Substrates and ammonia

I swear i asked this some where else but now that i look through the forum i cant find it anywhere..

But what works better as a substrate? real plants or plastic? does it also help the ammonia better?
( im planning on getting sand but not sure which type yet )

also i think it was rheann who said she was getting a crab/shrimp thing i cant remember which but does it really help ammonia?

sand is much better for your axolotls health but because its so dense not much oxygen gets through making it a bit harder for bacteria to live in it. turning it over once in a while will combat this. but keep in mind bacteria lives on all surfaces in your aquarium so sand doesnt disadvantage it in any way.
the plants you can get depends on your axie, alot of peoples axolotls up-root plants when doing their mad dashes, so tough varities are a good starter.
plants do nothing for ammonia, they absorb nitrate (nitrite? cant remember which one it is lol)
crabs/shrimp would do nothing to the ammonia apart from adding more bio load.
ammonia should not be present in a cycled tank so you dont really have to worry about it too much if your tank is cycled(test regularly to make sure things are all in order though!) also nitrite should not be present. nitrate is acceptable up to 40ppm i think. hope that helped

snip "sand is much better for your axolotls health but because its so dense not much oxygen gets through making it a bit harder for bacteria to live in it. turning it over once in a while will combat this. but keep in mind bacteria lives on all surfaces in your aquarium so sand doesnt"

This is not true. Bacteria live just fine in it and if the sand compacts in a couple of areas you actually get hydrogen sulfide and methane production from anaerobic bacterial growth. Hydrogen sulfide can kill aquatic organisms.
The idea behind turning it is to keep down the anaerobic growth (usually evident by the black areas in the sand) but a better method is to keep the sand layer very shallow to allow for oxygen to penetrate the sand (this will only occur if there is sufficient water current in the tank).

Ed

sorry kevan, i was told by some other people that sand condenses quite alot so theres not much room for oxygen flow hense little bacteria. thanks for clearing that up ed