# High Tech Newt Tank



## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Hello folks!

I have been wanting to make a newt tank for a long time now. I grew up catching newts in a pond on my parents property so there is a lot of nostalgia in getting them now as an adult and 'doing it right' as it were.

In order to get a new tank though an old tank has to go. The Wife simply will not tolerate MORE tanks in the house ;P Sadly the tank that's getting the axe is my Walstad Fish Bowl. Its been up and running for a year and a half now but its also spent the last 7 or so months with near constant algae growth I haven't been able to shake. Its also in my kitchen and The Wife wants to limit the tanks on the main floor. 

Enter my plan, newts need cold water (under 70 degrees ideally) so it makes sense to keep them in the basement. The newt tank will thus go in my basement office space. Step one for this build is the stand.

While I could build this stand from scratch, I've had an idea floating around for improving a petco Brooklyn Metal stand for a while and this was the perfect time to implement it. I purchased the 40 gallon version even though the tank I plan for will be closer to 20 gallons. I figured I rather have a stand that is a little too big then one that is a little too small. 

Step one was to build a shelf.

I did this by drilling and taping holes in the bottom part of the stand for 18 gauge metal 2x4 brackets:










The shelf itself is made from 1/2 plywood reinforced with some scrap oak on the bottom. 

I then cut panels for the sides from 1/2 birch plywood:










These panels provide no structural support, they are there simply to enclose the cabinet. Each one is held in place by a single screw that was drilled and taped into the metal frame of the stand.

The door is made from a 1/2 plywood with two cabinet handles. I attached magnets to the wooden side panels and magnets to the door panel. This provides just enough force to hold the door in place. It does not do a thing to stop my children from opening the panel but they are not allowed in this space unattended anyway so hopefully it will be fine.










All wooden pieces got a rub down with a tung oil like finish. 

Next up I will post how I made the top from poured concrete.


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## ED3 (Sep 14, 2019)

I use to keep newts for the exact same reason, I had good luck keeping them in the basement (was the same temperature all year). What are your plans for substrate? I had smooth gravel and river stones in mine because I had tried to mimic a stream in a 20L. If I find any old pictures I'll definitely share them.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

ED3 said:


> I use to keep newts for the exact same reason, I had good luck keeping them in the basement (was the same temperature all year). What are your plans for substrate? I had smooth gravel and river stones in mine because I had tried to mimic a stream in a 20L. If I find any old pictures I'll definitely share them.


Would love to see pictures!

My plan for substrate is aquasoil base with sand on top with a few pieces of gravel mixed in for aesthetics. I don't think I am trying to do a carpet in this tank but I find it useful to add a few handfuls of aquasoil into the bottom of a tank.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Since I am not planning to put a rimmed 40 gallon tank on this stand I needed a top that would be strong enough to support a tank, while also being dead flat. 

I have been playing around with poured concrete table tops for a few months now and I felt pretty comfortable making one for this stand. 

I made a mold out of 3/4" melamine.










The sides are held on with screws and made 'water tight' with silicone in the seams. I used rapid set mortar mix and added some black concrete tint as well. I think it came out reasonably well:










For sealant I just used paste wax because that was all I had on hand. But I think it will be fine, its not a food surface or anything. 

Here is the stand installed in my office:










Next up I need to make the light. Or really I just need to make the light fixture. The light itself will be a smart bulb that connects to my amazon echo. Thanks to a recent software update, the amazon echo can now do sunrise and sunset options for dimmable smart bulbs. This makes smart bulbs the cheapest light solution that are fully programable for colors, schedules, and sunrise/sunset effects.


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## coseal (May 26, 2008)

that top is pretty slick! great diy skills!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

coseal said:


> that top is pretty slick! great diy skills!


Thank you! This is my third concrete top for a stand. They are a pretty easy way to add style to a build. I'm a big fan of them so far.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update:

Time to make a light! Or at least, time to make a fixture. I wanted something a little industrial looking, and also I didn't want to spend any money ;P. 

So I used a mahogany board I already had left over from another project and milled it to size. After some work on the table saw I was ready for my glue-up:










After this I could begin drilling holes for the cord to run through. I decided pretty quickly I wanted to cover up much of the exposed cord so I made a U channel in another piece of mehagany and used that to cover up the cord on top of the fixture holder.










At this point it was essentially done. A little sanding, soldering on a power cord, and drilling and tapping the stand so it could attach and TA-DA!










The bulb I chose to go into this was an RBG smart bulb. Specifically, this one. It is on the lower end of acceptable as far as brightness is concerned. PPFD values ranged from 15 (in the corners of the would be tank space) to 27 directly under the light at 21".










I should have gone with a BR30 style bulb instead of an A19 but I had hoped it would be slightly stronger. Still its not bad and the app is pretty good. I had planned for this tank to be low to medium light anyway with low amounts of CO2 so this should work out.

Next up I need to buy the tank! I am currently debating a UNS 60U or the Landen equivalent or something else of similar size. Only about half to 3/4 of the tank will be under water so I lean towards getting something taller.


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## AwwShucks (Jul 3, 2020)

As an 18-year-old college student, I am very jealous of your ability to build and keep such wonderful tanks! I've promised myself that in the future, I will have a house full of tanks! I love newts


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

AwwShucks said:


> As an 18-year-old college student, I am very jealous of your ability to build and keep such wonderful tanks! I've promised myself that in the future, I will have a house full of tanks! I love newts


Thank you! I'm jealous of you for being in college. I didn't learn to do any woodworking until 4 or 5 years after I graduated. At that point it was all just youtube videos and self teaching through trial and error. I would bet dollars to donuts there is a place on your campus where you can go to use woodworking equipment for free or a very nominal fee, plus people that will teach you how to actually build things. The number of tanks you can keep will be limited of course ;P I had a 10 gallon in college but that was all.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

I ended up ordering the UNS 60U aquarium. I thought about going with alternatives, for a little more I could buy the Landen and already have the tank in my possession. But, I'm in no real hurry on this and the UNS tanks are supposed to be back in stock at the end of the month. And right or wrong, I have a perception that the UNS tanks are a little nicer... maybe? At least I like their name stencil more then Landen's. 

Meanwhile, there is nothing stopping me from planning for the tank to arrive. To that end I've had my eye out for rocks in need of rescue. Some of these rocks were not tiny.... But in the end I managed to rescue quite a few nice specimens in desperate need of a home. 

Tonight I cut out a piece of cardboard in approximately the size of the tanks footprint and laid out some of the rocks on it. After a half hour or so I ended up with this configuration:










I'm positive this is not the final look. I will be playing with these rocks for a while but I wanted to share an update of where things are at. Next up I plan to make an inline mini reactor for co2.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

This looks like it’s gonna be a really nice tank! I have the same stand and have struggled with what to do to enclose the under area and you just post this and make me feel silly. Lol. Can you take a photo or explain in slightly more detail how the magnets are attached to the wood and the stand? I would greatly appreciate it. I have a sump under mine and would like to make it look more neat in my home. Thanks! 


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

xjasminex said:


> This looks like it’s gonna be a really nice tank! I have the same stand and have struggled with what to do to enclose the under area and you just post this and make me feel silly. Lol. Can you take a photo or explain in slightly more detail how the magnets are attached to the wood and the stand? I would greatly appreciate it. I have a sump under mine and would like to make it look more neat in my home. Thanks!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thank you! I have high hopes for this tank. I've been thinking about using one of these stands for years, it wasn't until recently I figured out to put a concrete top on it so I could use smaller tanks. 

Here are some pictures I just took of the magnets. 

I used wood glue to attach a few small pieces of scrap to the wooden panels I added. I then drilled holes and epoxied in some rare earth magnets:










On the door panel I drilled holes and epoxied in opposing magnets:










When you close the panel in place the magnets on the doors line up with the magnets in the stand:










In order to know where to drill holes on the door I first installed the magnets on the side panels, then put a little ball of painters tape on the magnet. Then I shmooshed the door on. The painters tape stuck to the door panel in the spot I needed to drill to get the magnets to line up. Theres a few different ways to do this including using a dab of paint etc.


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

minorhero said:


> Thank you! I have high hopes for this tank. I've been thinking about using one of these stands for years, it wasn't until recently I figured out to put a concrete top on it so I could use smaller tanks.
> 
> Here are some pictures I just took of the magnets.
> 
> ...



