Hello Guys,

I'm looking to build a riverbed into one of my exo-terra viv's and was looking for your advice on the construction and more importantly the pump and filter equipment that I should be looking at... bare in mind I've never done anything with pump equipment.

The current plan is to silocon a small strip of the exo-terra 3d viv background into the bottom of the viv as the side of the river to help seperate the substrate from the river, this would form a nice water tight seal.

I'm then planning to fill the bottom portion of the riverbed with small stones with large plate stones on the top to form a stable platform for the frog to sit on. This also should allow me to easily make the river a little deeper as the frog grows by simply removing an inch or so of riverbed substrate.

I was also thinking about using different pots embeded in the smaller shingle to form sumps which could seat foggers and other such things if needs be.

How does this sound as a plan? does anyone have any experiance with doing this and any good tips?

I'm really after some good advice on which pump/filter I should be looking at. I think in an ideal scenario I would have an external pump and filter which could be sat outside of the viv with tubes fed in to the small stones to pump and suck the water.

I'm all open to ideas guys, I'm still very much in the planning phase so anything is possible.

Cheers,

Robert

To be fair, an Exo-Terra tank may be a little bit small to get a riverbed in there, even one of the largest ones. For best effect I'd recommend a custom built Viv.

In theory it works, but it wouldn't be a stream so much as a slight... Trickle.

would a waterfall running into the base look better
maybe a home made background with the waterfall running down it
water being pumped up to it from the bottom?
just a thought

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Hello Guys,

Thanks for the input on this, I appreciate it. I hear what you're saying about the exo-terra not being particularly large enough, this is very true but I'm generaly after a large insitue water bowl replacement rather than a running stream, even if the water is static, so long as its circulating and filtered I'm not too fussed.

The frog generaly only uses half of his enclose anyway ad he's static for most of the time, only moving to hunt / poop or sit in his waterbowl. The exo-terras have too many other benefits for me to give it up for a custom viv, i just find it very convenient.

A waterfall isnt a bad idea, this could be a nice way to extend the flow of the stream and give it a little more movement and interest rather than it being a bit of a static pool.

Have you got any pumps / filters that you would reccomend for this kind of thing?

Cheers guys, I really appreciate your ideas.

Robert

The small Eheim submersible pumps are by far the best for this sort of thing, quiet, powerful, and reliable.

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The best way to create a river bed type setup is to use a small submersible filter such as a Fluval 1 positioned at one end of the tank with a spray bar attached to the output positioned at the oposite end. I've used this arrangement for stream dwelling newts.

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Andrew Tillson-Willis

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for that little diagram, this is the sort of thing that I was hoping to place together, its a nice little effect. I like the use of the spray bar and the stones to create a still area, that makes pretty good sense.

I think I'm going to take a trip to the local aquatics place this evening and see what I can find.

As another quicky, what silocone would you suggest I use? I need to create a barrier between the riverbed and rest of the enclosure, is there some form of aquarium sealant which is best suited?

Cheers,

Robert

You need an Acetic Cure 100% Silicone Sealant, I allways use Geocel Aquaria Sealant it's quite expensive but it's allways done the trick for me, there are others on the market but normally the Geocel is the most readily avaliable.

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Andrew Tillson-Willis

Thanks Andrew, that sounds like the best stuff to go for then. I did a trip down the local Aqua centre yesterday and they've got a few nice filters which are quite reasonably priced.

When I get this stuff done I'll be sure to post some images of the viv.

Cheers,

Rob