My first viv, finally set up (25g, 9 nvv)

I just finished a 25 gallon tank for 9 N.V.V... two of the females are preggers, so I'm not quite sure how that's going to pan out; the tanks been "done" for about a week, and I've spent that time trying to clear the white foam and clay color out of the water... not quite there yet, but I'll give it time. I say "done" because there are still a ton of plants I intended to buy and plant, and I really don't know what's going to take and fail. I'm also in the process of buying a 55watt-ish hood, but I'm trying to balance wattage with heat.. sadly I go back to school tonite, so I'll have to leave it all for another weekend.

My eventually goal is for the moss to take over my front log and attach firmly to the substrate; I have 5-6 different kinds in there, so I'm curious to see which dominates and which dies. I'd also like to find a plant that resembles clover that I always see growing by the 1000's up damp walls, and get that to grow up and down my walls. So, yeah, much left to do.. I'll comment along on each of my pictures.

Also need some help determining if the foam is safe or not.

An overview of the tank:

overview.jpg

A closeup of the beech stump in the back right corner.

stump.jpg

My water feature, also made of beech and silicone, I apologize for the blurry camera

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Another angle of the tank, a little blurry.

blurryoverview.jpg

A closeup of one of my thinner residents....

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And even closer... I wish my macro mode worked better :/

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A slightly blurry picture of three nvv

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I can't get rid of this, any ideas what it might be? Greatstuff/silicone were given 50 hours to dry. Once again, sorry for the blur.

deadlyfoam.jpg

Thanks for checking it out.

I almost made this an edit, but didnt trust my bad luck to say, accidently delete my post.

Residents: Nine Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens
Tank: 25 gallon

Lighting: Terrible shop light, intend for a 45-65 watt hood eventually.

Substrate: Pond gravel on the water side, divided by a piece of beech wood; A layer of hydroton on the land side with a mixture of cocofibre, orchard bark, and charcoal. Also seeded with springtails.

Filtration: Zoomed 501 canister; tubes are laid through the back of the greatstuff, drilled holes in the hood so it looks pretty

Plants: Creeping Ivy in my upper basket; several peperomia.. depending on their growth I may relocate them to another tank and replace them with another variety of fern. Java moss in my waterfall, unidentified java-like moss on my front log (a nursery gave it to me from their pond), juniper moss dotting my moss carpet, which is made up of another moss that I can't ID, and several other local moss specimens.

On the topic of moss, can anyone help me identify the different varieties in my tank? I'm most interested in the growing habbits of my carpet moss (taken from a forest in my backyard).

I also have several ferns in my tank, I lost their ID card.. so they are simply "ferns."

Two anubas that were suffering a horrible death have been transplanted into my water section; I hope they make a full recovery.

Misting once a day.

that is one nice looking vivarium!

only one question those are red efts right? wont they morph to an aquatic version later in life, thus rendering the land part useless later on?

again, wonderful setup.

Thanks; I still have a long way to go before I'm willing to say I'm done with the tank =P

Of the 9 newts in there, only one is fully aquatic and one fully terrestrial; the rest shift back and forth depending on what food is present in the tank (bloodworms, pinheads, FF's, springtails); the majority of newts in there are already adults, and already breeding (I'm not sure if I can handle anymore though..)

My first viv...

Don't want to put a dampener on your enthusiasm and set-up, but beware putting pin head crickets in a viv like that.

They don't get eaten, they're hard to keep track of and they hide away behind your foam, etc, until they're full size. Then they eat your plants...and if you're unlucky they'll stress and attack your notos.

That's what drove me away from keeping dartfrogs. Crickets killed all my expensive frogs and I had to destroy the interior of a very large and expensive viv to get rid of them. It still bothers me to this day and I'd never ever use crickets again. In fact, I used them only once to get that result.

Noto efts will happily eat fruit flies, worms, springtails and bloodworm. They don't need crickets, which one of our members, rightly calls 'the spawn of the devil.'

Wow, that is a beautiful viv!

very nice, the bubbles on the water, I think I remember reading something about dieing plants create those, not exactly positive though

i've never seen decomposing plants create that amount of bubbles and that type of bubbles. those bubbles seems to be created by some chemical reaction, if i were you i would refill the tank with fresh water and see if it appears again.

That's what drove me away from keeping dartfrogs. Crickets killed all my expensive frogs and I had to destroy the interior of a very large and expensive viv to get rid of them. It still bothers me to this day and I'd never ever use crickets again. In fact, I used them only once to get that result.

Click to expand...

Interesting. What do you feed them (dart frogs) then? They only eat movement so what else can you get to feed them? I ask because hopefully by this time next year I'll b keeping Dart Frogs.

