In the beginning I had one 35-gallon tank with 7 juvie Leucs. I paid about $700 for the system (I could go back in this blog and get specifics, but I’m pretty sure it was $700) including the seven Leucs. It was four months later decided to try and do more. Thus the compulsion began.

I started by working with five 15-gallon tanks and tried to follow the directions I had seen others take to create a vivarium with a water feature for humidity and avoid misting. In the end I learned you need to at least mist partially for the plants, the water may cause a build up in bacteria that kills the frogs, and a euro vent in the front will probably leak. I tried a second test with three more 15-gallon tanks removing the euro vent and using a clay background and a misting system. What I got was a super heavy system that didn’t vent well, tended to overflow, and was unnecessarily heavy. Over time many of my issues with these tanks have disappeared as I have rebuilt my system.

My next built was an attempt to make a 60-gallon vertical tank to store my juvie frogs until they reached an age to separate them. Something like this is very hard to mist and light. Keeping all the plants alive is almost impossible. In the future the whole system will be placed in the summer by a window so actual sunlight can get in and give it light. The largest issue was my mistake of not quarantining the plants before planting them. I ended up with centipedes and slugs. These try and kill everything. I still have not found a solution to get rid of them.

As a contrast I also tried a 2.5-gallon and 6.7-gallon small jar build. Easier to light, but impossible to keep anything in unless it’s a baby just morphing out. Actually I do use them as morph out containers. Full of sprintail colonies just waiting to be decimated.

Recent I tried a IKEA BILLY build. I took three bookcase shelves and added a total of six 12.5-gallon tanks to them. So far I have found the greatest issue with these tanks is venting and drainage. But some of my best work and creativity came from the design. In the future I’ll probably add more venting since I know an automated misting system will be used. When all these tanks were first being made I did not auto mist.

At one point in all this mess I tried one EXO TERRA, two ZOO MED, and 8 10-gallon vert conversions. All these has problems with keeping fruit flies in the tank. This is one of the main reasons why I decided to move to making tanks myself.

Now it’s time to clear things out. I’m looking to sell all the tanks on the rack and work on a new system. And integrated cube that takes everything into consideration. The question is, should I try to sell off, or just toss out. It’s always hard to just toss out raw materials.