This is great! Thanks! I really appreciate it!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Well look who's back from the dendroboards! Very cool stand idea. 

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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

gjcarew said:


> Well look who's back from the dendroboards! Very cool stand idea.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Thanky! Yeah, I'm still over at dendroboard a lot but I got a setback on my big dart frog tank so I'm taking a step back a regrouping on that project. That said, I am having a bit of fun building out this tank in what is essentially a long involved take down of my Walstad Fish Bowl.

In other news a small update.

I went ahead and built what I am hoping will be my inline reactor last night. I was originally going to use a piece of 2" pvc pipe but ended up going even smaller by just using a coupler.

Here are the parts laid out in an exploded form:










The elbow needed to be heavily mutilated errr modified to make it work. I was planning to do this with my dremel but the darn cullet broke so I used an electric drill and a dremel sanding drum.










I also needed to widen inside of the 3/4 x 2 inch bushing to get the elbow to fit the way I wanted but in the end I don't need a pressure tight fitting here. Just good enough will be plenty.










Outside look:










The water will flow down the unmodified bushing and will run into this:










Completed look:










The idea is to create a chamber where the normal flow of water is disrupted and slowed down. Into this chamber I will inject co2 which will hopefully be dissolved in the disrupted water. 

Newts don't like acidic water so I won't be injecting a lot of co2. I am thinking around 1 bubble every 3 or 4 seconds. So this reactor doesn't need to do a lot. Will it work?? Not sure, and I won't be till I test it in action. If it does work it will have the advantage of being small and maintenance free as well as cheap to build. If it doesn't work.. well I get to build another one ;P


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Small update:

I am still waiting for word regarding my tank. The website I bought it from originally said it would be in stock in mid to late November. Later they changed that to just be 'late' November. Meanwhile I am proceeding with everything else I can possibly do before its actually present.

That includes springing for some opaque tubing so I won't have to look at all the gunk in my filter hoses. I have absolutely no idea why all tubing is not opaque. After doing a reasonable thorough search I found that mcmaster carr sells some opaque tubing and amazon had some penn plex replacement tubing which is opaque black. The penn plex was slightly cheaper for the amount I actually needed so I went for that. Here is how my under cabinet currently looks:










I also picked up a bag of sand at Lowes. Specifically, I got Gardenpro All Purpose Sand. At 4 dollars for a bag its hard to beat the price. I also really liked how dark it is. At least a few shades darker then HTH Pool Filter Sand. The downside is that its not nearly as nicely graded as HTH. It has both very fine particles and some smallish stones. Plus, it came quite dirty. It took about 10 bucket changes of water before it ran clean. Not a big deal but definitely worth noting. I would not want to put this directly into an aquarium. Still, I like the look.










And I have been playing with hardscape. Here are a few of my ideas:














































And if you are wondering what that wood picture frame looking thing is in the background.. well that's the lid. Hopefully the lid anyway. I don't have the tank lying around to make sure it fits so I had to go off of the listed measurements.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

minorhero said:


> ...
> I have been wanting to make a newt tank for a long time now. I grew up catching newts in a pond on my parents property so there is a lot of nostalgia in getting them now as an adult and 'doing it right' as it were.


I can definitely relate, as I grew up a herp lover and probably had pretty much every reptile/amp I can get my hands on. I even belonged to the New York Herpetological Society and attended meetings at the Bronx Zoo. 

Nice DIY, way above my pay grade. In terms of the layout I actually like the one you had on the first page. Is the idea to fill up the tank half way and have the rocks exposed. Got the itch now to get something with feet inside of fins, thanks :icon_mad: lol.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Asteroid said:


> In terms of the layout I actually like the one you had on the first page. Is the idea to fill up the tank half way and have the rocks exposed. Got the itch now to get something with feet inside of fins, thanks :icon_mad: lol.


Thank you!

Its very much a work in progress. I like how the rocks on the right look in the last picture but the rocks on the left are not great. So I will probably reorganize everything a few more times ;P

And yes the idea is to fill the tank half way to 2/3rds full leaving the tops of the rocks exposed. I want the rocks to stick up as much as possible so I can have as much water as possible while still leaving a 'land' area.

Scratch the itch! Newts are cool!


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Nice looking DIY build! Really dig the concrete top, nice touch that is quite unique  Goodluck with the rest


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

andrewss said:


> Nice looking DIY build! Really dig the concrete top, nice touch that is quite unique  Goodluck with the rest


Thank you! I really like concrete tops. They have some tricky setup issues, but once you got a place to make them they are really quite easy to create, and the finished product I think is very functional.

Small update:

I found out today that my UNS tank which was first said to come in Mid November to Late November, then moved to late November, is _now_ scheduled for December. If I had a date certain I might be willing to wait but this could also be a thing where the tanks just keep getting delayed and delayed. For that reason I decided to switch tanks to a Waterbox Clear Mini 30. This tank has the same 600mm length but is both taller and wider then the UNS 60U. This means the top I made is completely useless. Ohs well.

It also means I need a new piece of cardboard so I can redo the hardscape ;P

Here are the first 2 new potential layouts:


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## sbo80 (Oct 13, 2019)

definitely consider the plants you'll be using as you decide on the hardscape. Too many rocks will limit what you can have, unless you lean heavy on epiphytes. But the look may not matter as much as you think. I spent so much time (and a fair penny!) on figuring out my hardscape, laying it out just like you are doing. Only to find out months later I can hardly see any of them since they're always hidden by the plants. If yours is going to coming out the water that part will probably be fine, but depending on the plants the underwater part might be fairly irrelevant.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

sbo80 said:


> definitely consider the plants you'll be using as you decide on the hardscape. Too many rocks will limit what you can have, unless you lean heavy on epiphytes. But the look may not matter as much as you think. I spent so much time (and a fair penny!) on figuring out my hardscape, laying it out just like you are doing. Only to find out months later I can hardly see any of them since they're always hidden by the plants. If yours is going to coming out the water that part will probably be fine, but depending on the plants the underwater part might be fairly irrelevant.


This is definitely good advice. The plants are going to mostly be coming out of Walstad bowl. So there will be a fair amount of hair grass, micro sword, juncus repens and ludwigia. There is also some buce brownie ghost, and some anubias nana and nana petite. To this I am going to add some java fern because.. yeah a lot of rocks. I am aiming for a moderately planted tank with little out croppings of plants so hopefully the hardscape can shine through. On the emerged rocks I am planning some terrestrial moss and some strands of Peperomia Prostrata (string of turtles) which will hopefully drape down into the water in a most artful way ;P

With all that said..

Small Update:

I continue the hardscape layouts including going to my rock store (ie the woods) and picking up a new giant rock.





































The last one I am liking but time will tell 

Speaking of time, I don't have much of it left! I got word that my Waterbox was shipped on Friday and will be arriving sometime on Monday. Hopefully Monday night (but more probably Tuesday) I will be scaping this tank.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I vote for the second one (if I get a vote). It feels well balanced and not too "heavy."

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## Griznatch (Nov 9, 2020)

I love seeing DIY projects and yours is well done! Very impressed by all the work you put into it so far, and looking forward to seeing the end result!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

gjcarew said:


> I vote for the second one (if I get a vote). It feels well balanced and not too "heavy."
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Everyone gets a vote! But mine is the only one that counts ;P I do worry about there being too much rock but when I look at some of the really awesome contest tanks they have crazy amounts of rock as well. Plus at least parts of these rocks are going to be buried in substrate.



Griznatch said:


> I love seeing DIY projects and yours is well done! Very impressed by all the work you put into it so far, and looking forward to seeing the end result!


Thank you! Its been fun so far, I'm excited to get this tank rocking and rolling so I can get my newts in ! 

Very small update:

I think I finally found a layout that is working for me. Here is the layout from straight on plus a few extra angles thrown in.





































Tomorrow my tank arrives so I will need to boil my rocks and wood before then. Assuming I get that done I should be able to get right into scaping this tank. I want to boil these rocks because they came from the wild and I'm a little concerned about weird persistent types of algae that they might harbor.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update!

