Question: Regarding Sand...

Hi all,

I made the leap and added sand (silica-based black sand, non-toxic to axolotls and pH neutral) to my tank, and I'm beginning to wonder if that was a wise idea.

My kiddos are roughly five inches from nose to the tip of their tail—probably about six or seven months old (they were itty bitty when I got them in December last year, so I'm leaning more towards six months) and so far, they seem to be unsure about this new development in their tank. It seems like they're having to relearn how to walk (as I had them in a bare bottom tank for all of their lives until now) and I occasionally catch Chorizo flapping his gills as if either trying to clear them, or possibly attempting to ingest the sand.

Basically, I'm anxious. Horchata has been hiding a lot, Chorizo mostly stays in one place, and I'm worried I've caused them undue duress by changing their environment like this. Is this adjustment period normal? Should I remove the sand and return to having their tank be substrate-less? Are they still too small for them to have a substrate? I was led to believe that they'd be fine with it at their current size, but I don't want to risk it if my info was wrong. Their health and happiness is my priority.

Their color is good, their gills and filibrae look fine, they ate eagerly last night after I put them back in with the new sand, and the temp. is low... I just don't know what to do. Any advice would be appreciated <3

Picture of the tank? To see the sand size

Sure thing. Here you go! (I can also provide pictures of them closer to the glass so you can get a better estimate of how big they are.)

Apis said:

Sure thing. Here you go! (I can also provide pictures of them closer to the glass so you can get a better estimate of how big they are.)

Click to expand...

Hello, for some reason those pictures will not display for me :/

Have you tried opening them in a new tab? That's how I got them to work. If that doesn't work though, here's a direct link to the album they're in (in theory—I'm still new to Caudata so I'm still not 100% on how everything works!)

https://www.caudata.org/forum/album.php?albumid=5000

Alright that worked . Sand seems fine enough I usually kept mine bare bottom up until they were around 7-10cm and then switched to fine river sand. Never had any issues if nothing else they like it more because it is easier for them to grip on!


What I would do is , do more frequent water changes now since your water seems a bit murky maybe its from the sand itself? And monitor the water quality levels sudden changes of



PH/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nirates will have ill effects. You said PH neural and non toxic but i would do a water test just in case.



If you have specs from before and after then sand addition you can compare if something spiked, and if not just up the water changes a bit and see how it goes from there after a week time or alike.

Okay cool! Thanks for the guidance—the water does seem a bit murky, but it was perfectly clear before I put the sand in, so I imagine it's still settling a bit. I'll keep an eye on the water quality levels until everything settles down. Thanks again for the help! I really appreciate it!

Apis said:

Okay cool! Thanks for the guidance—the water does seem a bit murky, but it was perfectly clear before I put the sand in, so I imagine it's still settling a bit. I'll keep an eye on the water quality levels until everything settles down. Thanks again for the help! I really appreciate it!

Click to expand...

Np, but doing more water changes , rather than waiting to settle in mean time might be better option!

Black sand tends to be coal slag, which is abrasive. This could be why your axolotls appear stressed. Even Caribsea will not confirm whether their Tahitian Moon sand is coal slag, which is as good as an admission as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't use it in any tank that has soft-skinned animals.