Set up riparium questions

Hello everyone,
First post but I’ve been following these forums a lot. I just have a couple of questions . I have 4 lovely axolotls (Wallace, Genesis, Jesse, Bubbly) who are 7 months old and about 14cm each that are in a 2 foot tank at the moment. As I know they will quickly grow out of this I’ve bought a 4 foot tank (4 foot long x 2 foot height x 11 inches depth). I’m hoping to do this in a riparuim style.
I want to just play sand as a substrate and I was wondering how exactly to wash it? Also which is the best way to plant into sand?
I’m hoping to have some hides in the tank along with the plant and are coconut caves a good size for a fully grown axolotl?
And how many hides approximate will in need for 4 axolotls including plants?
Also which type of drift wood is best for not turning water tea coloured? I have been looking up Manzanita and Malaysian so far as being the best but does anyone have suggestions?
Is their any plants that are recommended for axolotls and any advised against?
Ad what are your opinions on surface plants? I’m torn about them

Additionally my axolotls are soon going to reach breeding age, is their any way I can prevent breeding? I unfortunately would not have the time to dedicate to raising eggs, I would love to try but I know I couldn’t and it would be too unfair to for the little babies .

Does anyone know how I can get lamps and attach lights to grow the plants with to them? Like which type of lamps and lights? I’m going to grow out the aquascape fully before I move the axolotls so don’t worry about the light affecting their eyes , when their in the tank I’m going to turn on the light maybe 2/3 hours a day.

Which is the best type of filter to use in a tank of this dimension? With a heavily planted tank like I intend to create do I still need a filter? I siphon in my 2 foot tank every couple of days

Finally is it okay to keep my 4 foot tank on top of a large chest of drawers? I’m only going to fill it to just over half at maximum in order to give the out of water plants growing room.

Sorry for super huge amount of questions, I just want the tank to be perfect before I move them in. I have about 2 months of free time to do it all in.

Looking forward your replies,
Ellis x

Just to begin with, there is already plenty of this information if you used the search button at the top. However, I'll try help you as best as I can..

Ellis said:

I’m hoping to have some hides in the tank along with the plant and are coconut caves a good size for a fully grown axolotl? And how many hides approximate will in need for 4 axolotls including plants? Also Is their any plants that are recommended for axolotls and any advised against? Does anyone know how I can get lamps and attach lights to grow the plants with to them?

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You'll need a hide for each axolotl, so 4 is a minimum. Anubias, cryptocoryne, java moss and java fern are just the few plants that I know that do good with low temperature and low light. With this being said, you shouldn't need that light that you mentioned because it won't be necessary.

Ellis said:

Additionally my axolotls are soon going to reach breeding age, is their any way I can prevent breeding? I unfortunately would not have the time to dedicate to raising eggs, I would love to try but I know I couldn’t and it would be too unfair to for the little babies .

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You aren't going to be able to prevent breeding because nature will do its thing regardless. The only solution is to separate the female and male if it turns out that you do have both sexes. (You could be lucky enough to have 4 boys or 4 girls) If they do breed, it's going to be pretty stressful on the female and you'll need to move her from the tank anyway to give her a rest. It's just something you have to be willing to deal with.

Ellis said:

Finally is it okay to keep my 4 foot tank on top of a large chest of drawers? I’m only going to fill it to just over half at maximum in order to give the out of water plants growing room.

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The more water in the tank, the better. I used to have mine filled to the length of my axolotl because I was told to do that however thanks to people on this forum I found out that more water means a more stable temperature and it makes the Ammonia levels and such less toxic. If you go with the plants I mentioned, you wont need room for the plants to grow as they will grow in the water. You should make sure that your drawers are able to handle the weight first. You have the weight of the tank as well as however many litres will be in the tank.

soak the drift wood in a bucket of dechlorinated hot water for a week or two, the tannins may still release in your tank but aren't harmful and will dissipate over time.

You can plant into sand by tieing down plants to rocks and burying them

Thank you so much for the replies :happy:.
Jessicaanne: thank you very much for the plant list and i'll seperate them at breeding age, my boyfriend has 2 axolotls (from the same batch of eggs as mine) who will reach maturity at the same time about, at that point we'll just separate into our two tanks.

im going to fill the tank to about 3/4 so i hope that will be okay. Again thank you for the information!

tusken raider: Thank you so much for telling me about the driftwood and how to plant, been looking around before this and havent found a definate way so will go with this thank you.

Thank you both very much for the replies , im thinking about posting a journal for how i go about with the tank planting, or if im not able to do so i'll post the finished result.

Ellis and the creature babies x

Glad to help, you can also use super glue to glue your plants onto rocks/driftwood if you like, but moving them afterwards my be a bit of trouble