Question: newt help :)

hi, ive had my newt for about a month now and decided to give it a nice new clean enclosure, as the other one had a couple of things wrong with it (never using live plants again... lol), now its coming up for air quite a lot, and im not sure if this is normal or not, as far as i can tell, the water is fine and the temp is about 62 degrees... any help would be nice.

here is a pic of the enclosure:

Front:

and one of the newt:

BTW: its a 5 gallon tank and she sleeps in a sand covered glass jar, which she seems to like, although she spends a lot of time in the plant pot, even though it only covers about a quater of her body lol

Well...i don´t know if you´ve heard about cycling aquariums, so you might want to check this out:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

The thing is, placing a newt in a completely new aquarium is a bad idea. For the first month or so, water conditions are going to be very unstable, and nasty compounds will be formed, which are very toxic for your newt(if they build up in high concentrations they will kill the newt). Your newt is probably going up for oxygen a lot because it´s not comfortable in the uncycled water. If it had a terrestrial platform, it might be using it to scape from water.
Also a 5gallon tank is a bit small. This are territorial newts that need more space.
It also needs a filter or some device that creates a rather strong current cause this are stream newts.

Natural plants are of huge help in order to maintain water quality, i really recommend you to give them another try, there are some very hardy species that are easily available.

Make sure to check this link too:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml
It contains all the info you need to properly care for your newt.

yeah, i have 2 large tropical fish aquariums that are perfectly healthy and fully cycled, i was just under the false info that a newt wouldnt need a filter aslong as i did water changes, oxygenated water didnt really pass my mind luckily i have a fully set up and colonized small filter that i can use and im gonna give her some of my used bogwood from my other tank for her to climb on while it gets flowing

It´s not false info, it´s just not the case for this species. Some still water species can (and in my opinion should) live without a filter of any kind. Regular partial water changes and natural plants are enough to keep water quality.
In the case of your newt, since it is a fast moving water species, it does need a current.
Again, check the latter link, it has all the info you need.

ok then, well ill be getting that sorted out within the next day, thank you very much for your help and hope youe have a good rest of your day lol