stitchpunk
New member
I bought a 2nd-hand tank with a stand (measurements 60cm long x 45cm high x36cm deep approx) and i thought it would be good to sort out my semi-aquatic set-up now and get it all running well before my babies metamorphose in 2 or 3 months. But I've never done anything like this before and I have a couple of questions that i couldn't find answers to with a forum search.
Firstly - with a semi-aquatic set-up where the tank will be 1/4 to 1/3 water depth with live plants, do I need to cycle it? I wasn't planning on having a filter at this point, just an oxygen shell (do those really do anything by the way?) and siphoning and water changes to keep it clean. Or do I really need a filter? Can you even cycle a tank without one?
Secondly - because this is my first ever tank and I want it to be easy to clean I wasn't going to use gravel or sand. I bought some large polished river stones to scatter around the bottom. But I didn't think through the implications of that approach when it comes to anchoring live plants! I bought half a dozen small ones in those plastic mesh tubs and took them out of the tubs, and currently the plants and that foam stuff that came with them are anchored by a few stones. But it is quite precarious and I suspect that they will come adrift easily when there are newts swimming around in there! One idea I had was to silicon a piece of sewing thread to a rock, then tie the other end around the roots or stems of each plant to keep them tethered close to the rocks - would this work ? (assuming that i keep the threads really short so that they can't present a hazard to the newts.)
I also wondered about siliconing small pebbles to the outside of the plastic tubs to disguise them and then glueing each tub to a larger rock to anchor it and putting the plant back in. But would that stop the root system from spreading?
Um. yeah. I'm pretty clueless about set-ups, despite all the photos here! So please advise me! I have ceramic pots filled with pebbles to use for islands - I thought I would put a piece of filter fabric on top of each and then add substrate, but I'm unsure what to use - I can get bark chips and I have a bag of coconut fibre that people use for plants, would those be ok? And I have a largish piece of Y-shaped driftwood that will be a "path" between the islands and the water.
Firstly - with a semi-aquatic set-up where the tank will be 1/4 to 1/3 water depth with live plants, do I need to cycle it? I wasn't planning on having a filter at this point, just an oxygen shell (do those really do anything by the way?) and siphoning and water changes to keep it clean. Or do I really need a filter? Can you even cycle a tank without one?
Secondly - because this is my first ever tank and I want it to be easy to clean I wasn't going to use gravel or sand. I bought some large polished river stones to scatter around the bottom. But I didn't think through the implications of that approach when it comes to anchoring live plants! I bought half a dozen small ones in those plastic mesh tubs and took them out of the tubs, and currently the plants and that foam stuff that came with them are anchored by a few stones. But it is quite precarious and I suspect that they will come adrift easily when there are newts swimming around in there! One idea I had was to silicon a piece of sewing thread to a rock, then tie the other end around the roots or stems of each plant to keep them tethered close to the rocks - would this work ? (assuming that i keep the threads really short so that they can't present a hazard to the newts.)
I also wondered about siliconing small pebbles to the outside of the plastic tubs to disguise them and then glueing each tub to a larger rock to anchor it and putting the plant back in. But would that stop the root system from spreading?
Um. yeah. I'm pretty clueless about set-ups, despite all the photos here! So please advise me! I have ceramic pots filled with pebbles to use for islands - I thought I would put a piece of filter fabric on top of each and then add substrate, but I'm unsure what to use - I can get bark chips and I have a bag of coconut fibre that people use for plants, would those be ok? And I have a largish piece of Y-shaped driftwood that will be a "path" between the islands and the water.