New to raising my noto

So I went on a fishing trip the other day and found this little guy. I have a 10 gallon tank setup for him with some small gravel substrate and some hiding places for him to run around. Oh, and one small aquatic plant. It took me a few minutes to identify what type of newt it is, but it's an adult red spotted newt. I could use some suggestions to improve my tank, he seems really lonely by himself. I have a pickerel frog I caught as well and experimented keeping them together in the same tank (the tank was half terrestrial and half aquatic before) and they both just keep to their own areas. Now I moved the frog into a smaller habitat and the newt gets the 10 gallon to himself. I'm looking to buy more plants, but I'm not quite sure which to get. I was thinking about adding a few fishes, or ordering another eastern newt online. I just don't have the money for that right now. Any suggestions on what I can do?

That's a good looking noto you've got there. I'm glad you decided to separate the frog from your noto. Maybe you can give your noto a little piece of land by placing a boulder or something like that in your tankt which will stick out of the water. You can use a lot of plants as long as they are suitable for cold water.

I have a turtle Dock for my newts to rest on It works quite well.

Since I only have one newt, I am thinking about making a trip to Petco to get a turtle dock and some more aquatic plants. I am wondering if I need a water filter for this setup, I have AquaSafe to treat the water for chlorine and chloramines, and I heard that some aquatic plants will do some filtering in the water. Is this true or should I get a filter just to be on the safe side?

I don't use any filter at all, because I believe my notos get stressed if there's a current. Throw in a lot of plants and some aquatic snails to and the quality of your water will be good for several weeks if everything gets in balance.

Have a look at this care sheet as well:

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Notophthalmus viridescens - Eastern Newt