Will crickets seriously go after and eat frogs/toads/newts? Plants i understand but really, the animals?







Back to the topic at hand, very nice set-up!! I'm jealous!!

Hi, Jumpshot,

Don't let my experience with crickets put you off keeping dartfrogs...

You don't need to feed dartfrogs crickets at all. Fruit flies are their staple diet in captivity in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They're quite easy to breed and to do so is cheaper than buying in crickets. They'll eat other things too, which are widely available, like small wax worm caterpillars, flour beetle larvae and springtails. All these provide 'moving targets' for the dartfrogs

The point I was trying to make is that pinhead crickets grow into adults almost the size of smaller dartfrogs and perhaps a third of the size of a red eft. If you have loose crix in a vivarium, the crickets come out to play as the red efts and dartfrogs settle for the night.

In my huge viv I had to watch helplessly as crickets charged and nipped at the frogs and sent them panicking around the tank. As much as I tried, I couldn't physically catch the marauding crix. They may not physically have killed them--although I have my suspicions about the group of ventrimaculatus inside the viv which I lost--but they sure as hell made the poor frogs' lives a misery, stressing them out. Unfortunately, I was out of the country while the bulk of this was going on and the guy left in charge wasn't around at night to see what was happening. I came back when it was too late and all but two of the frogs had gone. They were moved out, but lasted only two or three days.

To get rid of them I had to remove all the remaining plants, switch off the waterfall and misters to deprive them of water, set traps--I was so angry and upset, I even attempted to shoot them with an air pistol because they were so fast. In the end I had the depressing job of taking the whole tank apart and disposing of the
substrate. By then I'd lost heart.

Just one guy's opinion, but as far as I'm concerned I'd never use crickets again with any amphibian.

Thanks for the advice; I used pinhead crickets in my last tank, because FF's and ST's weren't available, and it was a "bare essentials" tank (I could remove the uneaten ones after a few days). There is no point in putting the critters in if they won't be eating.

I've drained that water in and out three times; I also stopped running the filter for a day to let anything that might not have cured fully cure. My SUSPICION is that the greatstuff didn't fully dry, despite it supposedly drying in 24 hours; this happened to me one other time, a deep layer of greatstuff took over a week to dry (and was brown and hard as a rock when it did - odd). AFAIK the stuff is nontoxic, and the newts don't seem to shy of the water, but I'll have my parents try to take care of them.

I'm back up at school, so care has temporarily passed from my hands to my parents... I'll have to somehow teach them how to collect/feed/grow springtails.

Great Job! That habitat should be perfect for those red-spotted newts. I fed mine just small earthworms, and jeeze they got BIG.

Those bubbles look kind of like the bubbles I get when I haven't cleaned my tank in several months and I pour in new water. I know this is a new tank, but perhaps they are caused more by your waterfall? It may not be a serious problem and may not be fixable except by turning off the water feature. Try turning it off for several days and see if the bubbles disappear.

Seriously though, that is an amazing tank. I love the tree trunk. I also love that you keep notos. Possibly my favorite species and very few people keep them in the US because they are so common.

When they go aquatic they may like more water (like Alexander has said), but i often find my adults hiding in my rock pile just as much as hanging out in the water, so I wouldn't worry too much so long as they don't seem stressed out.

Looks realy great!!

Regards/Tomas

Background

Did the background come with the tank? What is used for the land? And did the stump come already attached to the tank?

Nah, nothing came with the tank (except the hood, which I'll be replacing with a custom wood one with LED growlights.. I hope).

The background is made by covering "background areas" as follows:

1) Cover background area (back wall, right wall in my case) with black silicone 2.
2) Cover several inches of left panel with silicone, it blocks out the ugly foam you use in the next step.
3) Cover the "substrate area view window" with black silicone; this is so you can't see the ugly hydroton later on.

Steps 2 and 3 can be skipped.

Wait 24 hours.

4) Lay down piping for your cannister filter and/or waterfall, fix your wood (be it drift or a hard wood that's been sanitized) in place where ever you want it. If you used silicone to affix them wait 24 hours.

5) Spray down "greatstuff" expanding foam, available at Loews or home depot, my project took about 3-4 cans. Expect it to expand. Wait an hour or so, and spray down a second layer wherever you want to create bulges (for plants, like my ivy).

Wait 24-48 hours.

6) Carve out your greatstuff as you see fit. I used a serrated knife.

7) Prepare cocobedding (dry it out first), peat if you so desire (not a good choice for newts, usually, do some research), or gravel/slate. Coat your greatstuff 5x5 inches at a time in silicone and press your chosen material against it. Work in patches until all the ugly greatstuff is covered.

8) Wait 24 hours, lightly vacuum off anything that didn't affix.

