This is for you Azhael..New Setup Pics

I finally got a chance to get some new pics of my aquarium.

Nice tank you have there.
Maybe you could increase the water level even more, you can never have too much water !!!!

Also, i know plastic plants or live ones is a matter of personal choice, but i would really recomend live plants, they help a great deal with water quality and to sustain a healthy microlife fauna. You can always have both, of course.

Thanks for the advice. Do you think I should add more plants though?

Adding more certainly won't hurt. I would go the live plant route with the new ones though. Elodea would do extremely well in there.

Ok thanks.

Are you on track! However in my opinion you have to change some things there! First of this tank is to keep what? What kind of newts and how many elements? A setup builds always having these 2 factors into account. Although the animals 'needs do not vary much' is always one way or another that differs! The substrate is very beautiful but unnatural. Add sand and real plants, the tank is just with another appearance! You can raise the level of the water as I have said and well, and quite frankly puts most beautiful stones.
Just another opinion! :crazy:
Enjoy :wink:
cheers

So What your saying is, add like river stones and what not. This tank holds Chinese Fire Bellied Newts.

The substrate may not be the most natural thing, and perhaps not ideal since gravel traps dirt, but it´s Blackwolf´s choice! I don´t personally like coloured gravels, or plastic plants, but that´s MY opinion. If Blackwolf likes it, it´s up to him.
That´s not say i don´t agree sand is a better substrate, but it has nothing to do with aesthetical reasons.

Which is the best substrate for FBNs please??

Mine are still tiny larvae at the moment but I like to find out what's best for them when the time comes.

Some people say large gravel is best, and some say sand so I'm a little confused.

Sand, definitely.
Large gravel is visually aesthetic but traps large amounts of debris and makes food harder to reach.

I also am the sand for the same reasons that the Azhael mentioned, and also because the plants adhere better! Yes the BlackWolf25 is free to do what you want, I just expressed my opinion! Especially because my first setup for C.orientalis had this aspect that can see in the pic. However wanted to take the thing seriously limited myself to follow the advice of those who already walk on it for longer! Also because if the advice had value did not get along!

Hi, I'm also quite new to newt keeping but have had to test different tank set-ups (4 Cynops pyrrhogaster) already. I'd like to share my experience:

I started with a bare bottom tank which I didn't like the look of it. I got some sand instead but it was very course and considering how the newts eat (=hoover) it had to go very soon. It was Unipac Zambezi Sand which is a beautiful natural sand but for anybody considering this substrate - don't, there are quite large stones in it. (I ordered it online so I didn't really see it until I got it.)

Right now the bottom has large pieces of dark slate on it - it like the way it looks a lot more than a bare bottom and it is almost as easy to clean. Once in a while I take out slate and clean it too.

I keep plants in a couple of glass dishes (with substrate and large stones on top so the newts can't mess it up and eat the finer substrate). The dishes can be taken out and cleaned. So far this has worked really well I think.

One other thing regarding the set up and substrate question: I have heard from someone (who has a biology PhD and is a keen aquarist so not just a completely random opinion) that if you keep animals like newts on a light substrate their colouration won't be as nice... any thoughts on that, anyone?

"...if you keep animals like newts on a light substrate their colouration won't be as nice... any thoughts on that, anyone? "

I have found this to be true, as soon as i added some darker sand to my Noto tank their colors got much more intense and their overall color seemed less "washed out". When a light substrate is used most newts will lighten up to better camouflage themselves which may not be their usual color in the wild. Adding a lot of plants can really improve color as well. This also rings true with fish.