Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I'm planning on keeping a tinc sometime in the near future and I've been working on a little terrarium off and on for a while now. It's a 15 gal with a false bottom, meant for one frog. I set up most of it (moss, a branch, coconut hut, false bottom with pool at one end, and full-spectrum lighting - adding a couple plants and accents later) and let it sit for a few months, and now it's clear that I need a filter. There's currently some algae or some sort of green goo building up in the water pool at the end of the cage. Would I be better off with an internal filter (fluval 1) or an external filter (fluval 104)?

I think a little internal filter would be enough power, but it would have to go underneath the false bottom, not in the pool itself. I plan on putting a heater in there, so I'm going to pull up the plastic mesh stuff anyways, but my pvc spacers are only an inch tall, I think, so there's only about an inch between the bottom of the tank and the eggcrate that's holding up the gravel and substrate. I was worrying about space being an issue.

With an external filter like the fluval 104, I could have the intake submersed in the pool, and have it empty directly into the pool as well, I think. I doubt this would be a hazard to the frogs, but if you think otherwise, tell me. The main beef I have is that the canister filters are a lot more expensive. If it's the best way to do it, I'll do it, but if there's a viable alternative I'd like to spare my wallet. Thanks in advance for your help.

One of my tanks has a filter to try and get rid of the browness of the water (due to water going through substrate into falsebottom). It doesn't do much. Canister filters are probably what I need for that tank (it holds probably 8-9 gallons of water.

If you were going to breed the frogs in that tank, the algae would be good for any frogs they laid and brought to the water.

It all depends on how much water you use. One cool thing you could do with a canister (which I plan on doing someday with a huge tank) is hooking it up to a timer so it only runs once a day for like 20 minutes and have it hooked up to drip line and run it all along the lid of the tank and make it rain in my tank everyday! Now that would be cool.
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com

I think that's my problem, too. Dirty water from substrate runoff. Was I supposed to wash the mix more before I put it in? Logically it makes sense that some of it would get washed away. I used roughly equal parts coco fiber and Lizard Litter, "a unique, all natural blend of sterilized virgin organic soil, fine grain sand, vermiculite, peat moss, orchid bark and green tree moss."

Yeah, I thought about the water drip feature, as well. I've seen pictures of vivariums with a "water wall" which basically does what you describe, except spread over an entire wall of the terrarium. It looked really cool. I'm just wondering if it's worth it. If I can fit the $24 filter in there, I'd rather do that than get the $50 canister filter. I think just moving the water would keep the algae down, so for a while I was thinking about just getting a pump/powerhead, but for the dirt I'd definitely need a filter. There's really not that much water in there - about two and a half inches. I was mistaken, the pvc spacers are actually two inches long. Still, that's only about three gallons of water, I doubt it needs a 125 gallon per hour filter. It would filter the whole tank once every 1.44 minutes.

Yeah, that would be overkill.

Maybe you could put an algae eater in there???? I don't know, I have never had a problem with algae. Even an aquatic snail would eat down the algae.
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com

I don't use filters at all, but do change the water several times after running the water-falls, adjusting them, planting the plants, etc. I just wipe any algae off the glass for looks and don't worry about it otherwise. It's not harmful, and is actually useful. I don't personally mind a brownish tinge to the water, which in my experience, lessens over time. In one paludarium with fish/frogs in land and deep water areas that are separated by glass barriers, I do use algae eaters that keep it pretty clean, plus a lot of aquarium plants. In shallow pools, you could also add some floating aquarium plants to keep down the algae by shading the water, as long as it's not "duck weed." Filters are useless for removing the brown coloration, as Josh says, which in itself is harmless, and probably even healthy, as long as you don't have fertilizers in the substrate.

In my paludarium, which has several levels of water from one pool to another flowing over small falls from the highest level to the lowest (14 inches down to 8 inches) an interesting algae developed on each barrier. This almost looks like a Scotch scowering pad, and appears to act as a filter itself. Whenever it seems to take over and get cruddy, I just peel it off and discard it--then it grows back. I have no idea what it is, but I've never done a complete water change in the aquarium section in 5 years--only frequent partial water changes, and have never had a tropic fish set up that worked this well. Many of the original fish are still alive. At the lowest level, a pump takes the water up again and distributes it over two high falls from the top, over rocks into a mid section (lagoon) and the end pool. These have Java moss growing on them now, adding more filtration. The water is now always clear and there is never any algae on the glass anymore. I need to renew the terrestrial frog area now because the plants have over grown past trimming and it needs fresh substrate. I don't plan to touch the aquarium portion, however. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

All in all, new tanks and set-ups can be frustrating at first, but it takes some time for the biological recycling idea to work.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus

Patty do you have any pictures? That sounds awesome! How did you control the splash of the waterfall that it didn't rot your plants?

Nicole