# Planted Tanks > Vivariums >  Vivarium beginner (for newts)

## AhVy

Dear all, 

I've read so so much about all your vivariums here and i would like to start off something... Please give me your advice..

Tank size - not decided yet. Most likely a 2ft.
Fauna - fire bellied newts
Feature - a small waterfall
Filter - external canister with UGF?
Substrate - I've got some peat moss, cocopeat, coral sand, gravel, pebbles, soil...which one should i use?
Rocks - i've got slate rocks and dragon rocks...
Plants - quite a few assortment.. (see photo)
Lastly, i'm trying to grow moss on my slate rocks...Please advice if i can grow them emersed (like in the photo)? I don't have my tank yet.. So i am putting them in a container and misted regularly and covered with plastic sheet... 



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## Merviso

Hi AhVy, I'm sure you will have lots of fun...  :Wink: 

Think 2ft is a good size to begin with. Try to have more water capacity, so that it is easier to maintain good water quality. You will need at least a fan to cool down the temperature too. Do not use coral sand since it will increase the PH of the water. Think your moss is not in the emersed form, so will need some time and care to let it transform. I used emersed land moss on my previous setup, so it is much easier. Lastly, you need to design a tank cover too...  :Razz:

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## cdckjn

Sound cool. Most of what you suggested will go. Perhaps now is a picture of your tank with setup so that we can comment on the setup.

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## AhVy

> Hi AhVy, I'm sure you will have lots of fun... 
> 
> Think 2ft is a good size to begin with. Try to have more water capacity, so that it is easier to maintain good water quality. You will need at least a fan to cool down the temperature too. Do not use coral sand since it will increase the PH of the water. Think your moss is not in the emersed form, so will need some time and care to let it transform. I used emersed land moss on my previous setup, so it is much easier. Lastly, you need to design a tank cover too...


Hi hi Merv!! Thanks for your advice!

I'll sure take note of your pointers..more water capacity, cooling system (fans and icepack), no coral sand, design a cover and let my moss transform to emersed state! 

Ermm.. But question...how do I let them transform??

Cdc: my tank is still in my head. Haha so can't take any photos yet! 
I'll sure more photos of my development when I get the tank.  :Very Happy:

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## Merviso

Keep it moist, but out of the water, at a cool shaded area... It should either transform or die...  :Razz:

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## AhVy

Hi again~

Wanted to ask if these plants are suitable for vivarium??

Unfortunately, I tried to search via the net for more information, but I can't get a clear answer...

20120515_012421.jpg

20120515_012959.jpg

20120515_013518.jpg


Thanks.

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## felix_fx2

> Keep it moist, but out of the water, at a cool shaded area... It should either transform or die...


I really want to click "like" for this  :Smile: 

Anyways TS, the common land miss "Singapore moss" can be grown on rocks. But need to keep the rocks abit damp no need to tie unless your water feature will wash it off the rock.

Google and instructables should have. The one which require to "chop and dice" will also work.

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## AhVy

Hello! Time for some WIP and need some advice as well.

Been working on this since last friday.. I really underestimated the effort to do up a vivarium. But.. I'm enjoying every bit of it! All the sweat and tears... Really not easy.

Okay. Enough blabbering. Here's what I've got.

Tank - 2ft tank (60x30x45) from seaview.
Metal stand - from Y934
Background - from NA (initially wanted to do a DIY styroform background, but too much time needed)
Plants - got a lot of unknown plants...and actually still hunting for it.
Substrate - got the clay pellets from giant
Water feature - small waterfall on the left, drip wall on the right. (cors cannot afford misting equipment, so want to a drip wall instead...to simulate like rain drops?) got both pumps from C328
Lights - Beamworks 300 from AquaEmpire

You can only imagine how many LFS i have been to! Tiring... Phew

Anyway, here are some photos for the setup..and i need advice if i'm doing anything wrong that may lead to a disaster! 

Photo - Tank setup with pumps and background and pvc pipes and eggcrate.



Here's the questions..
1. The layers of my false bottom will be...pvc &gt; eggcrate &gt; mesh &gt; claypellets &gt; mesh &gt; potting moss &gt; soil (for the land area) and pebbles (for the water area). Q: Are these layers too much??

