replace it with new water a few times a week. A submersible filter might take up too much room in a small aquarium. Good luck,
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Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com

i have a cheap big corner box filter, the kind that operates by an air stone/air pump. i think i might just buy a cheapy small air pump, and fill the box filter with only active carbon, the good stuff, black diamond maybe. because like you said, if anything is going to stop the poision it's going to be the active carbon and nothing else. i might just leave that running, and change the water maybe once a week. i think the movement of the water might actually help the humidity too. thanks for you input about the land area too, that makes a lot more since, going to get some sphagum moss tomorrow, been looking everywhere for them, and it turns out they were at home depot and not petshops.

Firebellies like to be kept in groups of 2 to...a lot. Splurge and get a 10 gallon and a buddy for the little guy. Don't keep it in something that small, that's sad. Duetto filters rock, w00t!