My new work in progress.

Hi all,

This will be for my Cynops pyrrhogaster so tell me if I need something more.

I was thinking about doing a step-by-step but I got impatient.




I suck at photography and cant afford a cool SLR camera or what ever they are so I only ask for you to please spare me.. Oh and umm about the stand and canopy, they are left overs from along time ago and all I have to work with now cause I gave alot of stuff away, I MEAN ALOT. I'm going to get the stand done before this is all over to match the canopy.


So far Ill tell you, I have to clean up very bad but I am waiting for everything to fully cure and bond so I don't bump anything, I'm clumsy like that. The side with all the wood is the side that I will be filling with water as you can probably tell by the coco fiber on the other side.


First I made my back ground out of the thick hard foam sheets from the craft store. I burned grooves in it with a long candle then I simply painted it. Its a old trick I have used in the past to make backgrounds before along with carving the hard foam blocks and painting them so they can be used as light weight artificial rocks. Lots of advantages to this as it is very light in weight it wont hurt the animals if there was a collapse ( not that I planed an earth quake ) along with it being able to be transported easily if need be ( I was moving alot at the time).

Then I used black silicone on the glass bottom and sides, before the silicone dried I had put some black sand on it for some effect and just vacuumed the left over sand out. I like this, I can plant some plants by adding sand in between my wood and in other areas but at the same time save some space by not making it the same depth of sand all the way around.

On the land side I placed 4 small tall pieces of PVC in place to hold the ceiling light grid just like a false bottom would be set up. After that i placed the grid in its place. I then sprayed great stuff around all four sides and the bottom kinda like a box and I had then filled it with gravel for drainage and a coco fiber mix for my plants on top.

I am setting the wood to soak in a sterilite tub that I use to cure and seed all my wood so don't be scared of its appearance now.


That was it so far.


I need to detail it tomorrow and I know I will need some more silicone and maybe some more great stuff so the progress will be slow cause I want to make sure everything cures and bonds for a few days. I also need to decide what filtration would be best for this, I am thinking of going with just a simple sponge filter. Maybe a Dirt Magnet sponge filter and a good air pump.