New set up

This weekend I got an about 220 liter tank (120*40*46 cm) which I'll make into a aqua terrarium for my Jfbn. :happy:

The tank need some new silicone, but after that it's ready for some make over!

I've looked through the articles about set ups and have a lot of ideas. I'd like to build some kind of glass divider set up, and really liked the one called "Glass Divider Setup #2" by Yago. But I didn't really grasp how he put together the land area :blush:
I also liked the one called "Glass Divider Setup #6" by Jennie Macke.

Do you guys have any suggestions for the ultimate set up?


The tank is going to be heavily planted cause my jfbn loves plants, especially floating plants like Limnobium laevigatum.

I'd also like some suggestions about what kind of plants I should have on the land area. I was thinking some kind of moss and maybe some kind of dracena. What about fern?

We're also going to build a tank stand, so there are a lot of things going on

I'll update with pictures later, when things are getting started.

It has to be said that this species can be kept 100% aquatic with just some land area (a piece of cork bark) for the rare ocassion in which they want to rest outside.
I´m saying this because since they are entirely/almost entirely aquatic in captivity, large elaborated land areas can be quite a waste. It really depends on individual newts and on housing quality, though.

If you decide to create a land area, i´d advice to design it so that it takes little water volume. The more water they have the better, both for you and for them. Also keep an eye on not taking too much depth. Giving a lot of air space to the land area, for planting possiblities is very aesthetic, but not practical at all, because you´re left with a fraction of the depth of water that you could potentially have.

Thanks for your answer!
My plan was to make as much water volume as possible, as you said. He seems to like resting on land (in his present tank, a stone) under a piece of bark, so I thought that a land area that allows water under (as in the set ups i mentioned) would be good, as the water height is limited by the height of the stone at the moment (and the stone take a lot of un necessary space). He has a java moss part on the stone and seems to like that.

How deep do you suggest the water to be? The height of the new tank is 46 cm. (The tank is going to have a net lid)

Is it a juvenile? I ask because adults very rarely go out of the water if conditions are ideal. If yours is an adult and yet spends significant time on land i suspect it´s current housing is not optimal. you might find that when you change it to the new home, it will go fully aquatic.

Since the new tank is very tall, i suposse you won´t have much of a problem providing suficient water depth and enough air space for a nice plating of the land area. I would recomend a minimum of 20-25 cm of water depth, more if possible, because as i said, you just can´t have too much water.

Along with the nice examples of the CC articles, you can also find many interesting designs in this forum from other keepers. I can remember some from Jen and Mark that would certainly suit your needs.

He is not a juvenile, but 10+ years (I've had him for about 2 years). The stone has about a couple of mm water so it's not entierly "on land". The temperature is about 19 degrees C and I feed him earth worms and bugs, and occasionly frozen blood worms. I've made water-tests and they say the water quality is good. I'm a newbie at newts but I really want to learn and do whats best for my little friend.

Again, thank you. I should have another look on other peoples set ups.