Do you use a filter?

I have two canister filters on my main tank both with spraybars pointing towards the glass they are suckered too. The main tank is a Juwel rio 180. The filters are Tetratec EX1200 and a Eheim 2215. My other tank is a Fluval Roma 125 with a Tetratec EX700. Both the Tetratec have extra media chucked in for good measure and Seachem Purigen to keep the water crystal clean. I am toying with getting an inline UV filter for them also but I don't think I need it as my lotties seem happy and healthy. The other thing I have toyed with is second filter for the Roma 125 as a redundancy should the EX700 fail but I don't like filters in the tank as I can always hear them and it annoys me.

Scratch that last bit I remembered I had a 650lph internal from All pond soloutions that has a spray bar and is quiet so I just added that to the Roma 125. If you aim towards the glass and slightly upwards it causes plenty of surface agitation but no disturbing flow inside the tank.

i use TWO filters in my 37 gallon. each is rated to 40 gallons i think. i either use both at once, one at a time, or leave both off. i only change one cartridge at a time.

note: this is the filtration recommended for laboratories in the book "developmental biology of the axolotl"

So I see this a fairly old thread, but its a new discussion for me.

I have two smallish tanks with a mature axolotl in each. I had a filter in the 40ltr tank and the two axys together tolerated it ok. They mainly stayed on the bottom of the tank though.

I had to rehome one axy as the other 'mysteriously' lost an entire foreleg. I now call them Nibbler and Niblet. I rehoned Nibbler into a 28ltr tank, only meant as an interim measure. He was fine til I turned the filter on, at which point he appeared to panic, trying to find somewhere to hide and staying very still. So since then he's been without a filter and I've discovered a whole new side to axolotl behaviour. He swims around the entire tank. He climbs into the plants. He's much more active.

So I turned off the filter in the 40ltr tank where Niblet resides. He seems happier too, and more active, making more use of the whole tank. We have yet to see if his leg will grow back though, and I'm concerned for him incase his wound increases his risk of infection.

I do weekly water changes on both tanks, Nibbler's small tank gets dirtier, and needs the change more regularly.

Question:
Has anyone else noticed a change in behaviour without the filter on? I guess the filters might be less disturbing in the bigger tanks.

It's 2018 and people still think it is a good idea to NOT use filters? People who dont, go buy API Master Test Kit and test your waters....

Oh yeah and go get the poor pets some filters.

While there, also go and check the "nitrogen cycle" and how that works, and go read up some more on how tanks cycle.


You will doing your pets a favor.

Bop has 2 filters in her 40g. One is a 30, the other is a 40. They are both submersible Whisper filters, so they don't produce a lot of heavy current for her. If they do, then she isn't bothered by it.

I actually have Whispers in all of my tanks. My betta and my community. Her smaller tank had a 5g whisper as well.

has anyone tried spray bars?

seagull said:

i think a whole male dubia is plenty each feeding
i have heard and read that animals fed less food live longer
i dont starve my animals though-they eat better than me for the most part
theres a difference between bear minimum yet enough and simply not feeding enough

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I feel like it's best to feed frequently (every two to three days) if there are multiple axolotls in a tank to reduce aggression towards each other.

tinasvfx said:

Bop has 2 filters in her 40g. One is a 30, the other is a 40. They are both submersible Whisper filters, so they don't produce a lot of heavy current for her. If they do, then she isn't bothered by it.

I actually have Whispers in all of my tanks. My betta and my community. Her smaller tank had a 5g whisper as well.

has anyone tried spray bars?

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I have an in tank filter with a spray bar in my axolotl tank and it seems to work really well, but I just have to turn the output to as low as it goes to reduce flow.

I have a 40g with no axolotls in it yet. It has a 265 gph (or at least that's how much it's rated for without all the media in it) canister filter on it with a spray bar, so I'm also curious to see how spray bars have worked out for others. I'm slightly concerned about a flow- has anyone tried to baffle the output?

LSuzuki said:

Newbies reading this in the future...

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Anniebeth said:

So I see this a fairly old thread, but its a new discussion for me...

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DSaxolotl said:

It's 2018 and ...

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That was fun.

Acacia said:

I have a 40g with no axolotls in it yet. It has a 265 gph (or at least that's how much it's rated for without all the media in it) canister filter on it with a spray bar, so I'm also curious to see how spray bars have worked out for others. I'm slightly concerned about a flow- has anyone tried to baffle the output?

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Yes. You can return the water through a filter sponge and the current will be reduced to almost zero.