Best substrate

Hi all! We’ve had our Axi for 7wks and we’re just getting a new, much bigger tank set up for him.

We started off with small gravel, as the tank was set up for goldfish, but we lost them all. We gradually scooped it out and replaced it with river pebbles. The issue we found with these is that food and waste mess would get stuck right down in between the pebbles, making it hard to vacuum when doing a water change. So we decided to go with a bare bottom tank for ease of cleaning - I can use a net to just scoop up mess each day.

I read a few things about them not liking bare bottom tanks as not having anything to grip can stress them out a bit. Is this true? My son’s thinking he’d like to have sand in the bottom of the new tank, but I’m worried about the amount that we’d loose as we use the siphon to clean the tank....

What do the majority of people in here use for their substrate and how do you find cleaning etc...

I've heard a couple of things about barebottom stressing axolotls out but so many people on here do it (and I have before as well) without issue. As long as there are things for the axie to grip on to (like hides) it should be fine.
I personally use play sand from Bunnings. Just make sure to wash it thoroughly (I literally spend an hour washing my sand). You can also sift it to make sure there's no chunky gravel bits.
As for cleaning, I get a lot of brown debris from both poop and plants so it can be tricky to clean. When using a siphon I keep it at least a cm above the substrate, it usually picks up most of the debris and barely any sand. I siphon into a bucket so if a lot of sand is sucked up I'll just rinse it in dechlorinated water and put it back in the tank. I use a turkey baster to do daily cleaning so I don't need to siphon as much.

Thank you so much! I feel he hasn’t been as active since giving him a completely bare bottom tank, soi do feel it’s stressing him a little... we also had a muscle in the tank with him to help keep the water clean, but it’s now in hubby’s tank due to the substrate being taken away from him haha! I assume amazing scale would be ok on sand? Would be nice to put him back in the tank with Toothless....

I’ll go grab some sand then - any excuse to go to Bunnings haha!!!!