A false bottom's purpose is to hold the substrate or soil higher than the water level so that it doesn't get soaked, which would be bad for plants and bad for frogs.
A really easy example is to fill the bottom of the tank with 2 inches of aquarium gravel, put a layer of fiberglass screen on top of that, then put coco fiber or ABG mix on top, any water from misting etc would drain and collect down in the gravel area, if the water level gets too high it would be siphoned out or drained out, but there should be some left in there for humidity.
A REAL false bottom is made from something like sections of pvc pipe holding up egg crate so the water collects under it, searching on here for false bottom will show you plenty of examples of that.
Home Depot sells all the materials you need to make it.

 

Chris gave you some good ideas. LECA also works. With a tank that sized you might consider doing a true false bottom with 2" cuts of 2" PVC arranged on the bottom to support an light 'egg crate' and screen layer onl top. It will cut down on weight.

Best,

 

Yeah there's not much to it. Here is a pic of my false bottom I'm putting into my rockwall tank.

it's difficult to see from the picture but I just use PVC couplings to hold the egg crate off of the bottom. These are the pvc "adapters" that connect to pieces of pipe together to make one long piece of pipe. I like them because they are heavy-duty and they are pre-cut to a perfect size!

The only thing missing from this false bottom is the NYLON screen. You would put this over top of the egg crate to prevent the substrate from falling through all of the holes in the egg crate. The mesh will still allow water to easily flow through the substrate. You'll want to create some sort of access point to the area below the egg crate so that you can siphon water out if/when the water level get too high from misting etc.

As Chris said there are TONS of threads on here regarding this topic. Please feel free to continue to ask questions here though! Good luck!

 

One thing. When you look for the egg crate at your local hardware store, go to the hanging ceiling section. This is were you are going to find it. I was looking in the shop lamps section in different stores (HD, LOWES, MENARDS......) and was never to find it. Whenever I asked an employee, they had no idea what I was talking about. They would even tell me that this is all they had for lighting and if it's not there they didn't have it. They drove me nuts! Until I finally asked a manager, he was able to tell me where they were.

Ulises

 

They probably know it as a fluorescent light diffuser

 

About a year ago now, I started doing false bottoms yet another way. I use coarse, black, pond filter material cut to size, with weed barrier placed on top. Quick, easy, reuseable, and looks good. It's a lot better than dealing with hundreds of little LECA marbles. The filter material I currently use is a Matala knock off.

 

Where do you get that stuff, is there a link to pics or something? I was thinking about checking out that kind of stuff

 

They probably know it as a fluorescent light diffuser

Yeah I asked for that too, they kept showing me the clear plastic ones.

Ulises

 

Thanks for the info. This is the tank that I want to put the false bottem in. Im not sure if i can do it with this peice of wood. Ive got about 1-2 inchs TOPS at the top for the peice of wood to move up. Im not sure if the egg crate can support this peice eathier.

Im not going to do any great stuff I dont think around the peice of wood. I want it to be able to come out if i need it to. I belive it to be a cypress root. Not sure though gota ask my aunt who is a botanist. If you look at the right side of the root you can kinda see a line going down that would make a great water feature. Let me know what you guys think.
Thanks
Jeff

 

THAT is an AMAZING piece of wood! If I were you I'd spend the money to get a tank that it would fit in with a false bottom. Of course if you used the LECA you could just build the false bottom up around the piece. That is really an awesome piece. Where did you get that?

 

That is a pretty wicked piece !

 

My dad got it from my aunt like 15 years ago and its just been sitting in our backyard. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to put it in with some reptiles. I might see about getting a coustom tank made but that Might be some big money but would definetly be worth it. I believe it is cypress. So it will be very good in wet habitat.
Thanks Jeff

 

That may be the most beautiful piece of wood I've ever seen Definitely upgrade that tank to something more worthy of it - you won't regret it.

 

If I do get a tank made. Its going to be the same width but taller and deeper. Just so I can put a false bottem in.
Thanks
Jeff