New habitat

Hey there,

I've had my Firebelly Newt for two years now, and I've just revamped his habitat. My goal with this new setup is to create a more biologically stable and relatively self-sustaining environment for my newt (with routine maintenence, of course). I would also like to introduce another newt sometime, and maybe some ghost shrimp as well.
Here's all the components of the tank:
1" gravel
5-6" water
large clusters of small underwater plants
hiding place
small submergeable filter
lily pads for dry spots

On that note, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions - things to add or take away, etc. Right now the water is very sterile, so I haven't started with the filter yet. My newt has been almost totally aquatic - I'm almost never seen him on land - and so far he is not going in the water (although I expected this). I was thinking of adding a bacteria culture to kick-start the cycling process. Actually, I don't really know anything about tank cycling. Anywhoo, if anyone has further suggestions, they would be most appreciated. Keep in mind I'm a college student with (very) limited resources.
Thanks guys.
Heather

Well, if you don't know much about aquarium cycling I would recommend you read this and then if you have any questions ask away here.

The bottled cycling aids are usually nothing more than shams. If they are kept at room temp all that is in the bottle is dead bacteria which will lead to an ammonia spike. The ones that actually contain bacteria are refrigerated, expensive and have a best by date on them and the only one I know of is biospira. The good news is that you don't need them, especially with only one newt. I would recommend getting an all in one test kit, the kind with liquid reagents to monitor your water chemistry. It should test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. These kits are cheaper then test strips and are more accurate.

As for your setup, it sounds pretty good. I would try to add one more hide in there (more if you get more animals) and maybe reduce the gravel to 1/2"-3/4" of an inch. If gravels is too thick and is left undisturbed it can buildup up anaerobic patches which can cause nasty gases to be formed by bacteria. It also can be more diffcult to clean thick gravel substrates leading to rotting food in the tank and elevated ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

Otherwise it sounds good!

Thanks for that reply.

Okay, so I read the article about cycling, which was very helpful. Here's my next question: Is there anything I can do to cycle the tank without spending more money? So far I've added in a small amount of water from the old setup. So is there an approximate amount of time I could wait before introducing the newt? Are there any visual cues I could use? Also, should I be using the filter during the cycling process? I know I sound cheap, but I'm really on a budget.
Thanks again.
Heather

Luckily, cycling is one of those things you can do for next to free. You won't need to buy anything else beyond what you have.

If you have an old setup I would recommend moving some of the decorations and the filter over and putting the newt in the new setup immediately. The filter and decoration will have far more bacteria on them than the water you added. Moving the newt over also provides a source of ammonia for the bacteria to grow. I would just change about 10-20% of your water twice weekly for a few weeks and get your water checked when you can (pet stores usually do it for free.) Your tank should be cycled in no time at all.

update

Okay, so my CFB has been in the new setup for about a week now and I'm noticing some unusual behavior. For the first week he was perfectly fine, but I went home for the weekend, my roomate turned the AC off, and when I came back I found him out of the water (normally he's totally aquatic). First thing I did was turn the AC on of course, but after a day he was still on dry land. I figured that bacteria must have proliferated due to the rise in temperature, so I did two partial water changes and turned the filter on. Now he is in the water but is constantly trying to escape.
What's freaking me out is that in the previous setup there was only two inches of water, no filter and no plants - yet he never tried to escape and he ate regularly. Also, in this new setup, the tank should be pretty much cycled by now. I also considered PH problems (because I didn't use a PH buffer) but usually the PH balances out by itself after a few days, not to mention that I didn't use a buffer on the old setup.

Thanks,
Heather

MissJones said:

I figured that bacteria must have proliferated due to the rise in temperature, so I did two partial water changes and turned the filter on.

Click to expand...

Heather, I can't give you any advice on your Cynops but do you regularily turn off the filter? If so, this won't help you in any way in cycling. Nitrifying bacteria constantly need oxygen to live and prosper. When you turn off the filter there will be no waterflow and they will get out of oxygen very soon and finally die.

So when you turn on the filter again, all the dead bacteria are washed into the tank. Using a filter for a short time is only helpful to do some mechanical cleaning (floating debris gets caught in the sponge or any other substrate) but there will be no biological cleaning / nitrification.

Miss Jones, I recommend filling out the "country" field in your profile. For people giving advice, it's helpful to see what part of the world you are in.

The trouble with firebellies is that once their skin becomes dry, they think it's time to be terrestrial, and it takes some effort to convert them back to being aquatic. There are some suggestions for coaxing them back into being aquatic here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/FAQhea.shtml