The tank came in on Monday as expected. I knew the dimensions in advance but I was still thinking, 'huh this thing is bigger then I thought' ;P

Here it is in place with some egg crate down to protect the bottom from all the stone I am using:










It took 2 days to get the scape back the way I liked it (or a reasonable approximation) despite the pictures I took. Eventually I got it to look like this:










At that I point I was ready to add some aquasoil. This is dennerle scapersoil I got off of amazon a few months back.










You can't see it but there is some matala mat in the back of the tank that protects the glass in case the rocks ever shift.

Then I was ready to add the sand and flood the tank!










And that's where I'm at now. Its been a couple of days, I got my filtration running if not running how I want it. I have not planted anything in the tank yet nor added any livestock. All the plants are going to be coming from an existing walstad bowl, so I will be taking it very much in little bits and pieces. Before removing half of the plants I want the new tank cycled so I can move over the livestock.

I am also not happy with the two intake tubes I am using (one being used as a return due to the lower water level). I was hoping to get stainless steel lily pipes for this but I had trouble finding someone who would sell me 2 intakes as opposed to a set of intake and return. I prefer not to pay the premium of buying 2 returns I don't need. (if that makes sense).

I did find someone a few weeks ago selling exactly what I wanted on ebay and ordered from them (shipped from china). Those came in on Monday as well but they do not exactly match the picture (holes up too high) and will not work for this tank. 

After looking into it a bit I decided to try to make my own stainless steel lily pipes. I bought some 3/4 thin wall stainless steel tubing and a bending spring and watched some videos of folks making it happen.... So yeah, I'm going to give it a go  

In the meantime, the plastic bits will be functional till I can get something a little more aesthetically pleasing.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update

Aaaaaaannnnd, I changed it up ;P

I didn't like the hardscape nearly as much once the tank was flooded.

I really thought changing it up was going to be horrible now that the sand was in but honestly it wasn't a big deal.

Here is the new hardscape:



















Thanks to using cycled media from another tank the cycle for this tank only took a few days to complete. Earlier today I added the first few plants from my walstad bowl. Plus 1 snail (I shall name him Tester the Fearless). 










Over the next few days I will add more and more plants and livestock to the tank until the bowl is essentially empty. Stay tuned!


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

I was going to comment that I didn't love the wood, since I felt it took away from the main rock, but you read my mind. Looks much better IMO. Is that mini pellia emersed?


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Asteroid said:


> I was going to comment that I didn't love the wood, since I felt it took away from the main rock, but you read my mind. Looks much better IMO. Is that mini pellia emersed?


Thank you! Yea I really wanted to use that wood but every time I took it out I was like 'wow that looks better' ;P

Once it was gone the scape just kind of came together almost instantly.

It is not pellia, it's actually terrestrial moss I found in the woods. I also replaced it with a different species that I was able to get a bigger piece from. Speaking of which..


Update:

For the new moss I secured it with a small dab of aquarium safe silicone. I also moved over all the plants I plan on using in this tank from the Walstad bowl. In so doing I discovered what destroyed that tank ;P You see I have been unhappy with the Walstad tank for a while because I had a very persistent algae that my snails and amanos were not touching. I couldn't get rid of the stuff, it grew crazy quick and no matter how much I manually removed it would just be back again the next week. 

Well........ heh it turns out it was not algae. It was instead a rootless plant I purposely added to the tank somewhere around 10 months ago. I found this plant in local streams and mistook it for an aquatic moss. I purposely added it to 3 tanks, my spec V, my 40 breeder, and the walstad bowl. I forgot about it because it was quickly eaten by fish in the other 2 tanks. In this tank it took over and grew in a way that was more reminiscent of algae then a plant. It wasn't until I was looking at handfuls and handfuls of the stuff during the tear down that I realized what it was. Anyway it was a real pain to deal with because any plant I wanted to reuse needed to be cleansed of this stuff (think a bad java moss infestation, but worse since the strands are smaller). It took hours but eventually I got the plants pretty clean. I won't say perfectly clean, but hopefully clean enough that any infestations that start to crop up I can jump on quickly and kill.

Anyway in addition to moving over the plants I also made a new lid to fit this tank. Here is how the tank looks now:




























I also tried to make my own lily pipes for this tank using 3/4" stainless steel tubing... that did not work. I tried manually bending the pipe around a fulcrum but it was beyond my strength. Then I used a hydraulic press and it was hard even for my press which made me feel better about my own strength but still. Anyway it also flattened my tube a bit too much so I abandoned that project as unfeasible without better equipment. Instead I went ahead and bought a inflow/outflow set which is shipping from china. If that works I will buy another one. Till it gets here I have the rather ridiculous situation with the current plastic inflows. 

So why bother with putting the top on now? Well as it turns out its needed. I found a reputable breeder on facebook who sold me 2 unsexed alpine newts. They were shipped overnight fedex yesterday and should be arriving sometime this morning. So finally the newt tank is going to get some newts


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Following this build. I'm very curious to see if the co2 will have any effect on the newts.

I've always been a herp lover first, currently breeding ackie monitors and Dumeril's boas. Have really been mulling the idea of building a newt tank.

Love the hard scape and choice of substrate!


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

I’m still loving this! I’m not a fan of high tech tanks but everything else is great! I love that wood rim. It really compliments the hardscape and sand and brings the whole thing together for me. Are you going to place the in and out tubes through the wood?

Are you putting a background on the tank?


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## SteppingStones (Aug 8, 2014)

Any updates? I need to see some newts!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

xjasminex said:


> I’m still loving this! I’m not a fan of high tech tanks but everything else is great! I love that wood rim. It really compliments the hardscape and sand and brings the whole thing together for me. Are you going to place the in and out tubes through the wood?
> 
> Are you putting a background on the tank?
> 
> ...


Yes I will definitely be putting the intake and return through the wooden lid. I am trying to get some stainless steel returns and use them for both intake and return. Its more difficult then I first thought it would be because not every seller actually sends the same set they have pictured. I think I found a good set but we will see. I will probably add some frosted window film to the back of the tank at some point, no other background.



SteppingStones said:


> Any updates? I need to see some newts!


You ask, I deliver!

Update:

It's been almost a month since I set up the tank and last posted. A lot has happened and when I saw SteppingStones asking for an update I realized I really should update this thread with all that has happened.

So first off I will get out of the way that the plants in this tank are doing great, maybe even really great. This is an aquasoil tank so there should have been a lot of nutrients in the water this first month but other then some start up diatoms on the anubias leaves, there hasn't been a spec of algae in this tank. I think a lot of this has to do with using established plants that had already transitioned to underwater conditions and because my light is pretty low powered compared to some of my other setups. 

With that out of the way the rest of this post is going to focus on the newts.

So I got the newts shortly after my last update. They arrived in very good condition, the breeder clearly being someone who takes care of their animals. I allowed the newts to come to room temperature and then put them into the tank on the 'land' portion. They spent the next hour or so swimming around in the tank exploring it and all looked well. Then they crawled back up on the land portion and pretty much stayed there for the next 2 weeks.

This was a problem.

The newts I got are called alpine newts and while some species of salamander spend significant time on land, these newts in captivity spend almost all of their time in the water. For them to spend so much time on the land essentially meant something was wrong. Over the course of those 2 weeks I did a number of things, the first of which was talk to people with more experience including the breeder. I was told that newts take a bit to settle into a tank and a week out of water would not be unusual for them. After that week went by I started considering other options. You see the newts were not alone in this tank. I did something that is frowned upon in the newt world which is have some fish in the same tank with the newts. In this case I put my ricefish from my walstad bowl in this tank. The fish are super peaceful so I wasn't worried about them hurting the newts and they could certainly tolerate the same temperature ranges (the 2 reasons most often listed for why you should not cohabitate fish and newts), but as it turns out they were just plain stressing my newts out. I didn't want to remove them though because I don't have another tank they can go into. It came to a head one morning when I found my last male ricefish almost bitten in half. 

Soooo yeah, the remaining 4 female ricefish got moved to a temporary tank while I try and rehome them. That was problem 1.

But still I had land bound newts. 

