False bottoms

Coming from the fish world and going to frogs, maybe I can help abit. The aquarium bottom will work. The idea is to have moisture for the viv drain through the soil and drip under the false bottom. The water stays underneath to prevent soggy soil and root rot from any of the plants you may have in the tank for your frogs. The problem I see is that the aquarium bottom is too shallow to the bottom of the tank. You may get soggy soil. If you use plastic pipe to elevate the bottom some, that will help a lot. Some areas of my tank have to inches from the soil to the tank bottom while other areas have five inches. That is so I can create a terrain for the frogs. I also have a much larger tank. You will have to make a hole in the aquarium bottom also so you can access the water underneath. You need to siphon out the old water underneath as you mist your tank. The new water you add by misting will gather underneath. If you do not siphon it out, you will again end up with soggy soil. Soggy soil is bad for plants. The frogs prefer humid soil, but not so much soggy. I hope this helps. If I can help anymore, please pm me and let me know. Also, I have used some aquarium rock around my false bottom and in my pond that I have. It does make the tank heavy and is not needed if you elevate the bottom. You could use it to raise the aquarium bottom, but there would not be much room for water to gather and you would have to siphon more often. Johnny

If I understand the OP correctly, he got an aquarium that has an undergravel filter plate in it. Yes you can use undergravel plates for false bottoms but it is difficult to keep the small holes in the plate from clogging. In addition if I remember correctly, the holes in the undergravel filter plates are on the high points of the ridges in the plate. This means that there is going to be standing water on the plates (between the ridges) so you should drill additional drain holes to make sure the water drains evenly across the plate. You still need to raise it up off the bottome of the tank a good bit to ensure that the substrate doesn't become water logged. The undergravel plate should also be covered with window mesh or other screening material to help prevent clogging of the holes in the undergravel plate. You also need to cap the riser tubes or make some adaptations to prevent the frogs from getting under the plate and make sure you have some method to allow you to remove the excess water from the tank.

I have used this method from time to time but no longer do it as I always felt that the plates didn't drain the water well.

Ed