# How to make a half land/half water tank???



## phishin06

I was thinking about making a half land/half water tank in my 125 gallon. What is needed to complete this task. I was thinking about mud toads, frogs, newts and anything else you guys have in mind. Do I need heat lamps?? Underground filters? I have NO IDEA how I would start a setup like this. Thanks!! Also, what would YOU put in something like this? animals and other life forms....


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## tinyteeth

i just did this with my 60 gallon.

there is alot of gravel pushed into the left side with large rocks and driftwood. i dont have newts and amphibians yet. but they would love it.

right now there is 2 gachuas, 2 ornate bichirs (2") ,peacock bass, and some feeders. plan to get some small turtles, salamander, and some others.

frogs jump out, so i dont bother with those.

for filter, i have a submersible filter, doesnt make a bunch of current, but it works. and a regular heater set on 76 degrees.


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## sweet lu

dont peacock bass get huge


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## acestro

Depending on how 'wet' you want it you may want to silicone in a divider so that one side doesn't get any water at all (gives you more options down the road, less terrestrial 'waste' into the water, you can put plants up there, etc.). I'd then put the spotlight on that dry side.

Submersible filters are the way to go. However, you could rig a sump, canister, etc. set-up if you wanted. I'd get the Fluval 3 submersible (or was it 4...?) anyhow, it cleans water up very well.


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## phishin06

dont amphibians need a heat lamp or can the submersable heater give them the heat they need if they go into the water to warm up?


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## phishin06

acestro said:


> Depending on how 'wet' you want it you may want to silicone in a divider so that one side doesn't get any water at all


 so...I would silicone in a plastic piece and put rocks on top of that side? What goes under the silicone piece? I am trying to visualize how this would work..I cant quite picture it...


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## CrocKeeper

> dont amphibians need a heat lamp


Totally depending on the amphib you are wishing to keep, as to how arm you need to keep them, but heat LAMP, bad idea, amphibs dry out quickly, resulting in amphib jerky; which while low cost to feed, is really not active...


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## Innes

phishin06 said:


> I was thinking about making a half land/half water tank in my 125 gallon. What is needed to complete this task. I was thinking about mud toads, frogs, newts and anything else you guys have in mind. Do I need heat lamps?? Underground filters? I have NO IDEA how I would start a setup like this. Thanks!! Also, what would YOU put in something like this? animals and other life forms....


most likely it is a better idea to add land onto the top of your tank, but if you want a good job of dividing up a tank I reccomend buying some extra glass plates and aquarium sylicone and doing it that way....

my biggest Q is what you planning putting a 125g viquarium?

as for heat lamps and stuff, be sure to research fully into each creature you add, I can tell you now, all the amphibiand I have ever kept didn't require extra heat, and it is not a good idea to mix amphibians....


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## Mettle

Here's one idea...


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## Mettle

Here's another...


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## Mettle

shot #2


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## Mettle

shot #3


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## Mettle

these are not mine btw


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## sweet lu

they do sell kits for these you know

i once almost bought one becuse it looked cool but then i remembered i dont have anything to put in it and frogs kinda creap me out


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## Death in #'s

i was thinking of doing that
thanks for the picks


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## phishin06

how many underground filters for a 125 and how many water changes do you do in a month? How do you clean underground filers? Do you have to clean the gravel?


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## Innes

these all look like great ideas, but for what creature would you want this enclosure?

newts? - you could just float some polystirene
frogs? - possibly, but some frogs are fully aquatic, others are land orientated, either way this environment is not the best for either kind...
turtles? - possibly

but also how to clean the viquarium?


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## phishin06

Innes said:


> these all look like great ideas, but for what creature would you want this enclosure?
> 
> newts? - you could just float some polystirene
> frogs? - possibly, but some frogs are fully aquatic, others are land orientated, either way this environment is not the best for either kind...
> turtles? - possibly
> 
> but also how to clean the viquarium?


 exactly...how to clean? clean underground filters and gravel vac? what?


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## Mettle

That's what always gets me too about these setups. It's pretty ambiguous how to clean it properly. The second set of pics I postd there housed a variety of things including the guppies, a newt and an upsidedown catfish, or butterfly fish, or something... Can't remember the name now, but amazing fish. Love em.


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## Mettle

Oh, and I would never do an under gravel filter in a vivarium or anything I'm having live plants in. The roots will get hopelessly tangled. The only place I'm going to be usng the UGF is in the 10 g I'm splitting into 3 for my male bettas. But I'm going to also tear that down every so often for thorough cleaning...


