Question: Siphon in pieces?

Hiya

When I picked up my Axolotl, the owner passed me a bag as I was leaving saying 'you may as well take this hoover too, its all in the bag'... by which I assumed the instructions might have been in there too... Turned out I shouldnt have assumed as I went to have a look and I cant make head nor tail of what I'm looking at and I cant get hold of the seller. I cant yet work out how to post a pic on here, but can anyone help?

In the bag theres...

a small motor which says 'do not immerse' on it and it has a small outlet which when I plugged in the motor blew out air.

a long thin pale rubber tube

a 4 inch long blue rectangle stone with what looks like an inlet at one end

a foot long kind of hoover attachment with a tube attached to it (3 quarters of an inch diameter) and a couple of feet long

No doubt this isnt a puzzle at all to most people here but I would really appreciate any help you can offer!

Thanks

Hi!

You gained your axie with some much needed extras, good work

The small motor which blows out air is an air pump. You plug it in to the powerpoint and attach the long thin pale tube to the little nozzle it blows air out of. This should make the air flow out of the end of the tube. Now, on the end of the tube, attach the long blue stone. That is an air stone, and air should blow through it coming from the motor through the tube. This is the bit you submerge in your tank, so bubbles come out of the stone. Like the pump said, leave it on land!

The air stone creates oxygen in your tank which is nececary for your axolotl to breathe.

The hoover is exactly that, its an aquarium vacuum! It is designed to suck fish/axolotl poop out of gravel usually, but do not use gravel at the bottom of your tank! Your axolotl can eat it and die… they have massive mouths, massive appetites and are practically blind, so you can imagine it happens quite often :S

How the hoover works, is when it is attached to the tube, you place the vacuum end in your tank, with the opening in the substrate. The end with the tube not in the tank has to be situated lower than hoover part for the vacuum to work. You then put the tube end in your mouth and suck on it, until you see gross poop water ruching towards your mouth. the tube SHOULD be clear so you can take your mouth off before you get a mouth full of poop. Once you have created suction, there should remain a steady flow of water if the end of the tube is lower than the hoover. Of course have the water coming out of the tank going into a bucket.

Swirl the hoover around the substrate, picking up all the poop. The poop should be sucked up into the bucket.

Some people find it an easy way to clean your tank, (usually goldfish) however either very large stones or sand is recommended for the bottom of the tank, not pebbles which are the things usually hoovered. It’s very hard to hoover sand because it all gets sucked up too. The Hoover is GREAT for stones because amazing amounts of poop get stuck in them. For this reason most people have sand because so much poop gets stuck in them the water quality gets terrible. Sand is easy; you just suck each bit of poop up with a turkey baster. My theory is, if you have enough poop to use a hoover, your probably doing something wrong. Large stones require a lot of work! But some people prefer the look, so it’s up to you and how much cleaning you want to perform.

I hope that made sense!

That's brilliant, thank you! That all makes perfect sense. After looking at lots of pics of set ups and reading the Axie website I'm going with sand, his permanent home is being sorted out as we speak, much bigger than the one he's in now, though he's only 5 inches so alright for the mo.

Will go out today to pick up a turkey baster!

Thanks again

One more question, does the air stone need to be on all the time and will he mind it? I read that Axies can get stressed by excessively moving water?

some axies do like sitting on airstones. mine do sometimes but usually spend their time snapping at the bubbles instead.

it also helps cool the tank water by encouraging evaporation and by circulating the tank water and agitating the surface, which also aids in oxygen exchange too.

it's recommended, but don't have it bubbling too rapidly.

you can buy small "G" clamps that go on the tubing in witch u can adjust the amount of air/bubbles that go into your tank, they usually only cost a dollar and can be found at any pet shop or aquarium store

yes, and they do not create water movement as such, the bubbles float to the top pretty quickly. And if the axolotl doesn't like the bubbles (some do) he/she will just move away from them.

Airstones are not nececary if you have something else disturbing the surface of the water, like a trickling filter or a fan. It just depends what you find easiest, or what you think looks the best. The good thing about axies is they can also breate through their lungs by gulping at the surface and their skin, not just their gills. This means you can observe your axolotl, if he/she starts gulping frequently, maybe add another form of axygenation. An air stone is usually more than enough however

Thanks

I've noticed that during his active times, he does seem to gulp air occasionally. He seemed very unconcerned with the airstone today when I switched it on so I will prob aim to put it on for a bit every day. Yesterday evening he had a bit of a mad moment and virtually jumped out of the water! I've got a 4 inch space at the top so no way he could jump out but it was a bit of a surprise! He also appears to have noticed his reflection and spends a fair amount of time apparently playing with it. Is this normal or am I imagining it?