ldunniva
New member
Hello, I'm new to caudata.org. My name is Lydia and I'm a Zoology student living in Ohio who is hopefully going to be purchasing her first axolotls soon. I've been keeping fish, reptiles and various other exotics for 5+ years now, and decided to finally branch over to amphibians, after years of being obsessed with axolotls.
I recently acquired a mature tank (29 US gallons or about 110L) from a friend and altered it in order to create what I *hope* will be a fantastic axolotl tank. I want to eventually switch over more to live plants. After doing research on axolotls, here's what I've come up with:
I'm using a very fine argonite sand substrate that is holding my water at slightly alkaline and hard levels, which I was told axolotls prefer over acidic/soft water. The sand grains average 1mm I believe.
I have multiple terra cotta hides (no sharp edges, all sanded down) in the tank, as well as a heavy assortment of soft plastic (I used the same rule of thumb as I use for bettas and rubbed over them with pantyhose to make sure they wouldn't snag) and silk plants. I also have a piece of driftwood in the tank, and I have taken a wood file to all sharp/protruding pieces to soften them.
The tank is currently running with two Aqueon QuietFlow 30 filters. I'm only running both since I stuffed them with media from my other aquariums in order to help seed the tank, as most of the bacteria was lost in moving/re-setting it up. When the tank is stocked, I'll just run one as I know axolotls are sensitive to water flow. I have sponges cut and ready to pop on over the intake hoses in order to slow down the flow and prevent fragile gills from getting sucked into them.
The tank is staying nice and cool without the use of a chiller currently, but I may have to add one in the summer. I also have a full hood on top of the tank to prevent jumpers.
Currently, the tank is empty and will remain so until the tank is cycled again (fishless cycle), and I'm positive that it's a safe, appropriate habitat for an axolotl. I would ideally like to have a pair (not necessarily M/F, just two axolotls in general) in this tank.
What are your thoughts? Is there anything you see that's a red flag? Things I could change/improve on?
This is my first time posting on this site, so I apologize if I mess up with attaching the image of my tank or anything like that.
I recently acquired a mature tank (29 US gallons or about 110L) from a friend and altered it in order to create what I *hope* will be a fantastic axolotl tank. I want to eventually switch over more to live plants. After doing research on axolotls, here's what I've come up with:
I'm using a very fine argonite sand substrate that is holding my water at slightly alkaline and hard levels, which I was told axolotls prefer over acidic/soft water. The sand grains average 1mm I believe.
I have multiple terra cotta hides (no sharp edges, all sanded down) in the tank, as well as a heavy assortment of soft plastic (I used the same rule of thumb as I use for bettas and rubbed over them with pantyhose to make sure they wouldn't snag) and silk plants. I also have a piece of driftwood in the tank, and I have taken a wood file to all sharp/protruding pieces to soften them.
The tank is currently running with two Aqueon QuietFlow 30 filters. I'm only running both since I stuffed them with media from my other aquariums in order to help seed the tank, as most of the bacteria was lost in moving/re-setting it up. When the tank is stocked, I'll just run one as I know axolotls are sensitive to water flow. I have sponges cut and ready to pop on over the intake hoses in order to slow down the flow and prevent fragile gills from getting sucked into them.
The tank is staying nice and cool without the use of a chiller currently, but I may have to add one in the summer. I also have a full hood on top of the tank to prevent jumpers.
Currently, the tank is empty and will remain so until the tank is cycled again (fishless cycle), and I'm positive that it's a safe, appropriate habitat for an axolotl. I would ideally like to have a pair (not necessarily M/F, just two axolotls in general) in this tank.
What are your thoughts? Is there anything you see that's a red flag? Things I could change/improve on?
This is my first time posting on this site, so I apologize if I mess up with attaching the image of my tank or anything like that.
. Very nice setup for now and I look forward to seeing updates when you have more live plants. The only thing I can see is to make sure those stones in there. They are most likely big enough but sometimes it is difficult to tell size from pictures. Just to be sure though, make sure they are bigger than the axolotl's head to be sure they won't get them stuck in their mouth.
