The 5 Green Tree Frogs have grown so much since July last year. They are quite messy and their current enclosure needs cleaning more and more frequently as they foul the water with waste. The size of the enclosure is probably better suited to 2 adult frogs.

Two of the plants in the current tank have done very well and not minded at all about having their roots in nothing more than water and gravel – the Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) and the Parlour Palms (Chamaedorea elegans). The Creeping fig (Ficus pumila) on the other hand is looking very sparse and ratty. It is still alive but hasn’t done much at all. My mini bromeliad and birds nest fern did not survive all the water and sadly rotted away. Some dwarf mondo grass lasted for a while but eventually died. See the “then and now” shots above.

The New Enclosure

This tank is big! Measuring 140cm long, 55cm deep and 60cm high it is well over 3 times the size of the current tank and just fits along a free section of lounge room wall.

I wanted to create a custom background for the tank that would be planted with various epiphtyes and hopefully include some sort of watering system. I searched various aquarium stores to find suitable pieces of driftwood that were not too heavy and whose shape would create interesting spots to attach plants and allow frogs to sleep.

I laid the tank on its back and put in place all the wood bits and tubing for waterfalls then sprayed expanding foam around them. I found this stuff hard to use – it expands and expands then expands a whole lot more! By the time I’d worked from one end to the other the whole thing was a puffy foam mess with many of the bits of wood virtually hidden. Fortunately once cured, the foam can be cut back with a knife. The white foam in the picture below is after the cut back!

Next step – all the foam was sealed with 2 coats of black non-toxic pond sealer to make sure the background was completely covered and waterproof.

To achieve a natural look all the sealed foam areas were covered with silicon and coco fibre. The coco fibre was pressed into the silicon while it was still wet. I could only work on small areas at a time as the silicon skins over in just a few minutes. I ran out of silicon and dry coco fibre at this step so the picture shows the back wall only half done.

Unfortunately my watering system/waterfall did not work properly and some leakage developed in the back wall. I sealed everything up with more silicon and coco fibre, allowed everything to dry and cure properly then planted the background with a selection of epiphytic plants.

Background with mini bromeliads, tillandsias and native orchids

Driftwood and rock were used to designate the land and water areas. The land area was filled with a layer of expanded clay balls so that the coco peat bedding is lifted above the water level. A layer of flyscreen helps to stop the coco fibre from falling through to the clay balls below. The clay balls are very light so weight in the tank is kept to a minimum.

Finally the plants were added, some gravel for the water area and a heater and water filter
( hidden away towards the back left corner of the tank)

Plants include mini bromeliads, Birds Nest fern, Peace Lily, Creeping Fig, Chlorophytum, Dwarf Mondo Grass, Native Violet, Ferns, moss, Baby’s Tears, Pearlwort, Parlour Palms and begonia.

Finished Tank

I will allow a few weeks for things to settle down and take root before adding my frogs. Green tree frogs are very rough on foliage. It will be interesting to see how everything stands up to them jumping all over the place.

Posted on March 8th, 2009 by Sue
Filed under: Frogs, Pets | 17 Comments »