Fishstery's Massive kaiseri newt paludarium!

Quick update on the setup:

Overall it is running very well. The filtration system works great and the water is crystal clear. A tiny bit of brown diatoms on the sand but it's barely noticeable. I'm happy I put the phosguard in the pump chamber. The grewia bonsai had taken to the environment exceptionally well with tons of new growth daily. No blooms yet though unfortunately. Also they are infested with aphids, since I can't add any pesticides in there because of the newts I decided to buy some ladybugs online as natural pest control. When they arrive in the mail I will set some loose in the paludarium and they will have the aphid infestation gone before they can do any serious damage to the trees.

The moss is doing meh. Mood moss is a good name for it because it's definitely moody. Too wet and it browns. Too dry and it browns. You have to walk a fine line with this moss to have it looking right so I bought some different terrestrial moss to try out which will also arrive this week (hopefully).

Still no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate which is good. I did the first water change on this setup ever today. Just like my other paludarium ( which I am posting an update thread on if you're interested) it is an absolute breeze to maintain. I love paludariums for this reason. An absolute construction project to set up but super low maintenance from that point on. All I do is mist the moss, pick the dead leaves up, scrape/wipe down glass, change 4 gallons of water and its done.

As promised here's the new pics minus the noodles because they are busy vampin it up in the grotto!

 

Update: got the moss so I replaced the mood moss. It's more of a fern/sheet moss, I got it from New England herpetoculture. We will see how it goes! I will have to keep up on the 2-3x daily misting with this type of moss. Luckily the akadama has such good water retention it literally never dries up which should help the moss transition nicely. Can't wait to see it green up! From their pictures this moss grows really bright/light green like the color of the new leaves on the grewia.

 

Update: got the moss so I replaced the mood moss. It's more of a fern/sheet moss, I got it from New England herpetoculture. We will see how it goes! I will have to keep up on the 2-3x daily misting with this type of moss. Luckily the akadama has such good water retention it literally never dries up which should help the moss transition nicely. Can't wait to see it green up! From their pictures this moss grows really bright/light green like the color of the new leaves on the grewia.
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It’s just so lovely and natural looking. I’ve really been enjoying watching your progress with this tank.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!

 

It’s just so lovely and natural looking. I’ve really been enjoying watching your progress with this tank.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Aww thank you! Everyone's likes and comments make me happy, im glad everyone can enjoy it along with me happy holidays as well!

 

The ladybugs have arrived I bought 25 because that was the minimum I could find, so far I have put 7 in the paludarium to start. Immediately half of them went to work and have been hunting aphids for the last hour. I can literally watch them eating the aphids and eggs. I never really looked this closely at the trees but it's a good thing I acted when I did because it looks like the infestation was getting pretty bad. I'll let the 7 go throughout the day and reassess and see of I need to add more or not. The rest will get released into my warm shed to finish out the winter here and then in the spring they will be free to leave when it's warm enough. FYI I got these from a legitimate company and these are true ladybugs, NOT the invasive Asian lady beetles.

 

Gorgeous and stunning build. And I love the lady hugs!

 

Its been a little bit since my last update! The ladybugs have been doing a great job eating all the aphids. I released most of them to my shed since they somehow kept getting out of the paludarium. Luckily it's been super super mild for PA winter and temps have been in the 50s the last week. I'd imagine the ladybugs already exhausted their food source anyways since I have seen zero aphids. My grewia trees are definitely happy about the ladybugs as there has been an explosion of new leaf growth in the last week.

Anyways, the little noodles are still doing very well and are still super nocturnal. If they are hungry enough they will come out when there's ambient light like when my living room lights and TV are on but will not emerge until the actual tank lights are out. I skipped a feeding since I went a little crazy on new years and didn't stumble in the door until 5am, so they were ravenous tonight and already waiting at the food dish when I went to fill it up with worms so I snapped a few pics for you guys with night mode. Their health seems to be very good and most of them seem to be almost done developing their full adult coloration, although they don't reach true maturity until year 1-2, mine are probably 6-8 months old now.

Not much else to report

 

Those are some pretty newts

 

Those are some pretty newts

Thank you!

 

Update: I finally got my first bloom on the grewia since putting them in the paludarium!! Only one out of three have bloomed thus far. I definitely have to give this thanks to my ladybugs, without them I would have been losing the grewia trees altogether, but they also weren't capable of having the energy to create blooms with an aphid infestation either. I believe with this bloom many will come now that the aphids are gone and my trees are recovering. The blooms are rather short lived, but grewia will bloom constantly year round under good conditions. I also decided to add my spare twinstar 450 E series i had lying around from my dutch tank, because I felt that the lighting needed an extra boost for my moss since the trees shade a good portion of the terrestrial area.