Illustration:



2. The gap you see in the center will have to be blocked up by mesh. 
Q: which mesh should i use? Eggcrate? Green plastic mesh? Or the black screen mesh? (See photo)
Q2: how should i secure this mesh to the background so that the clay pellets/soil/fauna will not go to the back of the tank? Silicon okay?



3. The pumps are situated behind the background. 
I know i have to construct this such that i should be able to access/remove the pumps in case it spoils or for cleaning.
Q: Any suggestions how i should make this easy for me to achieve this? Or should i change design? 



That's my progress so far... Appreciate any advice! Thanks for reading!  :Razz:

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## David Moses Heng

hi there. nice progress you have made.

For the foam background, i notice that you have left a space roughly the size of the pump behind. that is simple and good. To make it more simple for cleaning, may i suggest that you lower the foam background some more till it is about 1 inch away from the base of the tank. Then for that space, you can either put black bio foam or rocks to fill up the gap.

For plants, you can try nana or java fern. What i usually do for my vivarium / paludarium is that I just keep 1/2 of the plant wet and they grow wonderfully. rarely do i encounter the plants dying on me. For the land portion, you may want to collect Singapore moss from your garden and but Ophiopogon Japonica "kyoto" (WP365), cyperus haspen (WP824) and Syngonium podophyllum "red knight" (WP441) as these plants are shade loving and they grow relatively well near water source. and if your tank is tall enough, you may even try Arundina graminifolia aka bamboo orchid. I have all these plants in my 5 vivarium / paludarium and I just enjoy the colours that they gave whenever I visit them for maintenance. Arundina graminifolia has got either purple or yellow flowers and they are very affordable.


Also you may want to consider not putting leca at the water portion. Let me go draw and post it by tonight latest.


Hope this helps. :Smile:

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## delhezi

Honestly speaking. Hypselotriton orientalis or chinese firebelly newt is purely aquatic. Land area should be very limited. Typically, when your firebelly walks up to land, it has issues. 

See here.

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## David Moses Heng

> Honestly speaking. Hypselotriton orientalis or chinese firebelly newt is *purely aquatic*. Land area should be very limited. Typically, when your firebelly walks up to land, it has issues. 
> 
> See here.



Thank you sir for highlighting this. I learn something new today :Well done: . However on a side note(*but a very important one*) is that newts *ARE NOT approved* by AVA as pets. The only approved amphibians by AVA are the notorious Red Ear Slider, Malayan Box Tortoise and the Green Tree frog.  :Smile: 

But having said that, you can turn your vivarium into a Vampire crab enclosure. 12 of them would fit inside there very well.  :Well done:  They are relatively easily to care for and they eat almost anything; from dirt to dead animals to bananas and aquatic plants. Just a suggestion though :Smile:

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## AhVy

Thanks all for your advice.. 
I will be making some changes to the design... And last night i realised a major thing! I actually forgot to cater in a filter! 
I will probably get a cheap external canister like eden501 later from seaview. 
I'll update some photos again... 



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## 14litre

wow! AhVy, your project is much massive than my mini caves!  :Embarassed: 

I am also camping here to see your progress and the end product.  :Well done:

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## eddy planer

AhVy,

Do you want me to help you through... to make it a successful one? Then just let me know. I will be able to advise you in person like I did four of our AQ members before. Now they are, however, better gurus than me through!

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## cdckjn

Your sketch did not show the output - from a rain bar? Your pump should be easy to remove for cleaning right? If you are keeping newts, then this setup is okay as they willl not climb over the background into the pump area, but better to provide a cover to cover all inside.

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## AhVy

> AhVy,
> 
> Do you want me to help you through... to make it a successful one? Then just let me know. I will be able to advise you in person like I did four of our AQ members before. Now they are, however, better gurus than me through!


Ahhh..eddyy..i saw your message toooo laaateee! I've already setup yest..boohoo.. About done already.. But got some failures.. Tonight i'll post some pictures.  :Sad:  




> Your sketch did not show the output - from a rain bar? Your pump should be easy to remove for cleaning right? If you are keeping newts, then this setup is okay as they willl not climb over the background into the pump area, but better to provide a cover to cover all inside.


