Samson my Giant African Bullfrog,
needs a new home.
That’s because his tank recently began leaking
and he’s been in this 10 gallon ever since.
That’s a whole story that I'll get to shortly.
However, I want to take the time to go through his entire journey first.
That will provide context
for the decisions I’ll make with the new enclosure later in the video.
It’s so crazy to me that I’ve had him since May of 2017.
He’s grown a lot in six years
and has easily become one of my favorites.
My journey and love for African Bullfrogs actually began 16 years prior to that.
For my eighth birthday, I received a very special animal, Gunther.
I had Gunther for fourteen years
and loved every second of it.
Unfortunately, he passed of natural causes,
but I had to give it some time before I could get another.
That of course was Sam.
In the early days I kept him in a simple 10 gallon setup.
These are not demanding animals by any means,
so this was fine while he was small.
As long as the substrate and water are clean
and you feed them well,
they’re sure to thrive.
On a side note, I provide a varied diet.
He eats a range of critters from nightcrawlers,
to super worms,
and even roaches.
He also likes a good frozen-thawed rodent.
Additionally, he only eats one to two times a week.
The trick is to provide a varied diet
and supplement as needed for best results.
Following this allowed him to steadily grow in the early days and he thrived.
It took about a year for him to begin looking how he does now,
but he still had a baby face back then.
Fast forward another year
and it was finally time to make his first proper setup.
I designed a paludarium within a 40 Gallon Breeder Tank
that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I cut up a 10 gallon tank
that I used to partition the right side.
I built a scape of Freak Rock
atop an egg crate and foam foundation around this.
Within it I included Net Pots for plants and Mopani Wood.
I locked all of that together with expanding foam,
let it cure,
and carved off the excess.
I covered all of that with silicone,
which I hid with Sand and Coco fiber
to create a cohesive aesthetic.
I kept the background simple with a piece of Coco Fiber Liner.
More foam and branches allowed me to create additional features on this.
I filled the land area with my terrarium substrate
and the water feature with a blend of sand and gravel.
An array of suitable plants really brought the environment together.
They also provided coverage for the man himself,
which he seemed to enjoy.
He spent most of his time in the water where he could relax
and wait for prey to ambush.
Although he thrived in this setup,
it had a few shortcomings.
In general, it was really overbuilt
and I know I could do the same thing today, more efficiently and effectively.
The filtration also greatly took away from the design.
He grew much faster once he went into this setup
and eventually destroyed many of the plants.
Moving forward another year to 2020
I set out to create another paludarium,
this time in a 75 Gallon.
That’s nearly twice the size as the previous
and is more than adequate to house him as an adult.
That said, to maximize the footprint I strayed from DIY
and teamed up with Universal Rocks for the background and hardscape.
I selected pieces that I felt best represented
what you might see in their natural range.
Setting this up was fairly straight forward.
I drilled the tank to better conceal filtration.
Then, I placed the background
and faux stone in the tank to get a sense for the layout.
I had to remove the top and back of the stone
because it's actually going to serve as the land area.
I secured this in the tank to start,
but when I did a water test it leaked.
With a little work I fixed the issue,
but this would come back to haunt me years later.
I also drilled more holes in the back for drains.
At the time, I thought these would be a useful feature to have,
but I really never even used them.
I found it more effective to simply use a siphon tube.
Anyway, I hid all of the plumbing behind the background,
which I locked in next.
The result was clean,
but I had to hide the seams.
Silicone and Pigments made that task a breeze.
I placed a few more stones
and the results looked pretty good.
The addition of moss cover Malaysian Driftwood
took it to the next level.
I also tried to place the plants in areas where
they wouldn’t be disturbed quite as easily as before.
Even still, he did manage to smash some of them.
To finish it off, I filled the bottom with sand
and added Leaf Litter throughout.
I really enjoyed it and so did he.
Like before, I’d say he spent 95% of his time in the water
and the rest in the land area.
I say in the land area
because when he goes up there he wants to dig a hole.
This is important to note because from what I’ve seen,
dedicating more of the space to water is the best option.
In either case, truthfully, he doesn’t move much.
That’s just the truth of the matter.
However, he does change positions in the water, but not on land.
The second he’s there
you better believe he’s kicking those back legs to dig himself a hole
until he decides it's time to emerge and enter the water once more.
A few months back
I moved everything to the new house,
including Samson’s tank.
While I renovated what is now the animal room,
I kept Sam in my office.
I had no issues then except for the land area.
A few months prior to that,
I noticed that it would slowly fill with water.
I assumed this was from Sam displacing it.
What I later determined is that it was in fact a leak.
I believe it goes all the way back to the issue I had
when I was first setting up the land area.
Because of this I did intend to eventually redo the setup,
but I would be forced to do that much sooner than I would've liked.
When we moved his tank into the new room,
something went wrong.
The day after setting it up,
I noticed that none of the tanks on the back wall were working
and I realized that the tank was leaking, which flooded the power strip
and tripped the GFCI.
Although I couldn’t determine what exactly happened,
based on the fact there are no cracks
and that the bulkheads were dry,
my best guess is that torsion from moving the tank so many times
caused the seam to fail.
So I drained the tank
and moved Sam into a bin while I decided what to do next.
I like this setup
and it served him well,
but it could be slightly better.
As a result, I decided the best option was simply to fix
and redesign to better fit his needs.
