Newt Tank Build

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Fishies_in_Philly

Jake, that looks awesome!! you kept showing us the background, but never the side panels!! great job!! those adorable little critters are going to love their new home!! any plans for flora now that you got everything together? and see? no tannins

Thanks a bunch Bill, I appreciate it. The side panels were just kind of going along with the build. I just went back and looked, I guess I totally overlooked taking pics of them. I have never kept newts before but I love these little guys, they are a blast to watch; up and mobile during the day, easy to take care of and easy to feed.

Flora...........hmm what a good question. As you know because we've talked about it..............plants are so hard to get a hold of up here. I am quite limited. I have some terrestrials that I am looking at putting in there but nothing special at all. I wanted a bunch of fern species for the land to mimic their natural biome but I could only find one scraggly specimen in an area the size of Wisconsin! Kind of bummed. I have anubias and hygrophilia for the water along with some java moss and a couple of emmergent tropicals that will have to fill the voids. Maybe this summer I will look to get a bunch of new plants when I am in Minneapolis. No idea of how I will get em back up here but it would be worth the effort if it works!

thanks again Bill for keeping tabs with the build. And I will let you know tomorrow if there are tannins......havent seen the tank since I filled it on Saturday.

[Fishies_in_Philly]

Well, ya never know, you might just get a nice care package from the lower 48 in the spring besides, by that time, i'm probably going to need to rid myself of some extra plants

[Wy Renegade]

Very cool! That came together real nice, I'm sure the newts will love their new home. The moss growing up and around the bottom should look really cool. Looking forward to seeing it with plants and newts.

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Fishies_in_Philly

Well, ya never know, you might just get a nice care package from the lower 48 in the spring besides, by that time, i'm probably going to need to rid myself of some extra plants

Rock On Bill! Maybe I can tie ya some flies for your local fishies because lord knows my plants arent gonna be somethign worth trading! I look forward to your kind gesture. thanks again brother

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Wy Renegade

Very cool! That came together real nice, I'm sure the newts will love their new home. The moss growing up and around the bottom should look really cool. Looking forward to seeing it with plants and newts.

thank you! Hopin it plants nicely. The water has a weird look to it so I did a 100% WC and am going to check it out tomorrow. Bill was 100% right (not that I ever doubted him), the titebond III sealed the coco fibers and they have released ZERO tannins into the water. Im running some charcoal in a small filter so I hope any impurities will be taken care of shortly. I am dying to plant!

[Fishies_in_Philly]

Hey, no prob bud. We paludarium geeks gotta stick together. I haven't slung a fly in about 2 decades now. Lol i do still have my fly rod though. I now prefer the laziness of fishing for catfish. Toss the bait out, sit and wait. Gives me time to plan new builds

And if you are running charcoal in your filter, you need not worry anout tannins anyway. The charcoal will absorb them.

[Learner]

We paludarium geeks gotta stick together.
WORD....lol
I haven't slung a fly in about 2 decades now.
WE MUST REMEDY THIS
I now prefer the laziness of fishing for catfish. Toss the bait out, sit and wait. CANT ARGUE WITH THE FUN IN THAT! I SURE MISS CATS...NOT MANY UP HERE

And if you are running charcoal in your filter, you need not worry anout tannins anyway. The charcoal will absorb them.[/QUOTE]

The water doesnt seem to be tannin stained. it seems almost a cloudy, light yellow and the tank still has a scent of silicone. Its been plenty of time for the GE II to be cured..........this lingering smell has happened before in my salmon tank (which didnt turn out good). The silicone was good in both tanks, I tested it before hand and it cured nicely (so it wasnt a bad batch). I have done 4 100% WCs in the newt build and still the cloudiness and yellow tint are back within 24 hrs. I am gun shy after losing all my salmon. whaddya think? should I just go ahead and plant or wait it out a bit longer.

