Goal: a setup with a substantial "real" land area, but without a water-tight separation between the land and water. The tank will house several T. kweichowensis, which I have raised from juveniles, but they now need a "grown-up" tank.
Components:
I chose to keep the tank "up and running" during the remodeling process. This was done to maintain the biofilter. The previous residents of the tank were captive-bred, so I'm not too worried about possible transfer of germs.
Here is the original tank. Mostly water, with a couple of islands made of bricks, pots, and slate.
I removed the big pots and fitted the tank with 6 bricks. These bricks fit snugly, so the newts cannot get into the water space under the island. The dark-colored bricks are slightly thinner than the bright-orange bricks, so I need to level the tops: the bricks on the left have a thin piece of slate, the rear bricks in the center have a piece of filter-pad material to make them level.
I put the slate tile in place. Along the front edge is another smaller piece of slate. The pebbles on top are stuck in place with silicone sealant.
Here is a close-up of the siliconed pebbles, showing the location of the spray bar for the filter. The water outflow trickles down the back of the tank. Some of the water trickles into the space under the island, preventing that water from becoming stagnant.
Here is the tank with the bedding (and one newt) in place.
Here is another view. You can see the filter pad material that evens out the difference in height between the two types of bricks. Since taking the photos, I have added additional hiding places on the land area. The first newt has spent 24 hours in the tank, and seems to be utilizing both the land and water areas. Since the bark substrate floats, it will hopefully be easy to clean up the bedding that gets tracked back and forth.
Components:
- One 20-long aquarium, 30x12x12 inches (75x30x30 cm). Includes a ZooMed 501 mini-canister filter, which was not changed during the remodel.
- One 12-inch square slate tile. These are available in home improvement stores, and conveniently, they fit perfectly in 12-inch wide aquariums.
- One smaller piece of slate with pebbles stuck in place with aquarium silicone. This piece makes a barrier between the bark and the water area.
- Six bricks. A lot of standard construction bricks are roughly 8x4 inches, making them (sometimes) fit quite nicely into a 12-inch wide tank. I had to play around with a lot of bricks, however, to find 4 that fit snugly across the width of the tank.
- Substrate: bark, a mixture of cypress mulch and Repti-bark (fir bark). This material can be in contact with the water without being too messy. I rinsed the bark well before using it, to get rid of all fine/dusty material.
I chose to keep the tank "up and running" during the remodeling process. This was done to maintain the biofilter. The previous residents of the tank were captive-bred, so I'm not too worried about possible transfer of germs.
Here is the original tank. Mostly water, with a couple of islands made of bricks, pots, and slate.
I removed the big pots and fitted the tank with 6 bricks. These bricks fit snugly, so the newts cannot get into the water space under the island. The dark-colored bricks are slightly thinner than the bright-orange bricks, so I need to level the tops: the bricks on the left have a thin piece of slate, the rear bricks in the center have a piece of filter-pad material to make them level.
I put the slate tile in place. Along the front edge is another smaller piece of slate. The pebbles on top are stuck in place with silicone sealant.
Here is a close-up of the siliconed pebbles, showing the location of the spray bar for the filter. The water outflow trickles down the back of the tank. Some of the water trickles into the space under the island, preventing that water from becoming stagnant.
Here is the tank with the bedding (and one newt) in place.
Here is another view. You can see the filter pad material that evens out the difference in height between the two types of bricks. Since taking the photos, I have added additional hiding places on the land area. The first newt has spent 24 hours in the tank, and seems to be utilizing both the land and water areas. Since the bark substrate floats, it will hopefully be easy to clean up the bedding that gets tracked back and forth.