I eventually decided that my temperatures were simply too high. The tank was getting as high as 73 degrees at its peak, and while that was technically within range of these newts I think it was just too much for them given they were in a new home. I put a fan on the tank and that dropped the temperature down to 66 at its peak and within a day one of the newts was in the water. The other newt... not so much. This is now 1.5 weeks after introducing them and the remaining newt would stay out of the water for another week. It actually got to a point where I was convinced I needed to take more drastic action and made a hospital tank so I could closely monitor this newt and was just about to put it in the hospital tank when I found it happily swimming about in the water. What changed? Basically different food I believe. I was feeding flightless fruit flies on the land portion and pellets to the newt in the water. I was advised to switch to frozen bloodworms for both and I believe that made all the difference. 

I have since also introduced earth worms to their diet and I ordered a white worm culture to throw that into the mix as well. 

Flash forward to present time and both newts are looking healthy and spending all day in the water. I haven't seen either on the land portion in days (which is how this critter is supposed to act). 

But I have a silly fan on top of my tank. I really want that thing gone, which means I need a chiller. I'm going to try and DIY one together but if that fails I will just bite the bullet and buy one. 

And so without further ado, here is a bunch of pictures of newts.



















































































And a full tank shot as of this morning:










That's all I have for now. Next time I will hopefully have something to talk about concerning the DIY chiller.


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## ytz (Dec 1, 2020)

It took time
But it was worth it


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Thanks for the update and the newts are looking great!


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

This is awesome! Great job! I’m excited to see how it progresses!


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## Miller2112 (Nov 12, 2020)

Looks great!! Where did you get your newts?


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Miller2112 said:


> Looks great!! Where did you get your newts?


I made a post in the facebook group named something like 'salamander and newt rehoming'. I got several responses from this within a few minutes. The first to respond was a fellow named Bradley Wilson. I looked him up and he had a great reputation as a breeder and hobbyist so I went with him. This is his website.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update!

Its been a couple of months since I last updated and more things have happened so its time to talk about it.

On the food side I have switched over to almost exclusively earth worms with a few pellets thrown in every so often. I have also switched to an every other day feeding so my newts don't become obese (which is a thing that actually happens). All the worms I'm feeding right now are collected from my yard by means of digging a hole and picking out any worms that make an appearance. I also have an earth worm 'ranch' that I made using an old storage bin a burried in the ground. To make it I first drilled a bunch of 1/8 inch holes in the bottom for drainage:










Then I added a bag of rocks in for additional drainage protection and on top of that put some dried grass:










And then added some coconut coir and dried terrarium moss to act as worm bedding.










I made a top out of some scrap wood so my kids (which are still too young to know better) can stand on it without any danger of it falling in.










Over the course of a few weeks I added about 100 worms to the 'ranch' along with some leftover vegetable scraps from the kitchen. Now I just need to wait for my worms to multiply and I can start feeding from the ranch and stop digging holes in my yard ;P

Regarding the diy chiller.... complete failure. I tried I think 6 variations on my design using different parts etc and in the end I was only ever able to alter the temperature by a single degree. Thats not exactly very useful. So I just sucked it up and attached a fan to the light post. Here is how that looked:










In my last post I mentioned that I moved the fish out of the tank and into a temporary tank? Well another rice fish died in that temporary tank. I decided at this point my ricefish are getting on in years (they only live 2-3 years anyway and mine are right at that 2 year mark) and my newts had calmed down a bit so I would try them back in the tank. The results were better then expected. The newts were jumpy for a day or 2 but have since acclimated to the fishies and no longer seem to mind them. I also haven't had any more of the ricefish end up as newt dinner so all seems to be well.

Meanwhile my newts are almost a year old and I still wasn't sure what sex they were. I know they all start off looking like females and as they age the males develop coloration which is different from the females and juveniles. I wasn't sure though WHEN that happened. So I posted a picture on a facebook group of my newts and discovered that I definitely have 2 females since the males would already have started showing their colors by now. This was a bit of a let down since I really wanted at least one male for their colors. This means.... I need more newts ;P Specifically I want 1 male newt. Its unusual in the hobby to find someone willing to sell a newt old enough to be sexed so I either have to get lucky finding someone willing to sell,. or I need to get another juvenile and get lucky with it being a male.

Anyway for this update I broke out my macro lens and my real camera. So without further discussion here are some pictures of the newts and other tank inhabitants.









































































and the obligatory full tank shot:










That's all for now. Hopefully at next update I will have a new newt to show off.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

So cool. I’m glad I stumbled upon this thread. Great DIY skills and awesome newt paradise.


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## fishietyme (Feb 9, 2021)

This is awesome- love seeing how much consideration you took in making your newts happy


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

It's been about 1 month since my last post sooo

Update!

Definitely some fun news to report. Since last time the tank has added a few new inhabitants. First up were fish. I wanted to increase the fish I had and I frankly did not think I could find ricefish easily (last time it took a few months and a shipment from Hawaii). So I decided to go with a different species. Given my temperatures in the mid to high 60s I decided to go with Celestrial Pearl Danios. I added 8 to the tank, lost 2 immediately but the remaining 6 are doing well. They are also very difficult to photograph with a phone ;P I really should have used my macro lens and probably will later but for todays update its phone pictures all around!










Then came the critter I was really wanting, a male alpine newt!

I had made a post on facebook seeking an alpine newt and got a very tentitive bite, but nothing definite. Then I saw another person a week or more later posting looking for alpine newts and someone else responded to them. I contacted that person who didn't have any males but pointed me at another person not even on facebook who did have a male ;P So after this little song and dance I got one male alpine newt overnighted to me. He is a few months younger then my females but is a wonderful looking fella in good health. Here are some pictures:





































And the obligatory full tank shot:










An eagle eye observer will notice the water level is a bit different! My newts haven't used the little rock island I had in the tank since they settled in. Consulting with folks online the general consensus is that well adjusted alpine newts are fully aquatic 100% of the time. Some folks include a floating cork bark platform as an emergency pull out location for them, but so long as water quality is good it will never be used. As a temporary measure I added the floating cork but I expect I will remove it once I am satisfied the newts are happy with their new greater water volume. 

With the increase in water volume also came changing priorities with lily pipes. I no longer needed 2 intake pipes and prefered a more traditional set of pipes for a tiny bit of surface movement. Fortunately I already owned this pipe.

Its definitely fun having both a male and female newts in the same tank. It was hard to capture with a photograph but the male has arched is back a bit and is tail fanning the female in this picture:










This is mating behavior even though both the male and female are too young to actually mate. This type of behavior will continue for the next year until they are old enough to mate. In the meantime its fun to see.


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

I don't know a damn thing about newts but that is one handsome newt

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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Hey, does the newt have the ability to climb glass.


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Thank you so much for the ample pictures!! Gorgeous newts!! Much like you I have memories of trying to keep the ones I'd catch locally as a kid and to see a grown up and proper version of that experience is wonderfully nostalgic!! Kudos to you!!!!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Asteroid said:


> Hey, does the newt have the ability to climb glass.


They do darn critters. This is why I have the wooden partial lid. They don't climb like geckos, more like a weird shimmy where they are using the surface tension of their wet bodies to kind of stick to the glass. So they can't go upside down, thus if they can't reach out and grab the edge of the lid they can't get out.

This is the case with pretty much all aquatic salamanders except for axolotls and spanish ribbed newts, both of which get too big and bulbus to climb (though I'm told the latter as juveniles can climb).

I have actually never seen mine climb but the possibility of it is enough for me to keep the lid on.



Plinkploop said:


> Thank you so much for the ample pictures!! Gorgeous newts!! Much like you I have memories of trying to keep the ones I'd catch locally as a kid and to see a grown up and proper version of that experience is wonderfully nostalgic!! Kudos to you!!!!


Thank you! I also caught Eastern Newts as a kid and kept them (I now know most inadequately) in a fish bowl. Keeping newts in a proper setup using the knowledge I gained as an adult is definitely very nostalgic and rewarding for me.


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Love the new male newt and the update on the tank. Boy is he gorgeous!!


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## Wonger77 (Jun 11, 2018)

minorhero said:


> They do darn critters. This is why I have the wooden partial lid. They don't climb like geckos, more like a weird shimmy where they are using the surface tension of their wet bodies to kind of stick to the glass. So they can't go upside down, thus if they can't reach out and grab the edge of the lid they can't get out.
> 
> This is the case with pretty much all aquatic salamanders except for axolotls and spanish ribbed newts, both of which get too big and bulbus to climb (though I'm told the latter as juveniles can climb).