9) Make sure everything looks good, start planting. Wait a week or so (or even longer if you desire to cycle your tank).

IMO, a shoplight isn't enough to encourage plant growth, so look into a better lighting alternative online.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My land is made up of a drainage layer of hydroton, then a mixture of orchid bark, charcoal, and cocofibre. My land area still needs a lot of work, but I'm at school.

The tree parts came off the last living branch of an almost dead beech tree in my yard.

Goodluck.

If anyone has any plant recommendations I'd love to hear it.

EDIT: as I'm trying to mimic a real environment, I think I might wait until spring and see what's blooming/growing so I can better recreate something you might actually see in the wild. Low growing ferns and creeping vines/plants are a must.

Hi, Jumpshot,

Don't let my experience with crickets put you off keeping dartfrogs...

You don't need to feed dartfrogs crickets at all. Fruit flies are their staple diet in captivity in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They're quite easy to breed and to do so is cheaper than buying in crickets. They'll eat other things too, which are widely available, like small wax worm caterpillars, flour beetle larvae and springtails. All these provide 'moving targets' for the dartfrogs

The point I was trying to make is that pinhead crickets grow into adults almost the size of smaller dartfrogs and perhaps a third of the size of a red eft. If you have loose crix in a vivarium, the crickets come out to play as the red efts and dartfrogs settle for the night.

In my huge viv I had to watch helplessly as crickets charged and nipped at the frogs and sent them panicking around the tank. As much as I tried, I couldn't physically catch the marauding crix. They may not physically have killed them--although I have my suspicions about the group of ventrimaculatus inside the viv which I lost--but they sure as hell made the poor frogs' lives a misery, stressing them out. Unfortunately, I was out of the country while the bulk of this was going on and the guy left in charge wasn't around at night to see what was happening. I came back when it was too late and all but two of the frogs had gone. They were moved out, but lasted only two or three days.

To get rid of them I had to remove all the remaining plants, switch off the waterfall and misters to deprive them of water, set traps--I was so angry and upset, I even attempted to shoot them with an air pistol because they were so fast. In the end I had the depressing job of taking the whole tank apart and disposing of the
substrate. By then I'd lost heart.

Just one guy's opinion, but as far as I'm concerned I'd never use crickets again with any amphibian.

Click to expand...

Gotcha. I wasn't really thinking so my mistake. I was thinking in my head for some reason that Dart Frogs are comparable in size to the FBTs I have now, which make VERY short work of their crickets. I forgot Darts are tiny things comparatively.

If it makes you feel better about your cricket experiance, my FBTs take no prisoners when I feed them :lame:

eldaldo said:

Seriously though, that is an amazing tank. I love the tree trunk. I also love that you keep notos. Possibly my favorite species and very few people keep them in the US because they are so common.

Click to expand...

Common? Really? Ive always wanted some but thought they were hard to find/get. Can people get these in local shops?

Well thats a great tank. Is there a filter? How did you do it and hide it? Any pics of that process? Id like to do a tank like this eventually but for Marbled Newts

I agree, I don't think Notos are very common either, at least in pet shops anyways. Wild, they are more common. They are found naturally through-out PA.

The filter is (I believe, I'm at school) a Zoomed 501 cannister filter. I epoxied metal brackets onto the back of the tank, and the filter sits on it.

Many people drill holes into their tank, but I'm not talented or knowledgeable to do that; so, my filter sits on the back of my tank, and I ran the tubes down the inside of the tank. The intake is below my land side, and the out pipe is inside my waterfall.

I DO have some pictures, but they are home. I can try to explain the steps I took:

1) Silicone2 black silicone coated on the bank and right walls; this is more visually appealing then greatstuff.

2) Silicone my waterfall pipes into place. Silicone my logs into place.

3)****I DID NOT DO THIS, but WISH I DID***** spray down "vines" of greatstuff so my background doesn't lose depth.

4) Spray down the background with greatstuff, affix the beach in the waterfall.

5) carve, locate the out-hose of my waterfall, make waterfall.

6) black silicone (brown works better) 2 and bone dry cocofiber attached to wall.

7) Lay down substrate (hydroton layer... then a soil/cocofiber/ orchid bark/charcoal mix. Seed springtails.

8) Plant.

I'm not happy with the way my planting came out, and I'll be replanting a lot of it tomorrow with plants from blackjungle.

I may do away with the peperomia and replace it with ferns.

Creeping oak will be placed on the sides, my eventually goal are lush green walls.


Also, an unrelated question: has anyone ever tried feeding newts with phoenix worms? I ordered some with a discount coupon I got from blackjungle.

edit: I also bought a really nice light for the tank, 55 watts or so.. according to some peeps at dendroboard, you really need the extra light to have the tank grow properly.