Advise please

[schoolzoo]

Nice set up - Thanks for sharing.How big of a tank is yours?

[Serujuunin]

Ahaha that third picture is adorable.

[steelrain420]

Nice set up - Thanks for sharing.How big of a tank is yours?

It's a 72gal oceananic bowfront tank the fromt right corner blew out on a guy so I got the tank for $50 (he said it was for the stand the tank was free) I took it apart siliconed the cornerthen put itn the devider keeping the water on the side that was always good that tank sells for $600-$1000 in alberta new so it was a super cheep way of makeing a super cool setup , 1Axolotl 2tiger salamanders fuval u4 filter and a 4 foot light bar

I never have the light on exept when I sit and view them not even to feed them (unless I'm video recording it) I never touch them (unless cleaning) or if they have been under the ground for over TEN DAYS <---10 days without food! water! air! then I dig them up and they look at me like I just wrecked the greatest dream they are amazing! don't let the kids touch them please EVER! they don't like it REALLY DON"T LIKE IT! and they like to have cold deep water to swim when they wake up after there hibernation and when they come out feed them good they will hang out for a few days then gorge then dig in and sleep ect..ect...if you dont handle them they will come out more even during the day...

if you give them 3 inch of dirt and a dish of water and let people touch them all the time without being able to soak the salts and grease off there skin I don't know how well they will fair...one of the reptile party people may have better knolage of the long therm effects of handleing and may have recomendations about how or if they deal with it

[schoolzoo]

I have the rock wall almost finished, the next step is to fill the holes with the great stuff pond. Hopefully I will have between 4 and 6 inches of substrate for him to dig through. I've also decided that to make sure my substrate doesn't become water logged I'm going to silicon in a piece of plexi just behind the rocks. I found a small canister filter that will power the small stream (I'll build that this evening with the great stuff pond). I'll hide the intake on the bottom under some rocks.
Yesterday the salamander spent a large part of our lunch break wandering around his small tank.

[schoolzoo]

I know that it took me much longer to build than I originally planned but its mostly done I have moved the salamander into it, but over exam week he will have to spend a bit of time in his original one as I'm going to try to fix a wicking issue

As long as the stream isn't running or there is no soil, the water level stayes constant in the pond. However as soon as the stream is running, or I add the soil the water disappears.

I plan on removing all the soil, and then covering the great stuff pond with aquarium silicon. After the silicon is cured I'll fill it back up and hopefully its fixed. For the mean time I'm simply not running the stream. The salamander seems "happy" to have more room to move and dig, there are several tunnels that he has built. He has become a bit more aggressive (going after my fingers when I'm doing maintenance) but I'm guessing that its because he is more hungry with the increased activity.