LOL. I just found this thread. This is an amazing set up! I too have fond memories of keeping newts as a child. I also remember seeing my firebelly newt and firebelly toad climb the walls of the bucket during water changes and escape a couple of times. 

I bought a firebelly newt and toad when I was around 6 years old. I kept them in a 10 gallon tank filed with a few inches of water with a few rocks and Anacharis. It looked like a Motel 6 compared to the Four Seasons you have set up for yours newts. I fed them black worms once a week and changed the water maybe once a month. At times, the smell from the tank reminded me of pond water mixed with toilet water That being said, they lived together for 27 years and died within a year of each other. I later read that firebelly toads and newts aren't supposed to be housed together, but they got along great and often found my newt resting on top of the toad. 

They outlived their other tank mates throughout the years (eastern newts, emperor newts) which I could only get to live 6 months - 2 years at most. 

Congrats on the set up and good luck!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update!

Today is water change day which really isn't a reason for an update on a tank like this. 

You know what is?

Babies!

My newts are not supposed to be breeding till around 2 years old according to my research. So with females just over a year old and a male of just under a year old I was very very very surprised to see these guys during the water change:



















I have no idea what to do now, I really had not anticipated this despite seeing pretty consistent (what I thought was 'mock') breeding behavior from my male. It seems opinions are mixed whether to leave the larva in place or remove them... Also in the tank at present are neocaridina shrimp, ramshorn snails, amano shrimp, and celestial pearl danios. My ricefish having been removed to a patio pond for the season.


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Omg they are so cute!!!! Are they big enough to do any real damage to your other fauna? I don't know what I'd do either. Congrats, though!!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

The larva are extremely small at present. There is sand and aquasoil in the tank, so those black 'rocks' in the first picture are actually bits of aquasoil that made it to the surface to give you a sense of scale. They might be able to eat snail eggs, but that's about it. Honestly I am just so surprised they are there, as of right now I am planning to just wait and see how they do in the tank. So far my (hastily done) research shows a mix of people who leave them in tank and folks that take them out to raise seperately. Since these guys hatched without me ever discovering the eggs, getting them out now is probably not realistic at their current size and unknown numbers (I am sure of at least 2 thus far).


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Gotta love happy little accidents 😉👍 I think I'd leave them too, it's hard to even try removing anything that small.


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## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

Congrats Dad!


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## Chizpa305 (Feb 13, 2011)

News: New Newts


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## greenguppy (Dec 31, 2020)

Wow, very nice tank and newts. I thought newts lived in the water for like 2 years them on land for sometime then back in the water for the rest of thier lives? 

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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

greenguppy said:


> Wow, very nice tank and newts. I thought newts lived in the water for like 2 years them on land for sometime then back in the water for the rest of thier lives?
> 
> Sent from my KFONWI using Tapatalk


Thank you!

How aquatic a newt is is very dependent on the species of newt. What you are describing is the life cycle of the Eastern Newt aka Red Spotted Newt. They are an extremely common species in the eastern half of the united states (and what I caught as a kid). They spend sometime in their larva phase, then go onto land for a juvenile phase (when they are called an eft) then go back into the water as an adult to reproduce. 

Other species of newts and salamanders are all over the place when it comes to how aquatic they are. Many species will stay on land for extended periods of time and only go into the water in the spring/summer/fall to breed then return to land. The type of newt in my tank is an alpine newt, they are native to parts of central, south, and eastern Europe. In the wild they tend to spend their winters on land and return to the water once various vernal pools fill in the spring. But in captivity where temperatures never drop below freezing they stay aquatic fulltime. They are becoming increasingly popular in the US newt keeping hobby because they are so easy to breed and keep so it's getting easier and easier to get them captive bred (the only way to get non native newts in the USA since there is a ban on the importation of all newts). Unlike say the eastern newts which are (with very very very few exceptions) all wild caught because its so incredibly difficult to keep one for say 4 or 6 years before they transition to adulthood and can stay aquatic.

Probably more info then you wanted but what can I say, I like me some newts ;P


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Definitely not more info than I wanted to know lol. It's fascinating. I've never branched out to newts or salamanders (I don't count axolotls) but it's kind of similar with leopard and green frogs which I have fun with in the summer lol


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## greenguppy (Dec 31, 2020)

I have never kept any partially or fully aquatic species so very interesting. I have a kept an american toad before but thats it.


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Congratulations on the babies!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Small Update:

I've started to move some of the babies out of the tank and into my 5 gallon breeder tank which currently is housing nothing but shrimp and snails. I also bought some daphnia to feed these guys. Started my 40 gallon tank up again just for daphnia. We will see if I can keep the culture from collapsing (never succesfully grown daphnia before). I added some daphnia right into the tank but they were eaten pretty quickly (mostly by the fish in there I suspect).

To move the larva I used a turkey baster. So far I got 4 of them, but there is definitely more in the tank.

Here is how those 4 looked:










And an obligatory full tank shot after a water change:










I've decided that I'm going to start cultivating more ludwigia in the back of the tank. That way the whole thing will look like a giant forest of ludwigia with the big rocks just kind of peaking out from it. The plants do not grow super fast under this low light so this will be a project of at least a few months.


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

The pic of the babies in a cup got me. They are just so adorable!!! FTS is amazing!! Thank you for the eye candy!!!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update!

A recent thread on camera choices made me realize its been a while since I took some pictures with my real camera. So for no other reason then it's fun to use, here are some pictures of the newts and fish in the tank:

My dominant male celestial pearl danio (hard to photograph!)




























My females:




























My male:




























And a rare picture of all 3 in frame! (if not in focus)










That's all for now.


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## greenguppy (Dec 31, 2020)

And how much did that one cost...... LoL very nice pics. 


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

greenguppy said:


> And how much did that one cost...... LoL very nice pics.
> 
> 
> Sent from my KFONWI using Tapatalk


Heh it's the same camera mentioned in the other thread with a cheapy macro lens. So 2k plus 280. I also touched the photos up in Photoshop for contrast, exposure, etc.


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

Damn..alpines. A friend used to crave them but they were very rare to find and expensive where I live.


I used to keep a few snakes. Now I only keep a ball python.









Yes my username is Latin name for this species.
Morelia viridis or Green tree python.
This female has perished leaving his boyfriend alone.
I wasn't too surprised since they were farm-bred...and sometimes wild-caught animals turn into FB during retail. 









My one and only. First snake to ever keep. Purchased at 75 grams and now he is at whopping 1 kilo.

Pic is probably few years ago. 
Micranthemum carpet with wallichii, macrancra, pinnatifida, echonodorus and crypts on the back
Shows how bad I was at keeping stems lol


Good to see herp guy around here. Wish herpkeeping was more popular.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

MoreliaViridis said:


> Damn..alpines. A friend used to crave them but they were very rare to find and expensive where I live.
> 
> 
> I used to keep a few snakes. Now I only keep a ball python.
> ...


Thank you! 

Alpines are becoming fairly common in the newt keeping hobby in the US. We have a ban on the import of any non native species these past 5 years but they were already here by then and they breed easily (as I can now attest) That said, ya, newt keeping itself is very much a niche within a niche. I also keep dart frogs but that's about as much as I can keep as far as herps are concerned. I briefly considered getting a snake but my mother would never ever come into my house again if I did, and I truly want her to babysit my kids on occasion 

Nice looking tank! I struggled with stems till I found out I should be cutting the tops off and replanting them and just cutting the bases off at the substrate level. Before that my stems looked like trash ;P


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

5 months since my last update?!!

heh time for that to change.

Update!

A lot has happened in the last few months. For the most part though it was a downhill slide on the plants in this tank. There were 2 reasons for this. One was that this tank was infested with Cladophora algae. The other reason is that I felt the juvenile newts could really use as much cover as possible with as much plant mass near the surface as possible. So I kept doing water changes but otherwise let this tank go. The ludwigia really took over and it was not a great look. I investigated various methods of dealing with the cladophora but ultimately decided that all the plants needed to come out of this tank to try and treat the cladophora without the newts being exposed to whatever I used for treatment. Sooo I've basically been treading water until I could completely redo this tank.

That time ended up being today!

