10 gallon C. Orientalis setup?

[mike]

Hi all,

Just curious as to whether or not this would be a viable setup:

I'm planning to house three adult C. Orientalis in a 10 gallon tank. The tank would be heavily planted with Elodea, Java moss, and Cabomba. The tank will have very little dry land, and all emergent pieces will be covered in the Java moss.

The water depth will be 9". Because I won't be using a filter in this tank, I'll be making 10% water changes every other day. I'm also planning on a thin gravel layer to aid in biological filtration as well as for aesthetics.

I live in San Francisco. During the Winter, the temperature ranges from 67 degrees in the day, to 45 at night. In the Summer, it can get as high as 80 in the day and 65 at night. I plan on using frozen 500 ml water bottles to keep the temperature down during the Summer months.

Please let me know what you think of this setup. Critiques and comments are appreciated http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/happy.gif

[benjamin]

Sounds good to me. What type of gravel?

[joeri]

In my opinion you won't need to change the water so often unless temeratures rise to much.
I don't use filters in my tank. If they are planted you can easely do with a 1/3 water change every two weeks.

Only thing you should keep an eye on is leftovers. Don't leave any food to spoil the water. You can remove any uneaten food an hour after you fed them.

Make sure your tank is escape proof, cynops orientalis will escape if there is a small opening somewhere in the lid. If you want natural ventialtion in your tank, tape mosquito net over the openings.

good luck

[mike]

Thanks both of you.

Ben, if I can get my hands on some extremely fine sand, almost mud, I'll be using that. Otherwise, just regular aquarium gravel, but spread thin so food doesn't get lodged between the layers.

[benjamin]

Don't use anything too fine or the newts will eat it by accident, and then there's a small chance they could die from that.

[joeri]

I have some pellets in the back half of the tank, looks nice and it holds plants in place. The newts also like to hide there.

The front half is just bare bottom, helps cleaning up after feeding and the food doesn't disappear between the stones.

[mike]

Yea, that's my main concern. I've read that blackworms have a nasty habit of digging themselves into the bottom gravel layer, and then expiring. The end result is really polluted water http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/sad.gif.