Theres a small swampland area about a mile from our home that used to be a protected area since it’s a breeding ground for the African “Pyxie” Bullfrog. Our local govt council have decided to allow land developers in and they’re slowly destroying it to build matchbox sized cluster homes.

In Feb this year we found 8 of these adorable little critters hopping around amongst the squished remains of their siblings in a busy car park next to the swamp. 4 were given to a friend with a large pond on his farm and the other 4 have been enjoying a predator free stay in a spare tank we’ve kitted out for them.

We decided to build them a new poly-concrete home. Heres the build log…

Raw Materials

The usual suspects…

• Bits of throw away polystyrene packaging collected from the neighbor’s garbage
• Fibre flyscreen
• Concrete / Quickcrete / Buildcrete
• Pool filter sand
• Concrete stain pigments (Red, brown, yellow, white & black)
• 1 Large tube of marine grade silicon sealant
• A small powerhead/water pump/internal powered filter
• 50 or 75 watt submersible aquarium heater
• 60cm of 10mm silicone tubing

Construction Details

	Since egg-crate is so hellishly expensive here in SA we started off making our baseplate from strips of polystyrene joined to make something that vaguely resembles egg-crate. A layer of fibre flyscreen is placed ontop to prevent the soil from ending up in the bottom of the tank and also allowing water to flow underneath.
	We skipped the smelly part - shaping the polystyrene with an old soldering iron! Tip: wear a mask so u don’t get stoned on poly fumes! The pipework for the pump is neatly recessed into the removable background panel - outtasight, outtamind!
	The stepped waterfall is assembled in stages and sealed off with silcone. This was a mission of note and required about a hundred toothpicks to hold all the parts together whilst waiting for silicone to dry. The internal parts were painted black with a mix of colour stain and concrete prior to assembly.
	Concrete painted onto the polystyrene model. 6 coats later and the colour stain is added…
	After giving it around 5 days to cure we checked the water level and flushed out the dust…
	Checking the waterfall… looking goooood!
	Heres the important bits - pump, filter, and submersible heater. A couple of plastic pot scourers will provide a bit of mechanical filtration until I can get to the pet store to buy a powered internal filter.
	I think we’re about ready to plant now…
	One more just coz it looks kewl!
	Opted for the “instant lawn” approach since we haven’t the patience to grow grass and moss from scratch. A big thank you to a certain sports ground caretaker (who shall remain nameless) for unknowingly “lending us” some ready-made grass and weeds. I’m sure the little brown patch of dirt we left behind will fill in very quickly! lol
	A layer of and herbal potting soil mix underneath and the plants be planted!
	Add water and frogs. Do not stir unless you like muddy water…
	Wow! They dig it… literally!
	And there you have it! Happy frogs!
	Next step… building a lighting hood… To be continued…

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 9:39 am and is filed under DIY Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.