My First Vivarium - With Many Photos

Hi all! I recently got a chinese fire belly newt, and have just completed its tank. I used Great Stuff, plants, rocks, 100% silicone, and coco fiber, among other things. Here are progress pics:

Basic Layout

Adding the Great Stuff

Oops...oh, right...Great Stuff expands overnight.

Excavation underway. Note the cat and the dirty sock...veeery important tools.

Placing the major rocks

Front Wall Siliconed and paved with rocks (all cleaned and boiled)

Done for the night...it's coming together now

Coco Fiber added, Bromeliad and star moss planted

Ready to Fill! Fittonia planted, sand added, everything cleaned up and ready.

Behold! The finished product.

Things I would do differently:
1. Watch the expansion of the Great Stuff!
2. Test water depth with my filter before setting everything in stone...to make my filter operate correctly, I have to have the water a bit deeper than I would prefer.
3. Plant my fittonia (pink and green plant) a little higher. I think it will probably drown.

Things I think I Did Right:
1. Filled every single nook and cranny that my newt might even consider hiding in with silicone and/or rocks so I don't lose a newt in this lovely setup.
2. Used found items for most components. Even then, the cost was pretty high. I'd estimate I spent about $60 on materials, plants, water testing equipment etc.

Any comments? Now I am just eagerly waiting for the water to cycle so Fred can make this his permanant home.

Angela

That's a great looking tank! Congrats!!

Fantastic for a first time!

I think your probably right about the Fittonia, the roots will rot if water logged(which wont do you any favours as far as water quality is concerned). Perhaps you could plant it in a glass jar to fit the hole you already have? Its difficult to tell how deep it is, or how easily you could fit something in there.

That's a really good idea...I think I have a jar that will work. Thanks!

Angela

That's a Wonderful tank.
I like how you made it look so natural for the newts.
Great Job.

wow!!!!!!!
assome tank, thank for your pics, and thank you very much for helping me to solve the confution I had and how to setup the filter in my future viv.
congrats again

how is that filter set up exactly? It looks really interesting

Very Cool! I see a rocky riverbank in the making.

I don't think either plant will last long. The bromelaid needs to dry out every once in a while. I would try some Cryptocorynes(sp.?), java fern, or some other marsh plant for those spots.

Oh, a black background would really finish off the look!

Well, since that picture, I've been able to lower the water level so that the bromeliad is at least out of the water. Time will tell if the ambient humidity will be too much for it. I hope it survives, because Fred loooves to hide in the pocket made by the leaf adjoining the stem.

I have one java fern in now, although it's starting to develop a lot of brown spots, so I'm not sure what's going on with it. And, I've replanted the fittonia so it's also not sitting in standing water anymore.

As far as how the filter is set up, I will try to explain. However, it's been a bit of a pain, so I'm not sure I would do it exactly this way again. I basically made an "L" shaped tube out of food containers, and then sprayed Great Stuff all around it. My thinking was this: The filter intake is actually the front of the "rock wall", (the bottom of the "L"), and the filter sits inside the upright part of the "L", but is still removeable if I need to replace it. I siliconed a screen over the filter intake so Fred wouldn't find it, and once I had the filter set the way I wanted it, I dropped a lot of pebbles into the tube around it so he wouldn't go in at the top either. The problems with this setup: Great Stuff expands much more than I anticipated, so I had to keep clearing it out of my tube. Thank goodness I have children with small hands! :lol: "Come here honey, and reach in there..." Also, I didn't test how deep I would need the water to actually make the filter operate before I set everything else, so the water is a bit deeper than I would like. But so far it seems to be working, and I like the look.

Angela

Is expanding Foam ok for Newts?

i am very interested in the above question as well. is it safe? also, were did you get it?

it seems to be something you could get at a common hardware store. could you please give a little more info on the label, just for identification purposes, like the directions quote. someone purchased GE 100% silicone for me, which i've read should be safe, but i guess GE makes more then one type because it had mold inhibitors in it. which i really feel should not be able to be called 100% if something is added, but thats neither here nor there.

lastly, thank you so much for this thread. i have been going insane trying to glue large asymmetrical rocks to the back of my tank with two small tubes of aquarium silicon after the mortar i was going to try didn't pass the test.

The product used is called "Great Stuff," an expanding crack sealant that has been used for years in vivaria, especially for Dendrobatids. If you cover it in silicone, you effectively seal away any possible harmful chemicals that may be present in the foam, which should, theoretically, make it completely safe for use with newts. I've never had an issue with it in my dartfrog tanks, and they've been exposed to it for several years now.

It can be purchased for a few dollars at almost any hardware store (I believe I purchased my last bottle at HomeDepot.)

GE makes two types of silicone: I and II. II has the mold inhibitors, and there are mixed (anecdotal) reviews as to wether this additive is harmful to amphibian inhabitants. If you can, it might be safest to go with type I, and avoid the issue all together.

As for this paludarium, it looks promising. I think, though, that you should consider adding creeping Ficus to the land portion to fill in the background. You might also consider adding aquatic plants too to make it more dynamic.

Great start!

Good luck

just to clarify a bit, you can use great stuff without covering with aquarium safe silicon? your just saying that if you do it would ensure the safety.

i have been having so much trouble with my project do to lack of supplies for a little over a week now, then i find out about this stuff and it seems like a magical solution. well apparently my mom had some under the sink the whole time, I felt an odd since of frustration and triumph. i still lack natural rocks at the moment, but i could have got a lot done with the ones that i do have in the mean time.

also, i'm guessing not a whole lot is done with sumps in this area of the hobby, but i love them and plan to have one anyways. deep sand beds are always nice, and i wanted an area to do lots of carbon to help with toxic build up. anyway, i was wondering, as mine will be a reveres sump, if anyone has ever set up a waterfall that is supplied from gravity feed rather then directly by the pump, and how did it work?

I don't think I would use Great Stuff without the silicone. It dries into a hard, foam-like material, but I have no idea about toxicity. Plus, it's just plain ugly.

I have used some black Great Stuff made especially for ponds and waterfalls that might look more acceptable, but it was for a project with no animals.

Angela

beautiful tank, how many gallons is it?