Topic: 75gal frog paradise...

[nonamethefish]

Didn't get much done today as I helped my Dad do some U-haul carry boxes type work but tomorrow will make a big difference. 

The corkbark pieces look great! Can't wait to put em in.

[nonamethefish]

The tank is now taken down and basically empty(wow...it looks so weird!). I will be disinfecting it either with bleach or possibly some other spray for my peace of mind before proceeding. This tank has been up for 7 years straight and housed a whole bunch of critters.

[Lori]

C'mon J...you're just teasing us now!  I wanna see that cork on the tank!  I think that I MUST try that as well. 

[nonamethefish]

The corkbark pieces are very nice. A few have dry moss/lichens on them though I doubt they will survive in the humid enviroment of the tank.

Pics will come soon. Of course, I just have to have a trip out of town this weekend...but I hope to get around to bleaching the tank sometime soon. Pretty much all the plants except the earthstars(which I'm not sure I will use though they are very pretty) have rooted and shot out a set of new leaves by now.

Oh, and Guitarchiq...do you know what they use at your LFS to disinfect the tanks? I hear Petco uses something call MRs40 which is also used in vet clinics to clean up blood spills etc. A google turned up nothing though. I'd imagine that would be more effective/safer than bleach. I am definetly paranoid but it is amazing now that I think of it the number of kinds of animals that have been through this tank.

[Guitarchiq]

woohoo!  tank news!  I've been totally lax on mine lately.....

I'll have to look at the disinfectant tomorrow at work, that stuff kills anything!  But I acctually don't use that for the aquatics section.  I use bleach.  At a 3% bleach to water solution it disinfects nicely.  Just rince, rince, rince and rince again with a little de-chlor, and let dry.  If possible, sunlight will kill bleach, so if you can leave it to dry outside where no neighboor kids will get at it, cool. 
But, for all the rest of the stuff in the store we use the way-cool disinfectant.  I'll try to get a company name for you.    If I'm lucky they'll be a web site on the bottle! 
My frogs are doing great!  they will launch themselves across the tank at crickets!  I suspect I will have to move the water feature though, as I think its on a crack in the tank.  I hear some odd noises from that general bottom of the tank area more and more frequently.  Glad I never filled this thing with water! 

[Guitarchiq]

Hey, got your disinfectant info:

Butchers
Dimension 3 disinfectant
Sturtevant, WI 35177
800-255-9475

hope that helps!

[nonamethefish]

Interesting. So you use that around the frogs and all that? I wonder if any easily acquired brand name type would do the trick. If not I guess I will just go with bleach.

[Guitarchiq]

Anything that an animal will come in contact with (sides of tanks, water bowls etc.) is at the very least disinfected in this once a week.  I think we use like a capful for 30 gals or so?  Then everything is thouroughly rinced.  It does work great, no residue or anything.  If it's not safe, they haven't told us yet!  But no, I'd never spray the stuff in a cage that had something in it.   
I'm not sure what would be better, but for fish stuff we use a 3% to water bleach solution, then soaked overnight in de-chlor water and rinced before going back in the tanks.  Now, weather or not this is more to take algea etc off of decorations or because the disinfectant wouldn't be appropriate to soak in a tank, I'm not sure.  That may be a question to call the company about. 

New developments in my tank?  Got a new water feature but haven't installed yet.  It's a shallow bowl (acctually a "herp haven" which is the misnomer of the century).  I've got some water lettuce and hiacynth to go in there and to replace some of the other water plants from the other 2 water features.  I also need to put all my moss in (I keep meaning to make the moss shake, but I haven't found the rocks I want to grow it on yet) which will probably happen tomorrow, so look for pics. 
I'm still working on what I want to do for a backround.  I think for now I'll prob. buy some aquarium backround and suround it on 3 sides, maybe making the cubans feel more secure and come out a bit more. 

[nonamethefish]

I guess using it in the waterbowls clears it up. I was thinking perhaps it was not used with the fish because it would be dangerous to aquatic critters(like frogs ). I'd love to get my hands on this or similar myself but it looks like it isn't sold in any stores.

On my project. I've realized I need a fan or some kind of ventilation/air movement for this tank. Even without the light on or anything it is steaming hot! Like round 88 degrees air temp! Their was some water at the bottom which may have helped make it feel warmer...but it felt like a Texas swamp. I guess I can now really appreciate the fact that water is resistant to temperature changes compared to air. I will need to move it over a foot or so to get it away from the window(gets some indirect light...plants and fish didn't mind, with this setup that could be a death sentence).

I can see that water feature...that is a good idea! A rock or log coming out and some plants round it and it will look like a little froggy paradise

[Guitarchiq]

man you and I have opposite problems!  It's starting to get pretty cool at night, but up into the mid to upper 70's during the day.  Not too cool yet, but I'm thinking of how I can trap heat in this thing effectively.  Can you use those undertank heaters in the tank, but covered with a thick layer of the eco earth stuff?  That would be perfect if I could.  I'd like to use the glass to my advantage to keep the heat and humidity up in the winter time.  I just feel like putting a heater on the outside of this thing would waste a ton of energy and heat.  Any ideas?
I hope the water thing looks nice when I'm done, haven't had a whole lot of time (worked almost 12 hours today!). 

I wonder, if you call the company if they could recommend a similar product?  Or contacting breeders might net you some results (really, no pun intended!)