New Tank Setup as a beginner

Ok so this is my new tank set up for my axolotl Queso. After listening to some advice yesterday and my own confused workings this is the basics I have come up with. Its a 55 gallon aquarium, and please excuse the kitchen...


It looks a little plain on the one side, but after dismantling it from the guys place we got it from, and setting it back up at home we were to tired to work anymore.

The Left side has the giant piping she will fit in for a hide, its pretty stark but I plan on attaching some Java Moss to it when I can find some. I also plan on possibly either potted plants over there or fake ones to thicken it up. Its pieces of slate for a nice easy to clean spot in the tank.



The other side may look a little bit thickly planted but the plants were free and we figured we would have dead loss once we get in the hang of taking care of live plants. I want to get some bigger leafed plants to add some cover instead of just the grass. I don't know if the grass will live, but we are cycling the tank for a week or so at least to see if there is any dead loss. I went ahead and planted it in sand, I'll probably need more but we were so excited to get it home and set up we made it work, we will see how long it takes her to kick everything up. The lighting maybe an issue, he had all this in with fish, with a heater, so I'm also not sure how much light or heat these plants will require, but again the were free so I hope I can use them to accommodate her.


The guy we got everything from for free....I got lucky, did give us his bio-wheel filter that already has bacteria seeded, he also gave us half the water in the tank to help with cycling. We are still holding off on putting her in because we are going on vacation next week and our roommate is a bit oblivious. Plus we want it to cycle, I plan on changing out the hang on the back filter for a canister that he gave us if it works.

Well, if your still reading after all the big pictures and long rambling, do you have any ideas on anything else I may have missed? I'm sure I will find things as I go, but I've never taken care of a tank bigger than 10 gallons so I'm fairly certain I will have issues. I'm hoping they will be minimal but my next problem to figure out how I'm going to cool this all off, I'm hoping I can use evaporative cooling for the bulk of it like my small tank but we will see.

That tank looks great! You'll find out real quickly that large tanks, for the most part, are a lot more easy to take care of than smaller ones.

I think it looks pretty amazing.
I love the kind of underwater sidewalk look it has.
It would look amazing if you could get the moss to grow in the cracks!
Maybe an overturned/broken flowerpot hidden in the grass?

How strong is the filter flow?

I've added a few things around the sewer pipe, it just looked too bare.

The filter flow is fairly great, I may try the bottle trick if I can't get the canister filter to work. I'm hoping the canister works so I can use a spray bar and greatly reduce the flow. For now the bio-wheel filter will work until I get her moved into her new home.

I was thinking about a pot or some pipes for the planted side, she has a terracotta pot in her current tank, but she has out grown it, and I still expect her to grow when I get her in the new tank. I may try cheap tunnels like a pop bottle, or maybe find a mesh tube and wrap it with something like the java moss.

You could always take a pop bottle cute the ends off (or just one end i guess) and cover it with aquarium silicon cocking and then sprinkle over it to give it a more natural look!!!!

The only problem I see with using a pop bottle is that if you cut the end off, it leaves a surprisingly sharp edge behind, because the plastic is so thin, which could VERY easily damage an axolotl's soft skin - think of getting a paper cut, but with plastic. As tempting as it is, I'd find it a bit too risky unless you can also cover the exposed edges somehow

Nice... lucky you getting it all free

Hope your canister filter works... mine is the best thing I ever bought (besides my axi herself and the bigger custom tank )

As for hides I have some fake logs in my tank... but my sweets most favouritest hiding spot is nestled amongst the soft silicon tentacles of this fake anemone thing I got for her... it must feel nice against her skin or something because she hangs there a good portion of each day.

I'd go with plumbing pipes over pop bottles, much safer for axi skin. As it is though the plants will also count as hiding spots

Yeah, the sharp edges were my concern with the pop bottles. I may try some PVC pipe or something like it. I have to get some to make a cheap chiller for my terrarium anyway. I added the bubblers to the aquarium he gave us today, the tank is staying steady at 70deg with the light on all day so its not adding much heat to the tank. I'm hoping I can cheat and get a few more degrees with evaporative cooling with the bubblers. Once I can figure out how cool I can get it I can add a mechanical system to finish off the cooling.

The tank is so big and empty, she's been pretty restless these last few days in her smaller tank, I think she's ready for a bigger space, plus I've been having a cloudy water problem in her current tank. Must be a tough algae bloom. Every time I do a water change it comes back with a vengeance.