Hi All / A little help needed

[ToeTapper]

Let me first say Hello, and you guys and gals have some great info on this board.
I am not exactly new at keeping PDFs, but have been away from the hobby for several years. I did keep a pair of Tinc Alanis several years ago and had some success at breeding and getting some froglets. I had them for approx. 2 years and had to sell the whole setup.
Now on to the good stuff....
1) I am in the planning phase on a new Viv and need some advice. I have searched and found 2 ways to do the GS foam background. One calls for spraying the foam in and piling the coco fiber mix onto it while its tacky which causes it to stick, and the other method calls for black silicone to be put over the foam after it dries. Looking for opinions on which is best???
2) This Viv is going to be a 25 extra tall. (24w x 12d x 20h) I need opinions on keeping a pair of Asureus and maybe a pair of Imitators(std.) in this Viv. Do you think it would be pushing it to do so?
3) I have some lighting left over from a recent Nano-Reef tank. Do you think a single 55w Power Compact (6500K) will be sufficient for lighting?

Sorry for being so long winded.

Randy

[scream-aim-fire]

for the gs back ground the better way of doing it is using silicone after the gs drys and sticking the coco fiber to it, you get better coverage this way. second question i would say no to this one. first off azureus are larger frogs, imitators are thumb nails, that would be like putting azureus adults in the same tank as azureus froglets, the azureus would probably out compete the imis for food i would think, and also you dont really ever want to mix species. as for the lighting im not really sure, probably not going to be enough but i could be wrong, post some pics of that your wanting to use.

[ToeTapper]

Thanks for the reply Josh.

I did not consider that the Asureus would out compete for food. I was thinking that since the Asureus are ground dwellers (for the most part) and the Imi's aren't that they would stay out of each others way. Didn't really consider that the Asureus would gobble up the flies and starve out the Imi's. I also did not know if there would be any aggression from the larger frogs.

I will use the silicone.

The lighting is just a retro-fit ballast, reflector and 22" 55w bulb. I will be making a small fixture to house this, that will match the stand I'm making.

Randy

[scream-aim-fire]

yeah azureus are more terrestrial but i have one that is around a year old now and he love to climb.

[SmackoftheGods]

In my limited experience _all_ my "terrestrial" frogs will use higher space if it's provided. Mixing species is just a bad idea for so many reasons. Just go with the azureus

[hylahill]

I would use two bulbs...I have had much better growth with my tanks with two rather than one and they are 20gal.

[ToeTapper]

hylahill,

Is that 2 55 watters over your 20's, or some other wattage?

Thanks all for the help.

Randy

[afterdark]

Hi Randy - azureus are great frogs to get back into the hobby with. Very bold and very prolific once they work out the initial kinks in breeding.

If you want to try thumbnails out, imis are probably your best choice. You could put a trio (2.1) in a tank that size if you wanted. You would probably see them out just as much as the azureus once they started to breed. Two things to consider with thumbs are A) Springtails (a staple food source) and B) Lots of broms (imis raise their own tads).

Again, I would caution against mixing any species. It's just not worth all the hassles it creates, IMO.

I can't help with the lighting either - but most people recommend about 2 watts per gallon (I think!)

Good luck!

[ToeTapper]

Thanks Mike.

Much appreciated.

Randy

[CHuempfner]

Hi Randy-

Welcome back to the hobby! I think you got enough opinions about mixing species and I am not an expert in lighting, but I would like to give you another idea about your background method.

I used to silicone the back of the tank, then spray the Great Stuff, then silicone the GS and put the cocofiber onto the sticky silicone (which is a HUGE mess, and you usually have to go over it 2-3 times so that you cover all the missed spots). I now use the Concrete Binder method (there are several threads that you can search through). Basically, you still silicone the glass, spray the GS, but then all I do is mix the cocofiber with the ACE brand Concrete Primer and Bonding Additive to make a play-do-like consistency and then I mold it over the GS. It takes about 10 minutes to mix it and cover the background and it dries within a few days. It doesn't smell as bad as the silicone, you can clean your hands with water and I think it looks great when it's done. PM me if you have questions about it!

Just my two cents!