jerremie
New member
Hi,
Though an avid aquarist of many years, I got my first batch of young newts yesterday from Jennewt (10 Cynops Cyanurus) and am excited about the tank I've been putting together for them. Jen has suggested that I try and get the tank up to 67 to 70F degrees (19.5-21C) for now in order to stave off any possibility of drowning.
The tank is 55 gallons and has only been full for a few days (well not FULL, but with 10 inches of water). I just got my new eheim 2213 canister up and running yesterday morning before work (and plan to move some biologically active sintered glass from another cool water tank into it when I introduce the newts to avoid a major cycle). The newtlets are in a shallow container of water right now and seem perfectly happy.
Here are my problems:
1. I keep the air temperature of the room at 68F (20C) and as of yesterday morning it was only 65F (18C) in the tank. I had hoped that having the light on and a canister filter running would warm it up a bit during the day yesterday... but it was a degree colder when I got home (64). However, i later realized that my central heat had gone on the fritz and the entire house was down to 65 (made that repair this morning, the space heater kept things tolerable overnight). When I left home today the tank was back up to 66 and the house was back to 68. I've placed glass between the tank and the screen top to try and get the heat up and am hoping it will be better when I get home. I really don't want to cut a hole in the screen to put a heater in the tank... but will as a last resort... any other suggestions to eek out a little more heat until these guys grow up some more? (I am unable to light a fire beneath the tank as there is already another aquarium below it :rofl: )
2. You'll see in the tank pic that i have a slanted faux rock floating shelf on the left side with a couple small java ferns on it. The spray bar from the eheim shoots water down the length of the shelf and back into the tank. I'm planning on using some thread to wrap and attach a sheet of xmas or java moss across the surface of the shelf in order to get it to grow in its emersed form. This would serve the purpose of both creating an attractive land area and further slowing the flow of water from the filter. Any thoughts on whether the moss would be happy with water running over/through it? I've seen photos of emersed xmas moss along a rocky stream in its natural habitat and have high hopes.
Also, forgive the sparsity of the tank so far, i was busy getting the slate bottom and aquaterra background set up. So far there are just two large anubias and a number of java ferns in the water. I'll be adding underwater rock work after i get back from the holidays and will throw some floating najas grass and some more xmas moss on the bottom of the tank once the newts go in.
Any suggestions on water depth/temperature/ design issues is greatly appreciated. Pics of newts and tank below. THANKS FOR READING!!! Fuzzy photo of single newt in packing container has a styrofoam packing peanut in it for scale.
--jerremie
PS - I just wanted to apologize to those of you who may have previously purchased newts from Jennewt as you will clearly see in my photos that she saved all the cutest ones for me. Your loss is my gain.
Though an avid aquarist of many years, I got my first batch of young newts yesterday from Jennewt (10 Cynops Cyanurus) and am excited about the tank I've been putting together for them. Jen has suggested that I try and get the tank up to 67 to 70F degrees (19.5-21C) for now in order to stave off any possibility of drowning.
The tank is 55 gallons and has only been full for a few days (well not FULL, but with 10 inches of water). I just got my new eheim 2213 canister up and running yesterday morning before work (and plan to move some biologically active sintered glass from another cool water tank into it when I introduce the newts to avoid a major cycle). The newtlets are in a shallow container of water right now and seem perfectly happy.
Here are my problems:
1. I keep the air temperature of the room at 68F (20C) and as of yesterday morning it was only 65F (18C) in the tank. I had hoped that having the light on and a canister filter running would warm it up a bit during the day yesterday... but it was a degree colder when I got home (64). However, i later realized that my central heat had gone on the fritz and the entire house was down to 65 (made that repair this morning, the space heater kept things tolerable overnight). When I left home today the tank was back up to 66 and the house was back to 68. I've placed glass between the tank and the screen top to try and get the heat up and am hoping it will be better when I get home. I really don't want to cut a hole in the screen to put a heater in the tank... but will as a last resort... any other suggestions to eek out a little more heat until these guys grow up some more? (I am unable to light a fire beneath the tank as there is already another aquarium below it :rofl: )
2. You'll see in the tank pic that i have a slanted faux rock floating shelf on the left side with a couple small java ferns on it. The spray bar from the eheim shoots water down the length of the shelf and back into the tank. I'm planning on using some thread to wrap and attach a sheet of xmas or java moss across the surface of the shelf in order to get it to grow in its emersed form. This would serve the purpose of both creating an attractive land area and further slowing the flow of water from the filter. Any thoughts on whether the moss would be happy with water running over/through it? I've seen photos of emersed xmas moss along a rocky stream in its natural habitat and have high hopes.
Also, forgive the sparsity of the tank so far, i was busy getting the slate bottom and aquaterra background set up. So far there are just two large anubias and a number of java ferns in the water. I'll be adding underwater rock work after i get back from the holidays and will throw some floating najas grass and some more xmas moss on the bottom of the tank once the newts go in.
Any suggestions on water depth/temperature/ design issues is greatly appreciated. Pics of newts and tank below. THANKS FOR READING!!! Fuzzy photo of single newt in packing container has a styrofoam packing peanut in it for scale.
--jerremie
PS - I just wanted to apologize to those of you who may have previously purchased newts from Jennewt as you will clearly see in my photos that she saved all the cutest ones for me. Your loss is my gain.
