Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, um..as i said before...i want to make the habitat for the dart frogs..but i want to do the stream..and if i use dirt, the stream is going to get dirty right? now do u guys make it? awwww. thank you ^_^

Well, there are probably lots of ways to do it. I have tried 3.

One way is to mix coco fiber/soil and silicone together until the soil is all damp. Then form a stream out of it. You can make banks on the sides so the water is contained. The pump can be put underneath one end, so the tubing gets siliconed right into the stream or you can place the pump elsewhere and run the tubing to the stream. You can also incorporate rocks, stick and what not to make it look more natural. Then you just have to place soil or moss along the edges to make it look really cool.

Secondly, you can use garden edging that comes in rolls at Home Depot or probably most any hardware store. I used the brown colored stuff. It is made out of plastic and is textured. I just cut the length I want the stream to be, bend up the sides to the depth I want and then snip/bend up one end that is sealed with silicone for the beginning of the stream. You can drill/cut a hole for the pump tubing much like the silicone one (make sure you silicone around it so it does not leak and you have a stream.

The last way I have done it is to use this aquarium mortar mix I got. You just mix it per the instructions and form a stream with it. You could do it right in the tank on a bed of gravel or outside the tank over some Great Stuff foam that you spray into the form you want.The foam comes in a can and expands once it hits the air. You can cut and shape it, then just layer the mortar over it until you get the shape you want. It is the most expensive of the 3 ways. The mortar is not cheap. It also dries super fast, so you can only mix a little at a time.
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Ken
Peace of the Tropics
www.PeaceOfTheTropics.com

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I made a stream for my viv once. I went out to Lowe's and got some of that bendy dryer vent pipe that is made of aluminum. Then I cut a lengthwise section out of it and bent it to the shape I wanted it to be. This served as the base of my stream. Then I siliconed rocks, pebbles, gravel etc to it. Using a section of that alumunium dryer tubing worked out particularly well because it is bendable, but you could use something else like pvc pipe. If you find something that you think will work better, let us know.

I've never tried dirt, but i know that if you put coco bedding on there you will have tea colored water within a day, which doesn't hurt the frogs at all, I just don't like tea colored water, some people do though.
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1.1.0 Sunburst Veileds (Oscar and Lizzie)
1.1.0 Azureus darts
2.3.0 Mantids
1.0.0 Albino Pacman (Grumpy)
2.0.0 White's Tree Frogs
0.2.0 Cats (Oreo and Doodle)