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## phishin06

so...If I'm not to use an UGF...then what do I use???


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## Innes

Mettle said:


> Oh, and I would never do an under gravel filter in a vivarium or anything I'm having live plants in.


 lol vivariums have no water - not much need for a UGF there









in a tank with plenty of plants a UGF is not a bad thing, I have no idea why you would steer clear of them for that...

now I have in fact kept a viquarium in the past, mine was not as cool looking as these here, I had a 20 imperial gallon tank, and inside it I placed a 5 imperial gallon tank at one side in the corner and filled around it with soil allowing my to view in the small tank.

This setup was because the tiger salamander I had at the time was metaporphosising and needed to come out of the water and onto land for the first time ever....

once this had happend I left the viquarium set up with an axolotl and a goldfish in the water bit and the salamander on the land.

I have to say, it was not worth it as a display, I know it can look good, and if you have compatible species it could be amazing, but cleaning it was a pain and on whe whole the type of animal you might want to keep, most likely is not suitable either for the tank, or each other.

however if you want a viquarium and you want to have creatures that are both in and out of the water I would suggest you go for newts, and with them you should be able to keep fish (although some newts will eat some fish, and some fish will eat some newts) I would suggest that the land area could be a rock or some wood that rises above the water level, and that it is easy to take apart and put back together (or it will be a nightmare cleaning it)


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## phishin06

I am looking for a half water/half land tank....now bring the help comments...

what animals can be kept together??


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## Mettle

Innes said:


> Mettle said:
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> Oh, and I would never do an under gravel filter in a vivarium or anything I'm having live plants in.
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> lol vivariums have no water - not much need for a UGF there
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> in a tank with plenty of plants a UGF is not a bad thing, I have no idea why you would steer clear of them for that...
Click to expand...

You know what I was getting at. The semantics of it are only a technicality.









The reason I wouldn't use a UGF with plants, plants that are to be planted into the gravel/substrate, is because the root systems will get all bundled up and intertwined in the UGF causing some problems if you ever want pull them up again. That's just my opinion though... If you're comofortable with planting them in one place and then leaving them there, that's up to the individual.

And obviously floating plants are not affected by this at all.


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## Mettle

phishin06 said:


> I am looking for a half water/half land tank....now bring the help comments...
> 
> what animals can be kept together??


 Do you want it to be cold water or tropical? Do you want many little animals or one or two big ones... Because getting a water snake and getting some newts with a few white cloud minows is very different,. =)


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## Innes

Mettle said:


> Innes said:
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> Mettle said:
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> Oh, and I would never do an under gravel filter in a vivarium or anything I'm having live plants in.
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> 
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> lol vivariums have no water - not much need for a UGF there
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> in a tank with plenty of plants a UGF is not a bad thing, I have no idea why you would steer clear of them for that...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> You know what I was getting at. The semantics of it are only a technicality.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> The reason I wouldn't use a UGF with plants, plants that are to be planted into the gravel/substrate, is because the root systems will get all bundled up and intertwined in the UGF causing some problems if you ever want pull them up again. That's just my opinion though... If you're comofortable with planting them in one place and then leaving them there, that's up to the individual.
> 
> And obviously floating plants are not affected by this at all.
Click to expand...

 I have never had any trouble with plants and YGF's









as for what creatures can go together....

umm if I were to be making a viquarium I would go for either newts/salamanders or turtles, now I know nothing of turtles, but Olson had or has one with his rays.

newts on the other hand are coldwater species so you are going to be restricted to coldwater fishes, I would most likely get some white cloud minows, zebra danios, weather loaches, neon tetras and chinese firebelly newts all together...

ir if I wanted bigger fishes I would go with a larger species of newt or axolotls (however an axolotl cant leave the water) and salamanders (again wont leave the water, untill metamorphasises, when it wil not return to the water unless breeding) and the fishes I would add would be goldfish, commets, ghost carp, etc

or you might prefer toads/frogs, I would not expect to see these too much in the water, and they might eat any fish you choose but if you wanted you could add fish in the water and frogs/toads on the land bit

the thing you must remember however is each creature has its own needs, and you got to provide for all of those needs or they will just die.


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## acestro

The fluval filter I mentioned is your best bet. Easy maintenance (sometimes I've gone months without losing flow).

You really have to decide on tropical/not tropical.
Then you have to decide on the #1 choice of animal (because many of your ideas/animals are not compatible).

With the #1 choice you can go from there. Just an idea, things seem a little scattered now! I'm guessing frogs or turtles may be your choice...


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## Innes

I would have thought turtles, newts or toads


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