My verrucosus enclosure

I think the plants and such are very nice, and the newts seem to be enjoying the water, but if you are looking to expand to a new tank I would definitely give them some more dryer land areas. Perhaps put in a plexiglass divider, sealing with aquarium sealant, (two dividers actually work best as if the first starts leaking and you can fill the space in between with gravel. This way you end up with a dry end, with substrate, moss and plants. The water side can be banked using gravel and small flat rocks to allow easy access.

It is fun to build and experiment so enjoy...
 
Hello,

well I was thinking about adding a dry land section, a moist land section and a water section so they could choose. However they only rarely leaves the water but I will by the end of this week purchase a trio which was kept fully terrestial so this new ones may not be as happy as my old ones in this setup so upgrade is needed.

My deep concern is how to make a proper water circulation in this dry land/water setups.
In my current setup I use a HOB filter and it is perfectly sufficient with assistation of plants to keep water clean and well aerated. Also moisure levels on dry land section is bothering me as well.
I was thinking that maybe making holes in lower part of divider and then to this level fill the dry section with bigger gravel and fill it with water moved by small powerhead and this part cover with soil. So it will works as an excellent filter and will keep dry section moist and water changes will be done in water section since it will be connected with dry section by this holes in divider. Any suggestions are welcome :)
 
The only issue with letting water into the dry side is that the soil will move down into the gravel and then may start to leaching into the water. Also, the water will most likely seep up into the soil and then it can become quite soggy and putrid quickly. I had one where water leaked into the dry side and it was awful.

You could use a small undergravel filter on the wet side (of course well covering it with a number of inches of heavy gravel to prevent them finding a way under it, or a powerhead to circulate water. Another kind of filter that can work quite well in these set-ups is like this one:

HerpSupplies.com - Turtle Clean 511, Canister Filter - Zoo Med -   TURTLE CLEAN 511 CANISTER FILTER- ZooMed External canister filter...

It has a straight uptake tube attached to aquarium tubing that leads to the external filter and then the water goes back to the tank through some more tubing to a long rigid piece with holes in it. You can choose to place this above the water allowing fine water spouts to hit the water, or under the water, which creates some movement of the water without any splashing (which newts don't enjoy too much if it splashes into their faces).
Therefore only the small intake tube and output tubing is in the tank. The only issue is making sure that the lid is adapted to prevent any extra spaces for the newts to escape.

The dry side can be decorated with plants and moss. The moss can be misted to keep that side slightly moist, but the Tylototriton spp. don't need to be kept very wet.
I have known T. shanjing to dwell a lot in the water, and then they choose to spend more time in the dry side. I have heard some rarely use water, so choices are good.
You could always but a small, shallow water dish with soaked moss in it on a part of the dry side if you want to give them an intermediate.

Hope this helps.

Rachel
 
In addition. I think the filter I linked to is a more expensive version. There may be a 501. Also I would search online for sales. You can get one for under $40 I think.
 
Hello,

I have some spare external filters in my fish room but for fishes. However this turtle model do not look very different. Probably only name (turle) make it different from normal external filter used for aquarium fishes :). I usually use ATMAN (czech republic brand) because they are very cheap and very good ones. Do you think that normal fishtank external filter will do the same job as the one you have mentioned?

Also thank you very much for advices about dry land section, very good point about soil mixing with water, I didn't think about that.
 
I think that is would be fine. I would make sure that the intake is covered in a similar way, to prevent the newts from going up it, but if yours are for fish they probably already have this. You could even get a small tube with holes in it (and the end blocked) on the output if desired as well.

It is good to know that there is a cheaper brand as well so I will have to look into these. In terms of the land area, trial and error teaches much.
 
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