Kiwibird
Well-known member
- Jul 12, 2012
- 9,539
- 111
- Parrots
- 1 BFA- Kiwi. Hatch circa 98', forever home with us Dec. 08'
For those who have been following the 'saga' of my newt tank cover- it is *FINALLY* done! Yay! Mr. Newt has a new home fit for the king of newts. I swapped out the gross old plants and log for a cool new artificial reef and LED volcano. The reef has silicone plants/corals, all these nooks and crannies he can climb in, and theres overall more surface are for him to move and swim. Also upgraded in-tank: instead of some precariously stacked rocks, he now has a magnetic "rock-like" reptile ledge with a plant, which allows for a higher water level, thus more swimming area. Purely cosmetic upgrades were new rocks on the bottom, which are now larger and black, with some red glass pebbles intermixed, a tank background, the LED light in the volcano (no creature needs that, except humans lol) and I splurged on the new light (Finnex Fuge Ray) which has the LED daylight/moonlight and is incredibly bright. Incidentally, the 'moonlights' make the plants and coral glow, which was unexpected, but awesome! The light was totally worth it to highlight the new tank. Even better, Mr. Newt seemed to like it (or maybe he hated it, can't really tell much from a newt), but he was very active last night, climbing all over the decorations and appeared to enjoy the extra room to swim.
Now the tank COVER, of course, is purely cosmetic and I made for no good reason beyond being pretty to look at. I don't even know the newt can see it lol. Once the frame was rebuilt after the 'disaster' I made a bamboo roof out of a placemat (took each stick out and cut to size). I used some little driftwood chunks I found in the Joann floral section for the bottom edges, wove some faux plants on the roof and top sides, and made the "tree trunks" that wrap around out of oven-bake clay. Keeping the practicality of the cover in mind, it has a 2-door back panel for accessing the cords, and open spots on each side for switching the light from daylight to moonlight. For feeding, the cover lifts off like a tissue-box cover (thus the big branch on top, it's a handle!). Anyways, enough rambling, here are the pics (and it might go into 2 posts):
Before:
Under Construction:
After (daylight):
(MORE PICS OF THE TANK WITH THE MOONLIGHTS TO FOLLOW!)
Now the tank COVER, of course, is purely cosmetic and I made for no good reason beyond being pretty to look at. I don't even know the newt can see it lol. Once the frame was rebuilt after the 'disaster' I made a bamboo roof out of a placemat (took each stick out and cut to size). I used some little driftwood chunks I found in the Joann floral section for the bottom edges, wove some faux plants on the roof and top sides, and made the "tree trunks" that wrap around out of oven-bake clay. Keeping the practicality of the cover in mind, it has a 2-door back panel for accessing the cords, and open spots on each side for switching the light from daylight to moonlight. For feeding, the cover lifts off like a tissue-box cover (thus the big branch on top, it's a handle!). Anyways, enough rambling, here are the pics (and it might go into 2 posts):
Before:
Under Construction:
After (daylight):
(MORE PICS OF THE TANK WITH THE MOONLIGHTS TO FOLLOW!)
. Awesome job and Mr Newt looks very happy in his newt garden of Eden.
