New tank starting today... (pics soon)

Picked up a freebie yesterday from a friend who has moved. 30" X 12" X 18"h

This is going to be a Firebelly Newt tank (ten inches of water, with lots of live plants in and out of the water and lots of "land" area for the newts to get out of the water.


I am still in the "creative" process!!

What I have so far;

Tank,
Fluval 106 (remember, only about 15 gallons of water)
Large Gravel,
Lots of ideas...

The filter will draw from under the "land" area through stacked flat river rock and large gravel (pre filter), and return to some kind of waterfall (yet to be designed) flowing across part of the "land" area over mosses or through live plants back to the aquatic area. Still working on details and design...


Once I get the design in and built, and water in the tank, I will be ammonia cycling the tank till the numbers are right. With only 15 gallons and adding cycled media from our other established tanks, should be adding newts in about a month. (I hope) Cycle first, newts survive to ripe old ages. (in my last newt family the "Old Fart" lived 13 years)

Still need a bucket load of hand sized flat river rock.
Some creative design and materials for the return/waterfall...
patience
More patience...

I will be posting pics as I go...

Day one... (Woden's tank in the background)'

Couple new shots... One shows the filter tubes where they pass through the table/stand.

The other is a modified under gravel pickup. The container is affixed to the filter plate and has a large area open to the plate with only a few tiny holes at the top to allow any trapped air to escape. Looks kinda cheezy at the moment, but will not be seen at all when the tank is finished.... The water level will be about five or six inches above this container, so no worries about it sucking air. I will also have mostly medium to large gravel as well as large rocks, so there will not be much draw resistance.


I have used a similar design with great success in the past. Last time the hose/tube was glued in, which made it a pain to clean. This one comes apart easy for cleaning.

Slow and steady... It's coming together. Have not had much spare time to work on it. I should have water in over the weekend. Then I can start the bacteria cycle, and add some plants...

Gravel, rocks water, heater, light, bubbles...

Plants will go in tomorrow, I'll start the filter then too.

Right now it's still in process, I may add a few more large rocks to make more land area.

First pic is with only ten gallons of water. I will likely add a few more gallons while I cycle the tank, but this is about where the final waterline will be.
Second image is the water return "waterfall". (not running yet)
Third shot is some dead pirate that found himself in the wrong place at the right time...
(you can see him in the full tank shot as well)

Added live plants, and a lot of plant bulbs in the gravel. I also added a few more large rocks to create more dry (sorta) area, and more of a drop off to deeper water. Filter and air bubbler are running. Now I need to do some baseline testing, then start the "Fishless Cycle".


More pics as promised. Will not be much more to talk about for a few weeks now. I will post a few more images as the bulbs grow, and post as test results go...

First PH test was way off the scale... 8.4. Had to add a pinch of 7.0 buffer powder to bring it down a little. It'll settle over time, wasn't expecting 8.4 tho'! I'll add wood I it doesn't come down on it's own.
Baseline Ammonia at zero. Started the cycle with the addition of ten drops of pure ammonia.

Finally got the Ammonia up to 4.0, and had to add a log/wood to help bring down the PH.

Now I will test once a day to monitor Ammonia while keeping eye on PH. Once the ammonia starts dropping I'll add fewer drops of ammonia and start monitoring NO2and NO3...