29 Gallon Alpine Newt Tank

[CaudataCam]

Hi everyone, I figured it was time I share my tank. This is my second newt tank. My first was for a single Notophthalmus viridescens. Sadly my lid had an opening on it that I wasn't aware of until after the tragedy happened. He had escaped and had dried up. I found him later that day and I was so sad. I learned from my mistake as people should, so on this new tank, the lid is escape proof and I made sure of it. I hope it's built up correctly as I spent countless hours trying to look up proper ways to care for these guys. However, not everything in life is perfect so if there are any ways that anyone can think of to help improve the tank, please let me know. I'm open to everything even if you call me stupid! Okay maybe not that much but you get what I mean


Ok so this is the stand and basic area of where the tank is. It's actually close to a window to help me with temperature control lol.

Here's the empty tank.

Tank on stand. I had to modify the stand a little as it was originally made for 20 gallon tanks.

The tank after about 30 minutes of adding water and sand. I made sure the sand was very fine so that there is minimal danger of impaction that's common with gravel.

Added some other pieces of wood and rocks for the newts.

Plants have been added. This was an older pic. I added more plants and have seen some growth as of recently. I have also added some large broad leafed plants to the tank (not pictured), but since there was not much room for them to be planted, I have them floating. They do a great job at weakening the flow of the water coming out from the filters. I did so because I believe that the alpines do not really like much movement in the water.

Pics of the newts! First 2 are of my male, 3rd is of my female. Currently there is only the two of them in the tank.

I test water parameters weekly to make sure everything is in good standing for them. I also make sure to check and fix their water temperatures, if needed, twice everyday (once in the morning, once at night).

The male newt is named Peanut and the female is named Newtella. Both are from Michael Shrom and I would definitely recommend any newt, sal, etc from him.

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.
-Cameron

 

[dannyyyallenn]

Pretty nice. The layout is cool and really spacious for your newts. As a note, that waterfall type filter will cause a lot of splash stains on your glass. I had something similar when I had paddle tail newts and the stains never came out of my glass. I see you have a current satellite. Your plants will love that.

 

[CaudataCam]

Hey Daniel,

Thanks for the feedback. I don't mind the water stains too much and I'm not too worried about it. I do wipe down the glass with a towel so that it doesn't dry on the glass and leave stains. It's been up for around a month or so I think and there are no noticeable water stains. Thanks for pointing that out though.

And yes I do have a current satellite light fixture for it. I chose LED cause of less heat. That plus I think it makes the tank look amazing. The newts seem to like when I have the blue lights only on because they become fairly active in the front of the tank.

I'm currently trying to set up some sort of air vent system for the tank in an attempt to lower the water temp. It's currently at about 62F, highest I've seen is 65F. I know they like it cool so I'm trying to work something out. As of now I just do the frozen water bottle trick. Since it's winter here and the highs get to mid to upper 50's now, I figure I don't need to worry too much as my house only stays at around 67F. I'm more concerned for summer though. That's when my house tends to average mid to upper 70's which I know is quite warm for them.

 

[Chinadog]

I really like it, it will get better and better as the tank matures and the plants start spreading, I'm sure.
I'm a big fan f LED lighting, the difference it made to plant growth when I swapped from fluorescents was amazing and as you say, they only generate a fraction of the heat to boot. I don't have a blue setting on mine, although I've often thought a red setting would be good. I sometimes watch my newts after dark with a red torch, they don't seem to be able to see the red light, so having a red option above would be perfect for that kind of thing.
Regarding temperature for alpines, I do know mine (fully aquatic apuanus) have been fine for short periods in the upper 70's. I even came home early from a holiday in a panic last year in the heatwave we had, I knew my pyrrhos would be ok, but thought the alpines would be struggling. The temp was around the 84 mark when I got back and they were showing no sign of distress. I would never intentionally expose them to temps that high, but it shows how hardy they are when healthy and with good oxygenation of the water.

 

[Rupert]

Looks great but the stand worries me a bit.

Is hope it will be able to hold all of that weight.

 

[dannyyyallenn]

Evaporation has always worked pretty well for me. Keeping the tank in a cool place(like a basement) and running a fan over it will certainly help. When water is evaporated it removes energy and thus heat from the tank. I only run a fan during the summer.

 

[CaudataCam]

Looks great but the stand worries me a bit.

Is hope it will be able to hold all of that weight.

Hey Rupert!

Thanks for the concern! But I'm fairly positive it should be fine. I don't have pictures but before setting up the tank and everything, I had tested the stand out for about a week by placing weights on it to see if it would support heavy weight. I ended up having about 400-450ish pounds and it seemed to be able to support that for the week I tested it with no problems. I've read that full 29 gallon aquariums with gravel and all that are close to 300 pounds I believe. So I'm fairly certain the stand should do fine.