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Vivarium - water

Water is the most important feature in a rainforest vivarium. Poison frogs by itself are very bad swimmers and if you do not take special precautions they will drown. On the other side they require very high humidity levels as well as your ephifitic plants.

Demineralised water

Water in rainforests is very low on calcium and mostly slightly acidic. It will never contain chlorine ( which is deadly for most plants and frogs ), therefore straight tap water can never be used for these vivaria. In clean unpolluted areas rain water can be used, but in most other cases one should buy a reversed osmosis unit to get demineralised water.

Again these units are not cheap, however at a consumption of around 20 litres a week for my vivarium other methods of obtaining are very unrealistic. The high evaporation rate is another reason for using demineralised water, after some time the water section will be a salt lake using standard tap water with the expected results for plants and animals. The advantage of demineralised water is that it will not provide stains on the glass and it will make the vivarium maintenance free. ( I clean the windows with a simple cloth and demiwater ones every month in less than 5 minutes !! )

Also the reversed osmosis unit works maintenance free. I added a timer to the unit ( 2 hours ) and use a dedicated jerry can for the transport of the water to the vivarium. In about 2 hours this jerry can is filled. The unit works as a extremely fine filter, which is impermeable for ions like calcium and magnesium. Pure water is collected behind the filter, while the more calcium concentrated water on the other side is wasted. The yield factor is about 1:3 ( 10 litres demiwater, 20 litres waste water, 30 litres total water consumption ).

Back panel circulation system

The high humidity is created by the nozzles of the misters and a circulation system via the back wall. This back wall is made of high water absorbing fibre mats ( cocos panels ). It is my experience that Cocos panels last for a few years only if continuesly watered, for the plants 1 to 2 times 5 minutes a day is sufficient but then your vivarium should be capable of handling the differences in water level. Other materials like fern root panels are more suitable and by far much more durable, however more difficult to obtain. The panels are watered at the top via a PVC pipe with small holes ( every 15 cm (6") one small dripping hole of approximately 1 mm ( 1/32" - 1/16 " ) diameter ). This pipe is connected to a pump, which receives its water via a standard filter. This filter is only intended to withhold larger parts that can harm the pump. It is essential to use a very good pump which will last several years. It will be difficult to maintain this thing, since it is hidden away, unreachable for frogs and after several years overgrown with plants anyway. Good pumps are made by Eheim (germany ). As a general rule, do not save money on the pump, this is a vital part of the system, unless you design the system in a way you can easily acces the pump ( which is better, but less beatifull). Centrifugal pumps wear more by starting and stopping than by running. The pump can also be used to make a "waterfall" in the vivarium, or a dripping tree trunk by taking water from the upgoing main water pipe. All piping is kitted to the glass of the vivarium and the cocos panels are glued on top of the piping. Therefore it is not visible from outside, but also difficult te reach. There is a small valve just above the substrate level for eventual unplugging, flushing etc. etc. just in case. The following picture provides a schematic representation of the set-up.

Biological balance

The back panels are wet and provide a lot of biological filtering capacity. Therefore the vivarium does not require any cleaning other than trimming of the plants. Since the frogs are fed, they will produce quite a lot of waste which via the misting system will flush from the leaves of the plants and the bottom substrate in the water. There it will dissolve slowly and absorbed by the plants and the microorganisms in the cocos panels, the bottom substrate and the water. After a full year i never cleaned out the vivarium and left it as it is, i trim the plants when they grow to fast. This way the circle is round. Adding food -> producing waste -> transforming waste to nutrients for plants -> growing plants -> trimming plants and take out of the vivarium. This type of vivarium therefore transforms crickets and fruit flies into plants. Overfeeding and overpopulation is detrimental for the balance in the vivarium, therefore a large vivarium will be more sturdy and robust as a small one. In my vivarium of 125 cm wide x 50 cm deep x 100 cm height, i keep around 10 adult frogs.

In the large vivarium I use a water circulation over the waterfall that goas via a system of zeolite layer. This material has an enormous surface area and will hold and large amount of bacteria that will keep your vivarium in balance by decomposing animal debris and wastes quickly and effectively. This way one creates its own biological waste water treatment system for the vivarium.

Misting

Misting is in principle not really essential for the frogs, but desirable for the plants, both the bromelaids and the orchids are epiphitic from nature which means they takes the water from the air. Misting is a replacement for the heavy rain showers one can encounter in a tropical rain forest. It fills the bromelaid funnels, flushes the leaves from animal debris, provides cooling of the leaves in the sun, waters the mosses and brings the frogs "in the mood". It is also a easy way to keep the vivarium water at the right level, compensating for the evaporation of water. Some plants and frogs require a dry period to start blooming/breeding again. This period is mosthly during the winter months. I usually provide this change of weather by swithing of the misting system for a 3-4 weeks ( filling the vivarium almost daily straight from the jerry can ).

The misting system is made out of 3 high pressure nozzles connected with high pressure plastic tubes to a high pressure membrane pump ( expresso machine quality 10 bar pressure build up ). This pump uses water from a seperate small aquarium ( 20 litres ) which is completely clean and is filled with the jerry can with demiwater from the reverse osmosis unit. Even then there is a small ultra fine filter in front of the pump to protect the membrane ( escaped fruit flies like the aquarium as a bath and drown ). The pump can only run 2 minutes to prevent it from overheating. Wait 15 minutes and one can resume with the following cycle. The pump should therefore be connected to a timer which can be programmed by the minute. If one has to choose between backwall watering with waterfalls and misting, frogs will in the end prefer misting and for the plants it is better too. That way misting becomes vital for your animals. Another benefit of misting is that the water droplets will clean the leaves from wastes left behind. One can handle these wastes by doing the internal balancing act or by a water overflow where you handle the waste water. Misting is also fun, look at the video to share this with me :

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