Yesyes.. I designed it such that the pumps can be removed. But like i say there's failure already.. Sobs



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## AhVy

Okay....here's the wip and the almost finished project!

I call this my VyVarium...

A slight change in design...half water and half tank, with false bottom.
I wanted to do like a natural landscape...but didn't know how I achieve that.
so in the end, it became like this.
The right side with the false bottom is laid with egg crate, mesh, clay pellets, mesh and then soil on top.
VyVarium 13.jpg

Slope with mesh... I was so afraid that the soil will seep through the plastic and dirty the water, so it's mesh mesh and mesh again... haha
VyVarium 19.jpg

The left side for the water area..with waterfall feature..
VyVarium 18.jpg VyVarium 43.jpg

The styroform block behind is put there so that I can "support the background" as well as an additional separator to prevent any fauna from going to the back.
Though I did seal the gap up with the mesh...but oh well (just in case)...

To be continued...in the next post.  :Jump for joy:

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## AhVy

Continued...

Water area filled with pebbles and slates (for the waterfall area)
VyVarium 01.jpg

Full tank shot..50% completed..
VyVarium 02.jpg

Planting...
I actually don't know what plant this is! I got it from Cold Storage actually..haha but I love the plant structure...long slender stems and leaves... So I decided to just get it....!
VyVarium 31.jpg VyVarium 32.jpg

After all the planting...added in some dragon rocks on the right side as well...

VyVarium 04.jpg

Sorry.. I'm not allowed to put in more than 5 photos...so...to be continued again..

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## AhVy

After planting..

The rainbar/dripwall feature...

VyVarium 48.jpg Center bar

VyVarium 50.jpg side rainbar...(oops...ugly silicon work..please ignore that!)

I thought the center bar can be improved...so I got some java moss to "decorate" it.
Hope it lasts..

VyVarium 59.jpg VyVarium 64.jpg Tada! Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would be..

Finally the waterfall..

Next post....

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## 14litre

very nice work, AhVy. can't wait to see the next update on the waterfall.

did the water get into the right side with the false bottom? did you use silicon to seal the side? I am interested to know your method (if it's not silicon). Now I am getting "poisoned" to build a vivarium, probably a mini vivarium for my 14 litre tank.  :Grin:

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## cdckjn

Now for the newts!!!

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## AhVy

And...here's the waterfall....


VyVarium 54.jpg the gap and the ugly silicon...
I thought i would just cover up the silicon with plants...
however the water stream was just too noisy.

So in the end...I got bamboo sticks from diaso and did this..
It worked wonderfully! No more noisy stream..


VyVarium 66.jpg

the 90% completed tank..!

VyVarium 70.jpg

Now left with the cover as well as closing up the gap behind so to make it escape proof.

But i still have no idea how i should go about it...any suggestions anyone?

VyVarium 65.jpggap!

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## 14litre

I have no experience with vivarium, neither with frogs. 

but let me try on fixing the gap.

perhaps you can do something like the diagram below, 
where you need to get a custom acrylic, then silicon it at an inclined angle (or at 90 degree)?

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## AhVy

Hmm...thanks 14lite! 
A bit hard to get customed made acrylic though...i thought maybe to use mesh or something......

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## Merviso

AhVy, try getting the plastic mesh from Daiso Gardening Section. I usually cut egg crate to size and tie the plastic mesh to cover the holes...  :Wink:

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## AhVy

Updates... 

Cover is done! 
Just a simple egg crates and mesh.






And like cdckjn said... "and now for the newts!"... But.. Only after 21 july.. Sobs..



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## cdckjn

well, it is also good to let the water run with perhaps one of two fishes inside, it is like "cycling" the tank as well. To ensure that all the fitting and piping, waterfall function well.

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## knight

Hi Ivy,
I am very impressed with your setup.

Am now itching to try to building one. I recent bought a Nano Exo Terra tank from a forumer in sgreef.

Now looking for some idea in this forum.

Great to see your work, hope that i can build a small viva like yours.

Keel up the good work & hope to see more new creation & idea from you.

Cheers / knight

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