55 gallon journal

[Mikee]

Love it, nicely done! I hear ya on the hacksaw + wood lol i did the same except my piece was smaller.. what a workout..must of took me 30 mins atleast to cut through it..hahaha.

[markbudde]

A follow up here. Last night I got two 6 month old intermedius, which the breeder tried to sex based on size. The smaller one (presumed male) starting calling within 30 minutes of entrance into his new home. The male jumped all around the tank, calling, while the female stayed in the leaf litter for the first hour. They were on a reverse light cycle from mine, so it will probably take a few days for them to get over the jet lag. Both were foraging and eating before I turned out the lights. The smaller one seemed to go after the springtails and the larger one went after the mites. I'd been worried about all of the mites climbing up the glass and out of the tank (and onto my sofa) so it was reassuring to watch the frog clean the glass of all the mites.

All of the plants are growing nicely, with all of the broms no rooted and all of the orchids growing well. The temps are still running a little hot (high of 85) which I trying to control by increasing ventilation. Does anyone know how high intermedius can tolerate and for how long?

Thanks,
Mark

[sounddrive]

i have a couple of pairs of inters and they seem to like it alittle cooler like 74-76. some pums like it in the mid 80s.

[markbudde]

mine seem happiest from upper 70s to mid 80s. Low 80s is when they call and hunt the most, but I won't pretend to know what a happy frog looks like.

[froggiefriend]

Great journal! Any new updates..

[Julio]

great tank!!

[markbudde]

When I decided on the plants, I decided against fast growing creeping plants so it doesn't look significant;y more grown in now. The planst have all grown some, the broms are starting to pup out and the orchids have added a few leaves and one is about to flower. I'll try and post some updated pics when the orchids blooms.

Its a lot of fun watching the frogs climb all over the tank, but they never venture into the leaf litter anymore. The microfauna is still very productive, and my frogs seem especially fond of amphipods.

[markbudde]

Six months later... Well, since I decided against ground cover, opting mostly for epiphytes, the viv doesn't look terribly more grown in. All of the plants have added some leaves and roots, but I wouldn't call it lush. I recently added some wandering jew, which I hope doen't take over too much. The frogs have been laying clutches for a few months, but all have been bad so far.

This week I added a new hood, using 220 watts of compact fluorescents, and today I incorporated the T-12 UV bulb into the design. The bulb was too long to mount in the hood, so I had to carve out (with a dremel) some wood to make room. I also had to carve out a groove to slide the leads of the bulb down.

Here is my new hood with everything but the UV bulb.


And here it is with the UV bulb. You can see where I had to carve the groove onthe left side.


I built it from scratch with 2 2x55 watt kits from AH supply. It was the first time iv'e built anything from wood from scratch, so it was pretty satisfying. I put 4 computer fans in it and it still gets pretty hot. Here is the tank with and without the new hood.

[markbudde]

And here are some updated pics from all sides.

[markbudde]

I keep waiting for this orchid to bloom. The spike keeps getting longer, and now has shot out smaller spikes off of the main spike. Its been growing for like a month and a half.



And the inhabitants.