# fire bellied toad housing questions (cleaning, substrate)



## skoppers (Aug 26, 2008)

I'm setting up a tank for some fire bellied toads, the first time I've kept them. I've decided on using my 30" fishtank with a sloping area of land (about 30%), large smooth rocks in the water and some well-boiled wood arching out the water onto the land. Information online is sometimes conflicting and I'd like your opinions on the following issues:

What's the best substrate for the land area? Is large gravel (1/2" dorset pea) adequate? Should I make an area of moss or coir? Some sites say moss is good, others say it causes risk of impaction. I'm concerned about this because I had to make changes to my old newt tank as the HK warty newts were daft enought to eat anything that fit in their mouth, including my finger.

Does the tank need to be stripped down for cleaning regularly? That would influance the design as I'd silicone the sloped pebble beach for easy removal

I'm keen to get it right before I introduce the frogs as it's so much easier landscaping without them.


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## Axel01 (Jun 14, 2008)

Sounds good to me.

you could put a lyer of eco earth/ plantation soil on the land area. use a bit of weed supressing membrane to stop the soil getting into the gravel. Moss should be fine. 

The FBT seem to like to hav a depth of water where their feet can touch bottom.


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## kinger88 (Aug 1, 2008)

As said above plus you need to do partial water changes quite often because of the toxins they release, aparently it can be harmful to them if its allowed to build up for a long time


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## linda60 (Jan 14, 2008)

If you use a small filter it will help with water changes,althought you will still have to do them but not so often,I clean the whole viv about once a month and spot clean daily.I find about 2" of water is enough as they like to stand on the bottom with their heads out but you can have it a bit deeper if you want especially if you have some submerged bits of slate or stones.I also have some floating plants for them to hide under.


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## skoppers (Aug 26, 2008)

Cool, thanks for the info. I've got a small powerfilter maturing in my fishtank and I'm off to buy the decor today. I'm glad they only need a low depth of water, that makes it much easier to set it up in a way I can dismantle easily for a full monthly cleaning. I can't until it's set up. :2thumb:.


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## Scouse_Mouse (Aug 18, 2007)

I have experimented with my FBT tank. I used coco fibre, with a large bowl for water, then mostly water with cork bark for the land and then i made a slopping land area going in to the water all of these setups were either, not nice looking or too difficult to maintain. I ended up using just slate for the land mass. The result as you can see from the pic is a tank that is easy to clean and maintain. I have also put some moss( i think thats is what it is) on part of the slate and that gives the toads somewhere softer to sit.










Hope this helps


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## blackbat67 (Jul 1, 2008)

nice setup  what fish are they? ta lol


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## Scouse_Mouse (Aug 18, 2007)

There are Sunshine platys and white mountain minnows, (not sure if that is their real names).


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## skoppers (Aug 26, 2008)

Scouse Mouse, nice tank. That is similar to how I'm setting mine up, I think. I've siliconed some smaller pieces of slate together so I can make an area of eco earth topped by sphagnum moss. The slate, once joined, is easy to pull out in one piece so I can dump the stale eco earth without it pouring into the water section.

When I went decor shoppinbg yesterday I found some great pieces of cork which I'll use to make a raaised section. I've siliconed some pebbles to the underside so they don't float around, and I'm adding some live sphagum moss to the top so the frogs can hide if they choose to.


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## Axel01 (Jun 14, 2008)

Looks great.


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## Scouse_Mouse (Aug 18, 2007)

Sounds cool. I dont like the eco earth because of the matainance. with teh slate i just wash it all through every month...easy :2thumb:


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