Help please, complete novice!

[shannonzico]

Understand all of that and always do my very best for any animal in my care, this evening the OH is gonna be in the garden digging!
Thought i’d pop a couple of pictures up i’ve just taken, feed back very welcome though please take into consideration this is only temporary until i can either re-home them or find a second hand tank which i am tirelessly searching for!
The main thing that bothers me is the water condition, i’ve found putting the filter in and on for an hour a day makes a huge difference with out having to have it in there permanently and i’d really like a substrate of some sort but am unsure of what to go for?
Also some pictures of the actually newts these where the best i could get didn’t want to freak them out with flash over and over again!
Also them seem to struggle with swimming is this normal??

 

[evut]

Hi Shannon,
the filter must be on all the time or not at all. It only works if the water is flowing through it non stop, otherwise the bacteria in it die and make the water worse.
It is a very small tank so the current is also going to be a huge problem for the newts. I think the best idea would be to get some more live plans and forget about the filter.
I would also advise against using substrate - it will just make your life more complicated. (Traps dirt and depending on size can impact the newts. Fine sand is possibly the best option.)
Read about substrates here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/substrate1.shtml

And good luck digging :happy:
.