How helpful are live plants?

I was just wondering how helpful live plants are to an axie's tank? I've got two tanks at the moment, and the filter in my 20gallon recently went kaput. After discovering a spike in ammonia (more frequent water changes have helped lower it, almost at 0 now) I was wondering if Live plants would help? at the moment I've only even had plastic/silk plants.

Will live plants help cycling or is that mostly optional?

I don't use live plants (yet!) but as far as I'm aware they are excellent at lowering ammonia, nitrate, etc in the tank. I'm not sure if on their own it is enough, or if a filter is absolutely needed

Filters are essential- they help massively with your beneficial bacteria and provide mechanical filtration as well. What plants provide is a way to keep the byproducts (especially nitrate) down, additional oxygen in the water and perching spots for you 'lotls . With your plants, you need to make sure they're well established, suitable for a lower light environment and that when you set them up in your tank, they have a chance to establish a good root base (if they're ones which need to be planted), or have a good rock/piece of driftwood to attach to.
Be aware that you will likely need to replant them a few times- axies like to test their resiliency If you do a search on here, there are some great ideas on how to counteract this if it gets too frustrating!!

A filter is only useful in relatively small volumes of water or in heavily stocked tanks. In large volumes, understocked tanks and in the pressence of abundant vegetation, their function becomes entirely redundant.

Minniechild said:

Filters are essential- they help massively with your beneficial bacteria and provide mechanical filtration as well. What plants provide is a way to keep the byproducts (especially nitrate) down, additional oxygen in the water and perching spots for you 'lotls . With your plants, you need to make sure they're well established, suitable for a lower light environment and that when you set them up in your tank, they have a chance to establish a good root base (if they're ones which need to be planted), or have a good rock/piece of driftwood to attach to.
Be aware that you will likely need to replant them a few times- axies like to test their resiliency If you do a search on here, there are some great ideas on how to counteract this if it gets too frustrating!!

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Yeah I'm taking my filter in to get fixed asap, and have been considering something that attached to logs or rocks (or their hides?) anyway I was just wondering HOW helpful they were and from the sounds of it I might try a few now to research on the best types that are available nearby!

There is a good list of plants on the Axolotl Sanctuary site under Axolotl Friendly Aquascaping.

I just added the first live plant to my tank - Marimo Moss Ball. My lotl loves sitting on top of it and rubbing against it, and I thnk it's actually cleared up the water beause it seemes to have been slightly cloudy before

Cloudiness is usually caused by bacterial blooms, and plants will compete for nutrients with them, so it makes sense that you should have seen a slight change.
Plants are effective, but the bioload in relation to water volume and available surface will determine wether they are sufficient or not. Plants don´t only take nitrogen compounds from the water directly, but they also provide abundant surface for the bacterial biofilm to grow on, plus they furnise them with oxygen. They do the same work as a filter does by providing surface and oxigenation, so again, it´s all about the total surface, the bioload and the volume of water. It is possible to achieve a fully cycled, very stable tank with just plants, but this will depend on how big your tank is, how many inhabitants there are and how many plants you can get.