A new home for my T. verrucosus.

[stanleyc]

How often would you clean the substrate for a setup like this?

 

[Chinadog]

I never really clean the substrate other than siphoning away any obvious muck on the surface during water changes, its pretty much filled with root systems of the plants in there.
Between the snails, shrimp and not overfeeding there's very little that doesn't get broken down and eaten by something.

 

[stanleyc]

What kind of snails and shrimps do you have in there? I've been running my aquariums bare bottom and want to try something like this. Either that or the Walstad type.

Thanks

Also what plants do you have in there? Can't recognize them besides the Java fern and elodea.

 

[Chinadog]

There's Greater Ramshorn snails and mostly Japonica shrimp that do a great job cleaning up dead leaves, Algae etc. There's some Cherry shrimp as well, but I won't bother with them after these are gone as the newts have learned how to catch and eat them quite easily.
The plants are Giant Vallis, Bacopa, Rotala, Marimo moss balls, another, smaller Vallis like plant and Anubias as far as I can remember. I keep meaning to update this thread with some recent pics when I have time, I'll try and do it over the weekend if I can.

 

[stanleyc]

Thanks, would love to see an update.

One more question, I feed my newts blackworms/tubifex as a staple, is there any fear of them getting into the substrate and fouling it up? I kept a little bit of gravel with my H. orientalis for a while and this happened. The worms lived for quite a while in the gravel and would serve as a snack once in a while for the newts hunting them, but would eventually die and foul up the substrate. This could be because I didn't have any cleanup critters in there or any plants that were actually rooted in the substrate (I only had free floating elodea and java moss. Would a well established planted aquarium plus the critters take care of this for the most part?

 

[Chinadog]

For years I've had either Blackworms or Tubifex in some of my tanks and haven't had any issues. I think if the tank is properly maintained and clean, they are just another 'clean up critter' taking advantage of captive conditions.

 

[Phoenixcry]

Yowzah that's one good looking tank!

 

[mr cyclone]

Any further forward on the LED lighting yet?, my main tank is also a jewel tank and the lights give off a lot of heat. I cut vents in the lid to let air circulate better it doesn't do much for the heat but does allow some air circulation. Bare with me I'll post a picture , I have all my juvenile Tylototriton species in boxes on top of the tank they benefit from the heat when the light is on ,and seem to be doing well with the drop in temperature at night when the lights go off even though it's getting pretty cold at nights.
I have to keep an eye on it though I can't risk any loses

 

[mr cyclone]

Moving house in 4 weeks so not very Aesthetic