This morning I got out to my local fish store and bought some plants. Specifically, I bought 2 madagascar lace plants (always wanted to keep this plant!). 4 bunches of what my fish store calls 'sublata' and is basically just not the dwarf version of sagittaria subulata. And 4 pots of cryptocoryne undulata.

Additionally I am hoping to recover from the old tank all the buce brownie ghost and the anubias nana; but we shall see.

Anyway my goal with the plants in this tank is to end up with something that is much lower maintenance then the last version of this tank where I don't need to constantly replant stems or trim carpets.

Today I pulled out all the newts (I ended up with 16 babies - now almost all have morphed into the adult phase). Pulled the fish, snails, and amano shrimp. Took out all the plants. Took out all the rocks. Took out all the substrate... It was a job. Then I remade a new scape. The new scape unfortunately relies on plants to make it 'work' so its a bit sparse in there right now. Plus I need to add a bunch of detail stones and just haven't gotten to that yet. But here is how it looks now:










One of the babies now a mature (probably female?) newt.










I have 4 amano shrimp in this tank and they are all enormous. 










Not the best shot, but this is my male and father of all the babies.










That's it for now. I'll update again once I get the rest of the rocks and plants in place.


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## Miller2112 (Nov 12, 2020)

Wow this looks amazing. Let me know if you want to unload any of the newts yours are producing, ive been wanting to do a newt tank but they are not as easy to find anymore


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Miller2112 said:


> Wow this looks amazing. Let me know if you want to unload any of the newts yours are producing, ive been wanting to do a newt tank but they are not as easy to find anymore


I definitely need to unload most of the babies. I'm going to hold back 2 or 3, but the rest need to find new homes. Send me a private message for details.


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## Fishstery (Jan 24, 2018)

I keep newts myself and was just curious, I didn't have time to read through the entire journal but were you running co2 injection with them? And if so, how did that go? I can't find any information at all in regards to newts and co2 injection.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Newbie283 said:


> I keep newts myself and was just curious, I didn't have time to read through the entire journal but were you running co2 injection with them? And if so, how did that go? I can't find any information at all in regards to newts and co2 injection.


I am, and if anyone else does it (or uses ferts for that matter), I can find no evidence of it. I run pretty light CO2. A bubble every 4 seconds into a reactor on a 30 gallon tank. 

Everything seems to be going well, especially since the newts bred and the larva were successfully raised in tank with the parents while CO2 and EI ferts were used the entire time.


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## Fishstery (Jan 24, 2018)

minorhero said:


> I am, and if anyone else does it (or uses ferts for that matter), I can find no evidence of it. I run pretty light CO2. A bubble every 4 seconds into a reactor on a 30 gallon tank.
> 
> Everything seems to be going well, especially since the newts bred and the larva were successfully raised in tank with the parents while CO2 and EI ferts were used the entire time.


Very interesting! I had also wondered about fertilizers. I was even worried about soil from the terrestrial portion of my paludarium leeching into the water because I was so unsure of how newts are able to handle nutrients in the water column. I can only wonder if only certain species like your alpines can handle co2, whether it has something to do with the natural environment a specific species hails from or not. I can only assume that in the wild not all newts inhabit oxygen rich waters. It definitely makes me wonder. I only currently keep danube cresteds and kaiseri. Alpines are on my wish list but I can't consistently provide the very cool temps they need. Danube cresteds are much more forgiving and were my starter species. The kaiseri however.....a huge investment on my part. Mainly because I got nervous of another interstate ban looming in the future so I grabbed up 4 of them when I could. I'm glad I did....hard on the wallet but they are breathtaking. I wouldn't dream of testing them with co2 injection however the danube cresteds are a different story...


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Newbie283 said:


> Very interesting! I had also wondered about fertilizers. I was even worried about soil from the terrestrial portion of my paludarium leeching into the water because I was so unsure of how newts are able to handle nutrients in the water column. I can only wonder if only certain species like your alpines can handle co2, whether it has something to do with the natural environment a specific species hails from or not. I can only assume that in the wild not all newts inhabit oxygen rich waters. It definitely makes me wonder. I only currently keep danube cresteds and kaiseri. Alpines are on my wish list but I can't consistently provide the very cool temps they need. Danube cresteds are much more forgiving and were my starter species. The kaiseri however.....a huge investment on my part. Mainly because I got nervous of another interstate ban looming in the future so I grabbed up 4 of them when I could. I'm glad I did....hard on the wallet but they are breathtaking. I wouldn't dream of testing them with co2 injection however the danube cresteds are a different story...


I think what matters is your pH, not your CO2 unless you have larva since the newts are only breathing air, not the water anyway. If your CO2 is too high it might make your water too acidic. But my water varies between 7 and 8.2 depending on the time of year and I run my CO2 low enough that pH drop is pretty minimal. So the newts don't deal with very acidic water. I keep the alpines in the mid 60s degree F. Do you keep the kaiseri much higher than that? Those guys are definitely on my wish list but I have no idea where I would put them ;p


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## Fishstery (Jan 24, 2018)

minorhero said:


> I think what matters is your pH, not your CO2 unless you have larva since the newts are only breathing air, not the water anyway. If your CO2 is too high it might make your water too acidic. But my water varies between 7 and 8.2 depending on the time of year and I run my CO2 low enough that pH drop is pretty minimal. So the newts don't deal with very acidic water. I keep the alpines in the mid 60s degree F. Do you keep the kaiseri much higher than that? Those guys are definitely on my wish list but I have no idea where I would put them ;p


My water out of the tap is only 6.6-6.8 and after co2 injection my pH dips down to the mid 5's so I don't think I could try it with my tap. 

I kept my kaiseris at 64-66F all summer and now that my furnace is on the tank is about 68-70F which is the high end of their temp tolerance. That being said with them being later generation tank bred they would probably be forgiving up to 74F. Mine are directly bred from the original import of them from Iran in 2007. They are beautiful little creatures but very shy. Mine only eat at night when the lights are out and no one is around. I have 4 morphs now, I got them all with gills but my last one finally morphed 2 weeks ago. 

I currently have them in a bare bottom 10 gal with anubias mother plants and a 3D printed hide but im going to start their paludarium build in a week or so. I bought a massive 36x18x24 exo terra for them.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Newbie283 said:


> My water out of the tap is only 6.6-6.8 and after co2 injection my pH dips down to the mid 5's so I don't think I could try it with my tap.
> 
> I kept my kaiseris at 64-66F all summer and now that my furnace is on the tank is about 68-70F which is the high end of their temp tolerance. That being said with them being later generation tank bred they would probably be forgiving up to 74F. Mine are directly bred from the original import of them from Iran in 2007. They are beautiful little creatures but very shy. Mine only eat at night when the lights are out and no one is around. I have 4 morphs now, I got them all with gills but my last one finally morphed 2 weeks ago.
> 
> I currently have them in a bare bottom 10 gal with anubias mother plants and a 3D printed hide but im going to start their paludarium build in a week or so. I bought a massive 36x18x24 exo terra for them.


Ah ok so very similar conditions to the alpine newts then. One of the things I like most about the alpines is how bold they are. Their tank is located in my home office. When I sit in my computer chair they tend to come to the corner closest to me to watch me work. As for eating, they are definitely not shy. They chow down as soon as food is offered  Frankly they are an absolute delight. If chiller's weren't so prohibitively expensive I would seriously be considering redoing my 75 gallon as a big newt tank ;P

The paludarium sounds awesome. I hope you post a journal!


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Quick Update:

I added some wood! This is california 'ghost wood' purchased from bloomsandbranches. Its actually the second set of wood purchased from them. The first set was unusable as they had sawed flat both ends of the wood.... why they did this I do not know but.. they did. Anyway I contacted them and told them the issue and they sent me a second batch free of charge so theres that. This one also has the same issue but its much less noticeable. Currently the wood wants to float on me (couldn't get it completely submerged when boiling it) so I have it weighed down with a rock. I'll do final placement once the rock is gone.

On the plant side of things, the crypts are really perking up which is nice and the lace plants are starting to grow new leaves so that's even better. The sublata in the back is doing really really well. I had this plant once before in a different tank where frankly I didn't give the roots enough depth to grow and it did terrible. In this tank with more then 2 inches of sand its doing wonderfully. Keep in mind this tank is low light and COLD. Water temperature is around 64 degrees so some of these plants are not even 'supposed' to be alive if you followed internet growing guides... shows what those are worth I suppose.

