Question: New Owner Needs Set-Up Help!

Hey all, I have found a person locally whose Axolotls have just bred and will get to pick up some babies for myself soon! I need some help with my tank set-up and have a few questions. I have never owned fish and this will be my first tank :wacko:

I have acquired a 75x40x40, 120L, tank and plan to get two little ones in there, but I also have recently got a 50x30x30, 45L, tank which I will set up as quarantine, and to treat water for water changes etc...

My first question is whether I should separate the two axies and keep one in each tank when I first take them home? Is there any need to separate them if they come from the same tank with the same parents? I need to know whether I should be cycling both tanks at the same time and have both ready. If I do need to separate them, how long should I do this for?

Speaking of cycling, I have a canister filter for my large tank - hooray! It was on sale and I am so happy I got one :happy: However I could only afford a small internal filter for my quarantine tank, the Marina i110 model - will this be okay?
I will have around 2 weeks for the tank to cycle before I put the axies in there (also most of Summer will be over so it won't be as hot, extra bonus wooh-hoo!), do you think this is enough? I know this isn't ideal but the lady I am buying them from has been waiting very patiently for us to come back from our Christmas holiday and she has made it clear she cannot afford to keep the juveniles for long, so thats where I'm at.

I have bought the Aqua One Aquis 700 canister filter, which operates at 400L/hour at the lowest, and I will be using the spray bar attachment - is this going to be alright with my 120L tank? I was thinking of getting some fake plants set up in front of the spray bar as well to disperse the output, with large leaves of course so they don't get eaten :happy:

What is the consensus with bubbles as entertainment? I've seen some videos of axies playing with the bubbles and seeming to enjoy themselves with them. Are air stones and bubblers the same thing? How do you guys feel about them?

I am going to have sand as my substrate, I have heard silica sand is the best? Would you have it level throughout the tank? And how deep would you have it?

Also, what do people do with cats and axolotls? My partner and I work long hours and our cat is largely unsupervised during the day... I am terrified she will hop onto the lid and get up to mischief! I was thinking about wrapping the top of the tank in tin foil as a deterrent, but am open to suggestions ^.^

Gosh, I am not even halfway done with my questions, but this will do for now!

Any and all help is much appresicated

1. It depends on the size of the 2. They need to be very similar in size to prevent cannibalism. Babies tend to be a little more notorious for that. What you could do is just put a divider in the large tank. Other than that I don't think quarantine is super necessary since they're from the same place. However, it will be needed if one baby shows signs of illness. But by then you could borrow some media from the larger tank to cycle the littler one. If you do decide to quarantine, people usually recommend about a month. But if you're quarantining because something seems wrong you quarantine until its better, of course.

2. That filter should be fine if just for temporary quarantine. Just make sure to use a plant or something to disperse the output.

3. Plain old cycling from scratch will take a lot longer than 2 weeks. Probably a month at the earliest. What you can try is something called Tetra Safe Start, it's suppose to add beneficial bacteria and really speed up your cycle. I haven't used it, but I've heard good things.

4. The canister filter is a little too small for your tank. You want to shoot for at least a L/hour of 5x the amount of water in the tank, so 600 L/hour for your 120L. But you could get away with what you have if you really stay on top of water changes.

5. Some axolotls seem to like the bubbles, some get stressed by the flow. It really just depends. And I'm pretty sure air stones and bubblers do the same thing, though the shapes might be different.

6. Really any sand can work if it's fine enough and doesn't alter the PH. I guess you don't have to level it, but it's just easiest. Depth would depend if you plan to use plants that need to root in substrate. If not though, just enough to cover the bottom is fine, like an inch or so.

7. Making sure the lid fits tight should help. If it's a screen top, which I would suggest since closed hoods keep the temperature higher, I wouldn't wrap the top of it for that reason. Could you maybe put the tank somewhere where you can close the door so the cat can't into there?

Best of luck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks so much Felix! I'm now thinking I will divide the two until I can tell the sex, then If they're both the same sex I can remove the divider - if not, I can always keep one in each tank and upgrade the filter of the smaller one.

It looks like the batch of eggs I was purchasing from is infertile, so I have much more time than that to cycle the tank now, which I am very happy about - and there is someone else I can go to if this person doesn't work out, so I will get my babies in the end, no matter what!

The canister filter goes up to 700L/hour, so I think I'll be okay - I heard from another aquarist the water should pass through four times an hour, but I'm glad I can get away with a little more than that.

Our house is built some distance above ground, and as such we have very well-insulated floors, so none of the rooms I can close the door to will be suitable as they get very warm during the day; the tank will be situated in the dining room where we have tiles which keep that area nice and cool, and I will be making some heat-reflecting curtains for that area as well - I will just have to hope for the best with regards to the cat, I guess, and make sure the cat door is left open and she has plenty of toys to amuse herself. I might go for a mesh top and wrap the very outside edges of the tank with tin foil, not the whole top - we will see how she goes, she might be terrified instead of curious of the new occupants!

Thank you so much again Felix for your advice, you have been so helpful!! I feel a little more confident now

One thing about the sexing, I've heard that axolotls can still breed through dividers sometimes!! ? You will more than likely have time to tell the genders before they reach sexual maturity though. Hopefully they're the same sex! Lol!

Glad to hear you've got more time to cycle now, too. Un-cycled tanks are nothing but trouble!

And your filter should be fine then

Also, about the cat, maybe if you get a mesh cover that's sturdy enough you could try putting something heavy like a large rock on top so the cat is less likely to knock the screen off. A heavy rock might make too much of a dip in the screen though... but overall if you get a good cover I doubt the cat could get it off anyway, I wouldn't worry too much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And no problem, that's what the forums for ?? any more questions, just ask