[jennesque]

I'm looking to move my newts to my old 28gal. The water will be about 6-7" deep.. I'm hoping to have some plants growing up out of the water.. Not sure if the plants to be potted or not, but I'm looking for plants that will be able to grow up and out of the water and thrive.. Possibly a sword or something? I don't want anything too tall either.. But I'm fine with pruning plants to keep them to size if needed.

Any suggestions? I've been trying to find some.. Would bacopa work?

 

[jaysee]

Many of the plants sold at petsmart are just what you are looking for. They aren't true aquatic plants - their leaves need to be out of the water. That's what I hear - I know next to nothing about plants.

 

[jennesque]

I did look at what Petsmart had, but honestly most of what they had was aquatic (wisteria, swords, java fern, anubias)... They had a few labelled semi aquatic. Umbrella plant, some sort of fern.. And some mondo grass! I think I will pick up some of that. I know I don't want bamboo.. Though I've heard purple bamboo would work well emersed.
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[jaysee]

Semi aquatic is what you would want, I would think. I've heard the plants in the tubes are the ones that are not true aquatic.


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[jennesque]

Some of them are, but they do sell all of the full aquatic plants I mentioned as well. They just used to label all of them as aquatic plants.. And not all of them are, like the fern and umbrella plant, so they got a bad rap. I've purchased a few Anubias from the tubes and they were fine.. Bought some wisteria too which was healthy. Of course, I also bought bamboo and fully submerged it per Petsmarts recommendation. that's in a little vase next to my kitchen sink now lol.

I looked them up online and I do also remember seeing the ribbon plant.. That may work. Umbrella plant can get like 6' tall so I probably wont bother with that.. I wonder how the fern grows.. I've never had luck with any ferns before (terrestrial of course). Good suggestion though.. That's certainly an easy place to find them! Thank you!
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[Mikaila31]

Swords and anubias are both semi-aquatic riparian plants. I would not be surprised if the other two are as well. More aquarium plants are riparian then truly aquatic. You will see some stress from suddenly changing their growing environment but most all will bounce back fine. Usually emersed and submersed growth is different in appearance.

Brazilian pennywort is a fun emersed plant as it very easily send out small flowers. Wild forget me nots have also done very well in paludariums for me in the past.

 

[gema]

Yes Bacopa would work and it has pretty little white flowers when grown emersed. I have Bacopa in my fish tank and love it :-D

I also bought bamboo and fully submerged it per Petsmarts recommendation. that's in a little vase next to my kitchen sink now lol.

:rofl: I did the exact same thing just not with bamboo. I too now have a nice little emersed plant by my kitchen window.

 

[Byron]

There are two ways of doing this; one is with plants that are rooted in the water that send shoots/leaves out of the water, and plants that are rooted in the "land" area rather than the water.

As Mikaila noted, most of our "aquarium plants" are bog plants that grow emersed or submersed. These are all identified in the plant profiles. Many of these would be rooted in the "land" which would be permanently wet. Some will send leaves above the surface if rooted in the water.

I've had good luck with common house-type ferns, in a turtle tank. The ferns were planted in the gravel that was piled up at one end so it was permanently wet, with just the top surface out of water. The ferns grew beautifully. I'm sure there are other similar land plants that could work this way too.

Byron.

 

[jennesque]

I won't have a land area though.. But I could use a planter that is tall enough to keep most of the plant out if needed. I've got a 3D background that provides the newts a small area of land, plus plant some dwarf lotus in the front because they can actually get on the floating leaves. These are tiny, 99% aquatic newts, so there won't be a built up land area.

Right now I've got a sword that I'm pretty sure was grown emersed so I'm probably going to try planting it in the substrate and I guess just keep it misted.. I also have some brazilian pennywort which I know will grow emersed, just not very tall. I also have alternathera which I know can be grown emersed.. Will this naturally grow up and out of the water, or should this be planted to where it's only got an inch or so under water? I've noticed it's got very sturdy stems even when grown underwater so I'm hoping it'll grow out.

I think I've seen bacopa growing a few inches up and out of a tank and then flowering.. Is that right? I'm going to keep this in my room, so if there are flowers that'd be awesome.

I will look for forget me nots.. I love those. I've also heard an iris can be grown with the roots submerged. Some ferns would look pretty too.. The background has a sort of tree stump look to it, I kind of want to make this look like the edge of a creek. Though I don't want to make this a biotope so I don't care where the plants are from lol. Although, my newts are local so it probably wouldn't be too hard to make a biotope... Just not as pretty.
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[beaslbob]

Yes Bacopa would work and it has pretty little white flowers when grown emersed. I have Bacopa in my fish tank and love it :-D



:rofl: I did the exact same thing just not with bamboo. I too now have a nice little emersed plant by my kitchen window.

+2

I had a tank with a light fixture (round clip on reflector type) setting on 1/4 inch plastic square egg crate. A few months later I noticed one fixture was "dimmer" than the others so started replacing the bulb there. The balcopa had grown not only out of the water but completely filled in the reflector blocking the light from the bulb. :lol:

 

[jennesque]

Lol alright.. Sounds awesome.

I did decide I am going to put a small glass divider in the back of the tank which will have probably gravel in it.. And it'll be full of water too, but the water level will obviously be less. Idk how to really do it though. :/

The 3d background is like 5 inches shorter than it was supposed to be.. I'm thinking that'll be the best looking option. I have a piece of glass that is 6" tall and the length of the tank.. I can fasten that in, fill it, and tuck the background into that so it will be tall enough to reach the top of the tank. The lower level will have a small amount of sand and some river stones in it..

