First Vivarium!

Your tanks like a good tank! If you can, and your tank allows, have some sort of cave areas where only the smallest fish will get in there. In my paludarium, I have rock work that hide the sponge filter which also becomes shrimp sanctuary. At night, all of them come out to feed.

With guppies, just make sure that they have hiding places so that they can escape. You might look into have some sort of Dwarf Sag carpet to cover up the bottom of the tank.

As for the Corydoras, I definetely wouldn't risk them unless your certain your FBTs won't attack them.

This talk of FBTs is making me want to get two of them :) Maybe I will but my Vampire Crabs would be very susceptable.

Basically, just take it slow and make sure you watch.
:headshake2: I thought my betta wouldn't go for my shrimp since I didn't see him but I don't see many shrimp anymore.

I am planning on a few pieces of driftwood stacked so that it offers a lot of hiding spots for small fish. Also, since I forgot to paint it, there is going to be a moss wall along the entire divider that will extend out onto the land. This will be a major fry saver along with helping the frogs in and out of the water.

About the dwarf sag, I have some from another tank all ready to go!

I think it's time for another tank so you can get some FBTs!

I'll take it slow once things start happening, I'm just that person that needs everything laid out WAY before I need it! Oh well, I justify it by saying there's nothing like planning ahead!
 
Alrighty it's been about 24 hours and NO LEAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope to get the brace board sometime either tonight or tomorrow and then start cyling the water section!
 
Hey guys, I'm having trouble finding orchid bark so would something like "T-Rex Cypress Bed" work? Or does it have to be a specific kind of bark?

I know I don't need it but I would like to have something just to make it a little more......... I guess complex (?).

I have an order of RCS and an air pump that will be shiped Monday, so that's exciting. I also made a second sponge filter just in case I feel like it needs two.

I hope to be able to finish the main portion of the tank this weekend then just do the little stuff throughout the week!

I have been doing some collecting from the houseplants to fill the non-cp part of the plan and as of now the list includes:
Peace Lilly
Philodendren
and an unknown suculent that seems to do very well along side the peace lilly

I may or may not take a clipping from the pothos as I don't want to take up all the room for CPs.
 
I think cypress bark should work assuming there are no ferts and such in it. You can also use long fiber sphagnum moss if you don't want to just go with the peat/perlite mix.
 
I think I'm going to go with peat/bark/sand mix. I have a small amout of the T-Rex bark and it's just plain old cypress bark. I don't want perlite since I heard that it can cause problems if frogs ingest any of it.

I just didn't know if there were any special properties to orchid bark that this bark didn't have.

Thanks!
 
Update!!!!!!!

I don't know how to introduce these pics so I won't...............

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Tank with rocks for false bottom.
*Note: The melted parts of the top brace have since been removed because they kept the lid from closing all the way.

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Now with screen on top! Just to show how I did it.

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10 lbs of clean sand

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Some cypress bark

There is also the jumbo bag of peat but I don't want to put the same pic up twice.

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Big container of peat, bark and sand mix.
*This ended up being just a tiny bit too little!

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In the tank. The top 2 inches or so is darker than the rest because I ran out of sand but oh well!

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Right side of tank.

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Left side of tank.

The water level will be taken up higher once I get sand for the water section and I plan on doing that today!!!!
 
Looks great, dude! Keep up the good work... and the updates!
 
Thanks!

I can't wait to get my order of RCS and an air pump so I can get this thing up and running!
 
Small update from yesterday night:

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I got some (20lbs) black sand in the aquatic part of the tank and put my peace lily and mistery plant in there!

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Here are the plats closer up.

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The plant looks rather poor in this picture. This was right after I moved it but it seems to be doing much better today!

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Mistery plant. If anyone has one or knows what it is, it would help a lot!

Well thats all! Short, sweet and to the point!
 
Well now that I have this pretty much up and running. It's time to talk about stocking!

The water section is about 9 gallons. The land area is about 324 square inches. If you say it's half the footprint is is basicly the same area as it would be had I made the land 18"X18" so thats that.

As for amphibian stocking I would like Fire Belly Toads. I was thinking maybe 6 of them. Does this sound like too many?

For the aquatic section I was thinking a colony fo RCS, 4 birgs and a few guppies (6-ish). How does this sound?

I know I'm not ready to get any animals ATM but it won't be long (I hope!). Also just in case anyone was wondering about cycling the water, I am planning on taking a piece of media from the other tanks and using that to seed this when the shrim come.
 
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