You may also notice a lot more fish in this tank. I brought in some of the ricefish I had in my patio pond and put them in here. I put the rest in my extra 40 breeder tank. In the spring I will put them back outside. I discovered that some of the baby rice fish grew up to be koi ricefish which is really cool. I still have to decide if I want to try to seperate them out for future line breeding.

I also really need to find these new babies some homes. I'm pretty sure one my females is going to start laying this seasons clutch any day now and I want last years babies out of there before I get larva in this tank ;P

I guess this really wasn't that quick of an update, or rather the only quick part is the picture, which is a single shot from cell phone. For your enjoyment:


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Small Update:

I got a new filter! Normally not super exciting, but I'm kinda pumped about this one.

.....

See what I did there? ;P

I was searching for a new filter to replace my incredibly noisy penn plax cascade 700 when amazon showed me a Fzone Canister Filter which is basically a total design rip off of the ADA powerjet line. But where ADA charges 1200 dollars for their filter. Fzone wanted 150 for the steel box, another 60 for their recommended motor, and 10 dollars for a mounting plate to attach it. So for 220 you get something that looks a lot like a ADA powerjet, BUT is soooo much better.

Why better? Because its not using a weird pump mount or properitary pump. And the pump they do recommend for it is DC pump with all the pluses that brings to the table.

What are the minuses? Well the design is old school. No shut offs for the intake or return lines, (need to be purchased by you seperately), and nothing approaching media management. It's basically an empty cylinder. Once I physically got my hands on the unit (I bought the smallest one at 4.5 liters) I also noticed that the fit and finish was rough. The steel cylinder is increidbly beefy like... REALLY beefy. But you can definitely see some forging/welding marks on it where it didn't spend quite long enough in the polishing room. These are not rough enough to bother me, but if you are looking for something that will look elegant under close inspection, this is not it.

I also bought their DC550 pump but deliberately chose not to buy their motor mount. I did this simply because I wanted to make one out of wood and figued that would be fun. It was a little fun, but I probably should have just paid the 10 dollars for their motor mount since it was pretty cold in my shop when I made it and it didn't end up at all elegant (I wanted to get warm).

Once I got it assembled with some media (mostly sponge with a couple of small bags of ceramic so I can seed new tanks as needed), I filled it up and turned it on. Priming is accomplished by filling the tubing with water and once done it worked immediately.

And... WOW, its amazing.

The previous filter I had on this tank (penn plax cascade 700) is I think around little under a year old. I got it because I kept hearing about people that loves their penn plax filters and it was super cheap on some sale. I have hated that filter from the start. It was ALWAYS noisey. Like you could hear it as soon as you walked into the room noisey. It never quieted down and cleaning bits and bobs never made it better.

This fzone filter on the other hand has a dc pump and dc pumps are quiet. This one is no exception. At 1 foot from the pump I can't hear it at all. Closer then that (and I mean literally my ear less then a foot away) and you can hear soft thrum. Also the speed control functionality is particularly well implemented. Unlike other dc pumps I have used, this one has speed from 0 to 100. It wasn't until 25 or so that the power of the pump was enough to overcome my reactor and headheight and I actually saw any flow. I found 40 to be a little bit too much for my newt tank. I settled at 32 as a good power level.

And if I decide I don't like their pump, I can toss the thing and I buy a completely different pump. I'm completely sold on these units. Hopefully other manufacturers catch on, and if not, well I can just keep buying these things for any tank that needs them.










Sorry for the blatant fanboy review, but I really liked it ;P


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## Le duke (Jun 29, 2021)

minorhero said:


> Small Update:
> 
> I got a new filter! Normally not super exciting, but I'm kinda pumped about this one.
> 
> ...


Did you measure the interior diameter of the 5/8” inlet/outlet pipe, by chance?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Fishstery (Jan 24, 2018)

I too have really taken a liking to those stainless steel canisters. I didn't even know fzone made them, so thanks for the info! Looks like I found my next splurge purchase....you really are being my devils advocate with the alpines. My heart aches to set up another paludarium with alpines in it. 

Newts FTW


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Le duke said:


> Did you measure the interior diameter of the 5/8” inlet/outlet pipe, by chance?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I did, it measured 9/16" or one 1/16th under 5/8 inch. 


Newbie283 said:


> I too have really taken a liking to those stainless steel canisters. I didn't even know fzone made them, so thanks for the info! Looks like I found my next splurge purchase....you really are being my devils advocate with the alpines. My heart aches to set up another paludarium with alpines in it.
> 
> Newts FTW


Still my favorite tank by a good margin is that newt tank. I don't know if I will ever be without at least one newt tank. Every time I am down there half of them gather in the corner closest to me to keep an eye on me.


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

How easy was it to rotate the pump outlet and how is that accomplished?


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

deeda said:


> How easy was it to rotate the pump outlet and how is that accomplished?


The whole pump comes apart so you can clean/remove the impeller. 










That ribbed ring in the middle acts as a nut. You can unscrew it and turn the output in any direction along it's axis.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Quick update:

Water change day and I took some pictures:










Subulata is infiltrating all over the place in this tank. I need to go through it and pull all the runners that aren't in the back where its supposed to be... but haven't yet ;P

One of my male newts.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update!

6 months! It's been a while since I posted anything about this tank. Things have happened!

So first of all, one reason for few updates is that I have been pretty unhappy with this tank. The sagittaria subulata in the back grew absolutely out of control and produced runners everywhere. It even got to the point where the stuff started to flower:










While the flower is cool, the reality of living with this plant while it is flowering is annoying. It produces a very long stalk for the flower and there just is no room for it in an aquarium. 

Normally the solution in this situation is to rip out the offending plant. BUT, at the same time I was coming to terms with the need to redo this tank (around the time of the last update), I also found my newts were actively breeding. They use the plants to lay their eggs and I did not want to remove all the tall and egg worthy plants right when breeding season was beginning. So I had to leave it.

Around this same time, I added a new tank inhabitant. A reticulated hillstream loach which I hoped would clean algae from the rocks. This turned out to be a huge mistake. It was months before I realized that this guy while super fun to have in the tank, was almost certainly eating the baby newts as they hatched. He was also likely eating baby snails as well. He is hard to photograph, but here is one that shows him:










Meanwhile my blackworm culture tank got infested with staghorn algae. This tank was one of my means of feeding my newts and for a tank with nothing in it but sand and an airline, it got incredibly badly infested with staghorn. I couldn't treat the tank without killing my blackworm culture, so I just kept feeding from it. This turned out to be a bad idea as it spread the staghorn into this newt tank as well. 

With the newts actively breeding I could not hope to treat the newt tank either. I pretty much assumed it was the end of the tank, but I actually managed to get it completely under control with reduced light, reduced fertilizer, and lots of water changes and manual removal. I mean it took about 2 months, but it did happen. 

During this time I took almost no pictures of the tank. Here is one random one that survived:










Anyway, I was not feeling the tank. So once the breeding season was definitely over, I decided it was time to redo this tank.

Tragically I did not take any 'before' pictures, sooooo those are lost to time. I can say that I removed a literal basketball sized clump of plants from this tank (no exaggeration, that's how much plant mass was in there that I couldn't use anymore). Mostly those were the sagittaria subulata, but there was a lot of baby crypts in there as well. 

Now a word about the new scape.

I liked having wood in the scape and wanted to make sure the new scape incorporated that as well. I also wanted to integrate the wood more into the scape as opposed to it just sitting on top. Recently, The Wife had trimmed back an azalea bush that had a lot of dead branches and I really liked the look of that wood so I decided to try and mix that in as well. 

The previous scape had used the sag as the 'big' plant in the tank. Before that I used ludwigia for this purpose. The newts really like tall plants and spend a lot of time hanging out on them, so I wanted to have that going forward as well. While I did not like the maintenance the ludwigia caused, I definitely liked the tank more when I had it in place. So I decided to go back to stems for the tall plant. With that in mind I bought 4 bunches of Bacopa Carolina at my local fish store. Other then the bacopa all the plants would be the same (though thinned out a bit).