I think this'll open some options as far as planting. I'm worried about the water flow though. I'll probably use some fairly large rocks in the raised part first. And then pour some regular gravel over it.. I'm worried about using soil, that it might end up a total mess.
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[Byron]

As you've raised this question, I'll briefly mention how I had my coujple of newt tanks set up many years ago.

The first one I did, was a 20g long type, and I found a large chunk of wood that was almost full length of the tank. I wedged this in with a 2 or 3 large rocks at one end, sort of in the rear corner, and allowed it to extend down the tank at an angle. Part way along I propped it up with another rock. Then I filled the tank so the water level was about half, and the upper surface of the wood was above it. I had a frog (Fire Bellied Toad actually), a pair of Fire-Bellied newts (that bred, and 12 efts survived to maturity), a trio of NA Easter Newts, and another odd newt I wasn't sure of the species. No filter or heater. These critters lived many years; the frog was in his 19th year when he died, and the last of the newts that hatched in this tank was in his 21st year.

Another tank I set up was a 20g, and I got two pieces of glass cut and I siliconed them diagonally so they were about 8 inches high. The front part was water, the back "land." At first I used soil with a cap of gravel, and planted ferns; this looked nice at first, but eventually became a real mess. So I tore it down and used pea gravel in the "land" compartment, much better. I had 3 or 4 newts and the same frog in this until they were all gone. No filter, but I had a heater in this tank after I moved into my present house because unlike the apartment, the house got cold in the winter at night.

Byron.

 

[jennesque]

Thank you for posting that Byron. I'm still really debating on how I want to set up the tank.

I think I will still silicone a piece of glass to create a small 'land area' in the back, although I'll probably still want to allow the water line to be like half to one inch above that. The newts will be able to rest up there, but I still have part of the background where they can climb up.

The other option would be to have maybe 3" of substrate in the back, sloping down towards the front, and then put a black background behind the tank and just having like an extra 2" black strip at the top of the tank..

I still think it'd look best with the divided area. Hopefully if I put gravel in there it won't get too ganked up. You said that pea sized gravel worked for you.. But I'm not sure if you filled that part with water or not. I worry about circulation of the water.

Also, if I do this, does anyone know if root tabs are still a safe option, or should I just dose the water column. If I do try a sword I'm not sure how well it would do without a good feet for it's roots to access.. But I also don't want to over dose the water column and kill my newts or create an algae problem.
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[Byron]

Thank you for posting that Byron. I'm still really debating on how I want to set up the tank.

I think I will still silicone a piece of glass to create a small 'land area' in the back, although I'll probably still want to allow the water line to be like half to one inch above that. The newts will be able to rest up there, but I still have part of the background where they can climb up.

The other option would be to have maybe 3" of substrate in the back, sloping down towards the front, and then put a black background behind the tank and just having like an extra 2" black strip at the top of the tank..

I still think it'd look best with the divided area. Hopefully if I put gravel in there it won't get too ganked up. You said that pea sized gravel worked for you.. But I'm not sure if you filled that part with water or not. I worry about circulation of the water.

Also, if I do this, does anyone know if root tabs are still a safe option, or should I just dose the water column. If I do try a sword I'm not sure how well it would do without a good feet for it's roots to access.. But I also don't want to over dose the water column and kill my newts or create an algae problem.
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In my glass-partitioned tank, the silicone was not absolutely watertight so water got in to the "land" area with the gravel. I just lkeft that. If plants are planted in the gravel area this is better anyway. Ferns w3ill do well in this setup, ordinary house or woodland ferns, so long as the roots are in the water and the leaves are not.

I would have a decent area of "land" for the newts, they do like to clamber out and walk around/rest.

Only issue with substrate tabs would be newts digging them up.

 

[jennesque]

Oh gosh.. Genius. I was hoping something like this would work. So glad to get some trusted advice and proof that it really does work.

I'm off to get some silicone (100%!!) And get started on that.. Then I gotta figure out how to trim the background but this'll be well on it's way to being complete and I can give my newts some much needed space!

The ferns will look great with the background. I'll probably just do some ferns and some dwarf lotus plants now, making a lot of this post useless.. Haha. Perhaps I'll try out some of the other plants though. I'd really like to try out something with flowers.

I will be putting pennywort in here too for sure.. Maybe some bacopa since that's easy to find. And some evil mondo grass amongst the ferns.

I'm excited. Thank you everyone. The newts appreciate it.

 

[jennesque]

One more question/idea.. For now.. I have an internal filter that's fairly small, I think it's rated for up to a 10 gal tank. It's for a reptile tank.. It's output is a little spout with adjustable output levels. Could I burry this in the gravel and just have the little spout sticking up (it's just like 1/2 inch tall by 3/4 inch wide, if even, to have a small 'waterfall' and also provide some circulation within the gravel.

It's been so long since I've had gravel in a tank.. I just remember it turning into a nasty mess and I don't want that. Although I'm sure some mulm build up is good

 

[Byron]

I've seen filters that will create waterfalls, but not used them so can't offer much help with this. Just make sure it doesn't somehow burn out if it is out of water or drains water out, or something.

 

[jennesque]

I think it does. But.. I would just throw it away anyways. It's pretty cheap.

I have seen people use this to make a water fall before. I suppose I will try it out and see what happens. As long as the water stays level I think it should be fine with large enough gravel. It shouldn't clog. And since it's been running already that'll add some bacteria to the tank.
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