The four main things I want to account for are as follows:
Reseal the tank to fix the leak.
Adjust the design to provide more usable space in the water feature.
Install the land feature better, so it doesn’t leak.
And create a better planting situation, so that he doesn’t ruin everything.
That brings us back to the current day,
where it's time to dismantle the old design.
Installing the pieces in 2019 was easy,
but removing them was really annoying.
I had to meticulously cut through the silicone to remove everything,
but once I did it was really satisfying.
I also disconnected all of the plumbing pieces
and removed unnecessary bulkheads.
Now I can fix the seal.
To do that properly, I had to remove every bit of old silicone.
I only removed the bead along the inside of the tank
and the sections that held the Universal Rocks.
Before I reseal it, though,
I need to address the land area.
I’ll use the same rock as before,
but I want to include a glass barrier,
like the first design.
Luckily I already had scraps from other builds
that were perfect for the task.
I just had to cut them to maximize the fit.
I also nestled all of this completely on the left side of the tank
to provide more space within the water feature.
I’ll tape this off just like I would with any other aquarium.
That said, I only taped the front since everything else will be hidden.
I went and wiped everything off with Isopropyl Alcohol after that
to ensure the silicone adheres properly.
I began by sticking a piece of glass on the back
over top of holes where bulkheads were.
I’ll no longer be using them
and this is where I'm putting the land area.
I applied the bead elsewhere and constructed the land area.
Then, I smoothed out the silicone and removed the tape.
After the silicone dried, I cut around the background,
so it would fit around around the glass.
Even so, I did have to make a few adjustments
once it was in the tank.
I also drilled a hole adjacent to the bulkhead in the top for filtration.
I applied silicone along the appropriate areas
and used clamps and PVC pipes to hold it down while it cured.
To minimize the amount of pressure the water puts on the land
I decided to fill the void with Expanding Foam.
This should help stabilize everything
and make it easy to seamlessly blend into the background.
I shaved off all of the excess.
I removed a section of the background as well.
I used this this to mend the gap where the land was originally.
Naturally it didn't look good,
but that’s where the silicone and pigment trick from earlier came in.
I repeated this technique in a few other spots until it looked good.
Another similarity this will share with the first tank is Mopani Wood.
I felt that these would be best for creating a canopy planter,
while continuing to maximize space.
I locked the branches in with Super Glue and Cotton Balls as I added them.
I also filled in additional spots with foam.
It took a while to get the scape looking exactly how I wanted.
Even so, I had to back and hide everything
with pigments to complete the look.
And I have to say, I’m really pleased with the results.
However, it will look even better with plants.
Before I can add them, though,
I need to clean everything off and address filtration.
I attached a barbed fitting and tubing to the bulkhead in the top,
which I also capped on the end to create a dripping feature.
Doing so removed the ability to get circulation through the filter's output,
so I drilled a hole in the side of the background to install a power head.
I went on to hook up the filter to the various bulkheads in the back
and filled the tank.
I did this now, so I can dial in the drip.
I drilled holes along the tubing
and tested the water flow.
Although it was too strong, it looked good.
To make the flow more acceptable
I wrapped cargo mesh fabric around the tubing with zip-ties.
This will also wick water up onto the hardscape itself.
Now I can finally add the plants.
I rehydrated sphagnum moss
and wrapped it around the roots of various plants with fishing line.
These planters made it easy to nestle everything within the branches.
The moss itself will also wick water.
This will keep the roots nice and hydrated
as they grow down into the water feature itself.
From there, I drained the tank
and poured in river sand.
The color of it ties into the look I’m trying to achieve.
It’s also what I used previously,
so I mixed in some of the old stuff as well.
I filled it back up, but it was really cloudy.
The next day everything was looking a lot better,
but you’ll notice that I have a different power head.
The one I installed before was defective,
so I had to get another.
Anyway, to finish it off I added Java moss everywhere.
I used it to cover the fabric
and to accentuate various aspects of the scape.
I also filled in the land area with coco fiber.
In the past I’ve used my terrarium substrate,
but this is a lot easier to vacuum out and replace as needed.
And that more or less completes the build.
It resembles the previous two designs,
but I think this is the perfected version of it.
And that's largely because I was able to address
those four key things from earlier.
The tank is no longer leaking of course,
there's significantly more room within the water feature,
the issues with the land area have been remedied
and it no longer leaks,
and the plants can freely grow in the canopy up top
where Sam can't ruin them.
This also serves a dual function because
as the canopy continues to grow over the top
it will only make Sam feel more and more secure in his environment.
I could go on and on about the improvements I've made,
but I really just want to see Sam in here.
You know, seeing Samson in his new habitat makes me really happy.
I didn’t enjoy having him in that ten gallon,
but that’s what I could do for the time being.
It also was really cool and pretty nostalgic for me
to see how he’s grown over the years.
From a goofy little dude who was skittish with my presence
to a strong and confident beast of a frog.
I know it sounds kind of stupid,
but I honestly feel like a proud father when I look at him.
And he’s not even done growing just yet.
That will have to be for another time, though.
Anyway, that’s the story of Samson thus far
and how I designed the new setup.
Let me know what you think of everything in the comments.
Thank you so much for watching
and as always, I greatly appreciate your support as always.
Until next time SerpaSquad, take care and peace.