how Often Do You Drain Your Viv?

SmackoftheGods said:

You have to drain your tank?

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I was still super-excited about maybe having moss in my tank so I was misting fanatically at the time

It worked though, the moss didn't die (which I admit felt like some kind of herculean feat, even though I now know that the stuffs actually pretty hardy...)

I must be doing something very wrong, I use an unused chemical sprayer from lowes and go through a gallon of distilled between my two 20s in less than a week. Imma drain them today and hope that my vivs arent ruined XD....

OH MY GOD...

The whole bottom panel of one of the vivs is popping out, I don't know what to do...

i just got a new sprayer that puts out too much water so with it being summer and higher humidity here, i foresee draining every couple of weeks. at least until i find a syphon that will take it all the way down to the bottom. after i drain more trickles it's way down and i end up with a half inch of water in the bottom that my syphon wont start with.
Think i will look into drains on future tanks. once my tanks reach the point where water actually makes it through the subtrate without being absorbed (this can take a couple months), it seems i start having to drain all to often

Wallace Grover said:

OH MY GOD...

The whole bottom panel of one of the vivs is popping out, I don't know what to do...

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Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.

Ed said:

Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.

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Should I sand the trim to roughen it then try again?

can you post a picture it would really help alot

Ed said:

Is it a verticle conversion? If so then the silicone probably didn't adhere to the plastic trim well.

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Same thing happened to me with a couple of my verts. I will probably end up scraping off the silicone, roughing up the trim, re-siliconing, and then maybe even add a bit of Gorilla Glue or something on the outside to keep it from popping out.
Bryan

Ed said:

I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.

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I have almost the exact same setup. All tanks drilled and drained into a 5 gal bucket, which then gets bleached then discarded.

Wallace Grover said:

Should I sand the trim to roughen it then try again?

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If you can pull the frogs this is the easiest method to resolve it.. as Bryan noted in his subsequent post.

Ed

Luckily no frogs...

Wallace Grover said:

I must be doing something very wrong, I use an unused chemical sprayer from lowes and go through a gallon of distilled between my two 20s in less than a week. Imma drain them today and hope that my vivs arent ruined XD....

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I use one of those sprayers on my 100 gal but on my 20s I feel it is way too much. Less then 10 pumps (probably more like 5) of a normal spray bottle on "mist" is good enough.

Ok, I took the front off both since the one started to peel. I sanded the plastic rims for better silicone grip, but unfortunately one of the doors broke so I'm going to have to rebuild it. this does give me a chance to add handles and aquarium tubing to frog proof though

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Since your having to rebuild one, here is an idea for you...there is a conversion kit out on the market that uses a second piece of glass on the bottom. It is the exact same size as the outer piece but this one goes inside the lip. This way the glass and rim absorbs all the pressure as opposed to just the silicone if only one piece is on the outside. Secure a piece of tubing to edge of glass to make it frog safe and your good to go.

The doors can cure without the vivs being on their backs, right? (too late, already did it, but Im curious)

More often during heavy misting for breeding season...every couple of weeks. Just use a bit of air tubing a small amound of rigid tubing at the end to push down through substrate/hydroton layer with little disturbance. siphon into a deli cup. done. Not too much trouble.

Ed said:

I install drains in my tanks so I don't have to worry about it... It drains to a 5 gallon bucket which I sterilize when close to full and discard.

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Why do you sterilize it?

Atmus said:

Why do you sterilize it?

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So I don't have to worry about introducing pathogens or parasites from my frogs to the local amphibians. It is considered to be one of the best practices a hobbyist can do to help native populations.

Ed

Ed said:

So I don't have to worry about introducing pathogens or parasites from my frogs to the local amphibians. It is considered to be one of the best practices a hobbyist can do to help native populations.

Ed

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That makes sense. I figured you would dump it down the drain or something, and if you did that here, it would go to the treatment plant and wouldn't be a problem.

How do you sterilize it?