On a side note: I am getting some more coho eggs for my salmon tank. I have been doing massive WCs and running charcoal in the tank since the devastating lose to the last batch of eggs. I am not sure what killed them but I know they are quite sensitive. My pH, temp, and D.O. were perfect. Is there something I should test for? I am again gun shy to add eggs without knowing exactly what killed em. What would you do? ps I dont mean to hijack my own thread.

[Fishies_in_Philly]

I would wait until the smell is gone completely before planting. For no other reason other than you'll know the silicone is 100%.

Sounds like you did everything right on the salmon tank. I would do a couple water changes of about 75% before i added new eggs. Say 75% every couple days for a week. Then go for it. But then again, i know nothing about rearing salmon.....lol

Good luck and keep me posted. Btw, got a pic of the salmon tank?

[Learner]

Yeah, I'll get a pic on monday of the salmon tank. Was thinking of starting a thread since its something kind of different. More or less for myself I guess since the progress will be pretty slow and mostly uninteresting until they hatch into aelvin. PLus I wont have any plants in the tank since I have to keep the tank at about 4 degrees C (43 F). Salmon development is completely dependent on accumulated thermal units of the river bed so I cant speed things up too much without mucking it up. Will keep ya posted.

[Fishies_in_Philly]

Originally Posted by Learner

Yeah, I'll get a pic on monday of the salmon tank. Was thinking of starting a thread since its something kind of different. More or less for myself I guess since the progress will be pretty slow and mostly uninteresting until they hatch into aelvin. PLus I wont have any plants in the tank since I have to keep the tank at about 4 degrees C (43 F). Salmon development is completely dependent on accumulated thermal units of the river bed so I cant speed things up too much without mucking it up. Will keep ya posted.

that sounds really cool! you have to post a thread about it so i can ask the 14 grillion or so questions i have about it!!LOL

[Wy Renegade]

Sounds similar to some of the trout growout programs that are going on in our area. Lots of fish and little tank (compartively speaking), lots of them I've seen end up with issues. I haven't jumped on board at this point, as I don't have the time or student interest.

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Wy Renegade

Sounds similar to some of the trout growout programs that are going on in our area. Lots of fish and little tank (compartively speaking), lots of them I've seen end up with issues. I haven't jumped on board at this point, as I don't have the time or student interest.

Lots of fish is right! I end up doing different experiments on most the eggs testing teratogens and toxins. I still usually end up with more than I want and keep the tank from getting overcrowded by feeding the aelvin to other fish until I have a good balance. The rest get stocked locally and keep my annal ice fishing tourney for Kokanee up an running. I want to raise arctic grayling but still waiting on permits.

[Fishies_in_Philly]

Jake, where do you get your roe?

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Fishies_in_Philly

Jake, where do you get your roe?

I bring some of my high flyer kids down to a river site where the fish and game fertilizes a bunch of coho eggs for a hatchery program. I grab about 250 fertilized eggs and usually get about 90-95% to hatch (except this year). The kids volunteer and help me collect data on the growth rates and development based on accumulated thermal units. Pretty cool stuff. I coauthored a grant with some of my grad students and the Fish and Game doubled the money to get chillers, tanks, canisters, and all the fixins for a bunch of classrooms in the area. The high tech set up is awesome and cost me only for prime and an airstone to keep it up and running.

Like WY said, most of these tanks are just crammed with fish and have no aquascape qualities whatsoever. I decided to change that this year and so I built a BG and side panels to hide all the gear. I wanted to give the tank an eroded bank look like our beloved Kenai River but ran out of time and had to rush the whole build to get thigns ready in time for the eggs. Cut some corners and learned yet another valuable lesson. I talked to a fellow colleague who has some eggs for me. hopefully after the holiday I'll be abkc up and running.

[Wy Renegade]

Sounds nice, I'd like to see some pictures of what you ended up with. I've considered putting together a tank set up with a stream bank look for trout, but haven't yet found the time to pursue it very far.