Suggestions

hello, this is my first post on here. just looking for any sugetions on how to improve my tank. i have a textured glass bottom right now.pvc piping and some rocks and fake plants. want to put in real plants but not sure which ones to put in. also is sand easy to keep clean and would he like that better.thanks

looks good, I don't think sand is too hard to keep clean, but it is harder to maintain than barebottom. I'd suggest low-light plants like water wisteria, cabomba, anacharis, hornwort, anything that grows like crazy in low light.

You have one happy looking axie there.

Sand tends to be the go for keeping axies, the waste sits on the top, so it's easy to siphon off, but many keepers successfully keep them on bare bottomed tanks such as yours. It's a personal decision really.

Axies don't like bright lights, so that limits what plants you can keep. Plants like java fern and java moss work well, but I have never had any sucsess keeping java hern in my axie tank. Axies also tend to rip up and uproot plants from the substrate when you're not looking too so you may need to anchor them down.

Keep us updated!

Those rocks are snazzy! In terms of suggestions, I'm an advocate for 'cosy' spaces for axies, but it could just be mine that love to crawl in and around small dark spaces! A couple of mine like to swim, a lot, so I've left the front of the tank completely free of 'stuff' so they can come and parade in front of us.

I think its all subjective though, you see such a variety of tanks on here with happy axolotls in, so be creative, think 'bottom of a lake' and you should be fine.

As far as sand goes, I find it pretty easy to clean, but like Chris and Carson say, its a personal preference. I like having something to root plants into. Currently I'm having a lot of success in the tank with lilaeopsis, have java moss tied to a fake root, and have quite a few anubias and java fern tied to things. Plus, I'm (slowly) growing a moss wall.

The axies love the lilaeopsis, but it does root in the sand so you'd need a substrate, otherwise anubias and java fern will tie to rocks or wood.

Marimo balls are pretty funky too!

Your tank looks like it's starting out really well & agree about sand being an ideal substrate.

But, just out of curiosity, what do you feed your axie & how much? It may just be the camera angle, but it looks a bit on the thin side.

Yeah, I was going to mention that your Axolotl looks EXTREMELY underweight.