I removed the plants, drained the water down and then removed the inhabitants. I kept pulling snails as I went and it was at this point that I realized that I did not have many baby snails (none of the newborns, or 1 or 2 month old snails). I knew I had no babies newts in this tank by this point but the snails was a surprise. This further confirmed the loach as the likely culprit for the lack of baby newts since he is the only inhabitant that was new this year compared to last.

I decided to rehome the hillstream loach to my other newt tank for now and will likely need to find a completely new home for him at the next breeding season.

With the tank empty of stuff except sand and rocks I started scaping. I first came up with this scape:










This wasn't bad and I liked the integration of wood but did not like how the big rock ontop of everything on the right was kinda of just sitting there. It didn't like natural enough for me.

I played with it a lot turning it this way and that before giving up on it and integrating that rock with the rocks on the left.










This did not leave as much height as I wanted out of the scape but I decided it was probably my best compromise. The problem with rescaping tanks like this is that all my livestock is sitting in a 5 gallon bucket and I simply do not have days to consider a tank's scape, but instead want to nail down the hardscape in less then a hour. Given time constraints this was probably the best I was getting. 

Soooo planting time!

I added the bacopa to the back, the crypts and blyxa to front/midground. I now have a LOT of anubias in this tank and just crammed it in anywhere (including in the back where it can't even be seen). This is the result:










The tank right now looks kind of flat, but once the bacopa in the back grows tall it will give the hardscape a lot more dimension. Plus all the crypts are now babies again and will take a bit before they fill in properly. Overall I think this will be a big improvement over the previous scape. That said, its definitely not my 'perfect' idea of a scape. But to do better next time I think I will need more wood options. So going forward I will be on constant lookout for better wood at my local fish stores.

As far as additional plants are concerned. I also have some tiger lilies that were spawned off of my tiger lily in the other newt tank. They have been floating for a couple of months in my quarantine tank by way of a storage solution. I think they might be nice to add here as a plant that might get tall pretty quickly for the newts to climb on. 

And now for some random newt pictures:





































And that brings me up to current!


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## ddiomede (Feb 21, 2011)

Sounds like you went through quite an ordeal. I like the new scape though and those newts are amazing! 

I ran across a pic of some crazy looking species of newt that I intended on sharing with you, but got distracted and completely forgot. I can't really describe them very well since it's been a month or two since seeing them, but the one feature I remember is that they looked like they had Mohawks lol. I remember looking to see if they were available for sale but couldn't find them which made me think that they're not a commonly kept species. 

Every time you post newt pics it makes me want to set up a newt tank lol.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

ddiomede said:


> Sounds like you went through quite an ordeal. I like the new scape though and those newts are amazing!
> 
> I ran across a pic of some crazy looking species of newt that I intended on sharing with you, but got distracted and completely forgot. I can't really describe them very well since it's been a month or two since seeing them, but the one feature I remember is that they looked like they had Mohawks lol. I remember looking to see if they were available for sale but couldn't find them which made me think that they're not a commonly kept species.
> 
> Every time you post newt pics it makes me want to set up a newt tank lol.


Newts are way cool, you should totally do it!

There are several species of newts that develop crests on the males during the mating season. Outside of mating season the crest is not there. Even my alpine newts develop mini crests on the males during mating season though they are quite small. 

Smooth Newts are the native newt of the UK and they develop crests (random internet photos to follow):










Marbled Newts which spend much of the year terrestrial develop a crest when they go aquatic for mating:










And of course crested newts develop them as well as one might expect from the name:










I liked the look of some of these other species but The Wife did not. So when I first was deciding a newt species only ones that did not develop large crests were an option for me


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## ddiomede (Feb 21, 2011)

minorhero said:


> Newts are way cool, you should totally do it!
> 
> There are several species of newts that develop crests on the males during the mating season. Outside of mating season the crest is not there. Even my alpine newts develop mini crests on the males during mating season though they are quite small.
> 
> ...


Yes! It was the crested newt! I remember them being very dark colored. 

I'd love to set up another tank, but with a pea puffer tank, and a smaller reef tank on the horizon I'm likely pushing it lol. 

I do love them though and see myself setting up a tank at some point.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Small Update:

This years babies have mostly morphed out. I ended up with a total of 13 newts from this season. I probably would have had 4 to 5 times that many if I had separated eggs out sooner. Well live and learn I suppose.

Here are the babies getting transported back to the tank with the parents.










And here is a random picture of one of my males and one of my females after today's water change.










I will grow the babies out a bit over the next month or so before I start trying to find new homes for them.


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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

minorhero said:


> Small Update:
> 
> This years babies have mostly morphed out. I ended up with a total of 13 newts from this season. I probably would have had 4 to 5 times that many if I had separated eggs out sooner. Well live and learn I suppose.
> 
> ...


Absolutely love them


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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

I do wish more exotics were legal where i'm from


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

chicken.nublet said:


> I do wish more exotics were legal where i'm from


What country is that? You might have newts locally to you.


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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

minorhero said:


> What country is that? You might have newts locally to you.


Singapore, where newts are illegal to sell and keep. You can see a list of what's legal here Animals allowed for sale

It's... not a long list.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

chicken.nublet said:


> Singapore, where newts are illegal to sell and keep. You can see a list of what's legal here Animals allowed for sale
> 
> It's... not a long list.


Well that does stink. I looked into it a bit and yeah, its really super restrictive. For some reason you can keep bullfrogs... which is weird because even different states in the USA consider them invasive and highly destructive.


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## chicken.nublet (Mar 29, 2018)

minorhero said:


> Well that does stink. I looked into it a bit and yeah, its really super restrictive. For some reason you can keep bullfrogs... which is weird because even different states in the USA consider them invasive and highly destructive.


Same for red eared sliders but they're also allowed for some inexplicable reason. So yeah not many options for us here.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

minorhero said:


> Well that does stink. I looked into it a bit and yeah, its really super restrictive. For some reason you can keep bullfrogs... which is weird because even different states in the USA consider them invasive and highly destructive.


So funny you said that, I was just at a friends in NY who lives in a development with man-made lakes and all I hear are the bullfrogs croaking. They are everywhere and I can hear them indoors with the windows closed.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Asteroid said:


> So funny you said that, I was just at a friends in NY who lives in a development with man-made lakes and all I hear are the bullfrogs croaking. They are everywhere and I can hear them indoors with the windows closed.


They can really take over an area like no other amphibian. The tadpoles grow bigger then any other tadpole and will eat other frog species tadpoles. The adults will eat other frogs, birds, rodents, newts, literally anything they can fit in their mouth and a few things they can't. 

AND, they generally make terrible pets because they are so huge. You don't put them in a tank so much as a pen, I think they can jump something crazy like 10 feet.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

minorhero said:


> They can really take over an area like no other amphibian. The tadpoles grow bigger then any other tadpole and will eat other frog species tadpoles. The adults will eat other frogs, birds, rodents, newts, literally anything they can fit in their mouth and a few things they can't.
> 
> AND, they generally make terrible pets because they are so huge. You don't put them in a tank so much as a pen, I think they can jump something crazy like 10 feet.


Yes, they are huge and they've taken over. And I thought the Canadian Geese where bad.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Update:

It's been 4 months since I rescaped this tank, during that time, it has grown:










Frankly I am not really at all happy with how the growth has happened. All the crypts have gotten quite big. Some of the cypts are 9 inches tall from the tip of the highest leaf to the substrate. Since many of these are placed either in the foreground or near foreground, it really makes the whole scape look very cluttered, 

While at my local fish store recently I noticed they restocked the giant bin of Malaysian driftwood and I couldn't resist picking through it. I came up with 2 pieces that I thought might work well in this tank. Per my usual, I boiled them as best I could to get rid of as much tannins as possible and also to waterlog them. I just threw them in the tank for a day (until I could get enough time to properly rescape). This morning I set to it and managed to come up with this scape which was done while the tank was still full.










To make this happen, I pulled all the crypts out of the tank. I also basically removed everything from the left side of the tank, added the wood and then added back in some rocks before replanting. Once the bacopa grows taller on the left side I should get an interesting scape with (hopefully) the bacopa creating almost a tunnel through which there will be an open area above the wood leading to the back of the tank. Or such is my hope, we will see how it actually turns out.


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