Question: Half water, half terrestrial tank set up help and advice

Ok since I’m expecting baby newts I need to make a tank for them.

I’ve planed half water, half land (I know they won’t need the land yet but that way I can use the one tank for a long time). I don’t know dimensions as it’s an old tank; between 18 and 20” long anyway.

Half water, half soil. Would a plastic divider hold rather than a glass one (obviously sealed)?

Does anyone have a water level recommended?

In the water I plan on having a bare bottom until they grow up a bit.

I was going to try and get some bog wood which comes out of the water and cover it with java moss. I’ll put some live plants in (not sure which yet; I have plastic I can put in too), and I am getting some amazon frogbit as well so that will provide a bit of shade.

On the terrestrial side
Fill the base up with rocks and soil? Which type of soil is best recommended?

Put moss or something on the top; can anyone recommend a decent moss that will grow on land?

I was also thinking of putting in a sunken shallow water bowl so that they can still wet themselves, and putting in some sort of hide for them.

I guess also maybe a rock or something on top (depending on what the hide is) so they can rub on it for shedding.

I was also wondering about putting some taller plants on the terrestrial side too; but that is a “for future”.

Also how do I clean the terrestrial side?

Thank you

I'm looking forward to hearing if my ideas are good/bad and improvements to make

I personally think elaborate tanks with soil are not the best option for this species unless one plans to let them raise themselves.
I would recommend a smallish tank or tupperware, and to keep them either semi-aquatically or terrestrially. If terrestrial, a substrate of paper towels is ideal (they are not good hunters, not good at all). For a semi-aquatic tank a couple of centimetres of water and a few surface breaking stuff is enough. Aquatic plants are very recommendable.

So a few cm of water . What happens when they become terrestrial, will they still want water?

EDIT: What I am looking for is the simplest set up that the newts will thrive in.

If you want simple, the methods i explained are the best options. Terrestrial with paper towels (i dare you to find something simpler ) or semi-aquatic with just water plants and a couple of rocks/logs.

The choice to keep them terrestrial or semi-aquatic is yours, although some individuals will make their choices clear.

My only question is;

once they are born they are aquatic, then they become terrestrial and then they go back into the water...

Can I keep them in a semi-aquatic set up when they become terrestrial?

Sorry you will be getting loads of stupid easy questions over the next few days/weeks

xD Don´t you worry.

You can keep them semi-aquatic since metamorphosis. Some individuals are more terrestrial than others but if the water is shallow, there are plants and the terrestrial areas are easily accesible, the possibility o drowning is very very small. I´m raising my juveniles semi-aquatically this year with great results so far.
As they get bigger you can increase the water depth a little, although i wouldn´t try to keep them fully aquatic until they show signs of sexual maturity.

Could I be really cheeky and ask for a picture of your set up please?

I just want to make sure I do it right to start with . IF I'd tried to breed them I wouldn't be so worried it's just my time scale is getting less and less.

There you go.

I should say that my set-up is not ideal. I´m only using it because the two juveniles i currently house there spend almost all their time in the water, and there are two advanced larvae there too, so i encreased the water volume a good deal. A more reliable set-up would be to have another terrestrial area and less water depth. As i said preferences change a lot between individuals so you might find that some are very aquatic and enjoy a bit of open water (like the one hanging out on the plants in the picture-never seen it on land), and others are mainly terrestrial. Offer both alternatives and you´ll be fine.

Yeah I agree with azhael. keep in mind that they will be entirely aquatic for several months before they need any land. azhael's picture is almost exactly how I raised mine as well. You can always add rocks that they can haul out on when they get bigger and closer to morphing, and then begin lowering the water level if they go terrestrial. Mine never went terrestrial, so I have no experience with newts that go terrestrial during metamorphosis, but I assume it would be pretty obvious which ones needed more land.

and not to change subject too much but,

One note of advice about amazon frogsbit, It needs alot light and nutrients. I had it in my tanks for a while, and it flourished at first and then (i assume) used up all the nutrients in the tank and started to die, releasing the nutrients back into the water, which caused a huge algae bloom. I was using a 20w light which I am positive was not enough light. I am not sure how much light they need, but it is probably much more than that. So, if you want to use frogsbit, take it out if it starts dying, it will probably not come back and can give you algae problems.

A huge recommendation for a floating lily pad type plant is salvinia. Moderate light requirements, and no fertilizer or nutrient requirements. i have salvinia minima, and it is wonderful, much slower growing than duckweed, and still gives that lily pad type feel. Salvinia minima is much smaller than frogsbit though, I know there are larger leaved species of salvinia, but have no experience with them. Check it out if it sounds interesting to you.

I'll definately check out the plant; thanks

I have a couple of big rocks at home which I could put into a tank, so I could easily do something like that. Thanks for the picture; I guess I always assumed they needed far more land than they actually do.

on a side note; my most advanced egg seems to be dying , it's in a separate container with the other ones I don't think are "healthy", however I have lots more which are beginning to look like "day 4's"). I'm going to do a thorough inspection of the tank at the weekend and make sure I remove all the eggs and the rotten ones.

I now on the other hand have a nice slimline newt (I assumed she'd just gotten fat; I bought her, and when she started to eat properly after a week or so she put the weight on so I assumed it was more food than eggs). Guess that'll teach me