Tank size?

[TroySoldier]

I am looking into making a custom tank for some newts and recently I was able to clear off some space and decide on measurements (7 inches high 7 inches wide and 24 inches long) did some math and found out this would be 5.1 US gallons so I was wondering since standard 5 gallon tanks don't work if this would because of the optimized floor space

Thanks!

Troy.

(hope this is in the right place)

 

[sde]

The reason that tanks that small aren't recommended are because there isn't enough water volume, the water perimeters would change to much and/or often. Plus a tank that size might not be big enough to house any newts any way.

Then again.....

If this is going to be a terrestrial setup then it would work most likely as a temporary setup until you got a larger tank ( 10 gallons or bigger would be best ). I am keeping some juvenile fire salamanders in one gallon plastic shoe boxes for a while until my vivaria is all done, and it has worked remarkably well.

Hope this helps and good luck! -Seth

 

[Chinadog]

It's more to do with thermal stability, the smaller the volume of water, the quicker it can change temperature along with the room it's situated in. Also generally speaking, the smaller the tank, the less room for error you will have because chemistry can change so quickly that things can be off the chain before you realise there's a problem.

Depending on the temperature range of the room you had in mind, you could keep some hardy tropical fish or shrimp in a five gallon tank. The temperature rule no longer applies as long as the tank is kept warmer than the room temperature, but you would have to be dialled in with your water quality checks. Hope this helps!

 

[Bette]

I agree. I keep one or two juvenile axolotls in a bookshelf aquarium that is 23 & 1/2 inches long. It works for the time being because of the big floor area. But yes, I need to be diligent about water quality and water changes. And mature axies would need more space.

 

[TroySoldier]

I did leave myself wiggle room for the height so would making it taller and installing pH and amonia readers work?

 

[ChristianV]

With 5 gallons it's going to be harder to establish the tank as we'll. You can reach a high ammonia spike that can have a huge impact on the tanks ecosystem. If you were to keep 1 newt in there make sure the tank is well established before adding the newt. If you were to keep more than 1 newt then you could potentially kill them all because of all of the waste in such small quarters.

-Christian