Photo: Planted Axolotl Aquascape Tank

Hi,

I recently set up a new, four foot axolotl tank for my two axies. My set-up includes a 4ft, 190L tank, an Eheim 2213 Classic external canister filter, a 40W fleurescent light, 2 air stones and a 300W heater. The output of the canister filter is running into one of the piping pieces for an under-gravel filter with a fitting to build the pressure, causing a reverse-flow under-gravel filter which works excellently to avoid large amounts of detritus building up in the gravel as well as the create water with very little current. I am currently trying to set up a drip sump as it is the Australian summer and temperature is quite an issue though this is a struggle with frustration, however my highest temperature so far has only been 24 degrees for about half a day, the rest has been comfortably between 18 and 22. I am also in the process of setting up a DIY CO2 system as the plants are causing the pH to rise and are not looking their best.

The water parameters are perfect and my two axolotls, Mr & Mrs Mastofoles, are very happy, as are the White Cloud Mountain Minnows, though they have been in a week after quarantine and Mr Mastofoles (Golden Albino, I believe) has already figured out how to hunt them, as he is in the pictures. In response to his enjoyment I have decided to breed the white clouds in my sump once it is working. I feed the axies on a staple diet of Nightcrawlers however so sustenance isn't a concern. I am also going to breed glass shrimp and cherry shrimp to help control both algae and detritus build up in areas difficult to clean, though snails will be an ongoing concern...

I tried my hand at an aquascaped layout and am very pleased with the results. I had small river stones in earlier that were removed out of fear of impactions, only some of the larger river stones are left to create an aesthetic effect. I also tried to use the plants and the hard scape to provide alot of visual barriers as my big girl can get a little aggressive, mainly during feeding though. The tank has many hiding places to help them escape from the light during the day and I believe when I acquire a third axie these will still be in ample supply. The plants include Valinerias, both Lacey and Jungle varieties which help provide shade, Anubias, which grow great in cold water, albeit slowly, some pond weed of some variety that I'm finding hard to identify, Java Moss, Java Ferns, a Lilaeopsis and some Bacopa, which the store assured me was cold water however it appears to be in steady decline (I usually do my research though this was a spontaneous decision). I am considering some floating plants like Duckweed or Hornwort as well but am clueless as to how I would keep them stationary so they don't block other plants light. The plants are great and the axies love them however when breeding comes round trimming and cleanup will be a nightmare!

I only have a few questions: the first is are there any safe for axolotl fertilizers other than Flourish Excel? The plants are doing great for the most part and I believe the CO2 should solve most problems however I'm endlessly concerned about micro-nutrients. Would even dosing Pottassium be alright? Also, if the CO2 is not greatly effective another light may be helpful as it is currently below 1W/p.G, but would this greatly stress the axies even with there abundant shade and hiding places? My buffering capacity is curently too low for CO2 but I'm risking it with close monitoring as the plants are causing the pH to rise so I hope the CO2 brings it down then I can gradually re-buffer with Calcium Carbonate. Also where in Australia is live Daphnia or other fish foods available? I believe this would be better for the white clouds. This may also seem silly but how much should an axolotl consume? I feed them generally with two worms every two days but I also want them to be well fed but not overfed as I need as much axolotl safe fertilizer as I can get! Sorry the post is so long, I just believe thorough detail is the easiest way to avoid needless questions. If any more pictures or pictures of greater detail are wanted that is easily done, its just my phones camera can be quite blurry.

Thank you for reading and I await your advice and feedback! Hope everyone likes the tank!

Great looking setup there, but it seems as though you are using regular aquarium gravel, I hate to rain on your perade but if that is the case, your axolotols will swallow it and you will have problems.

You must remove gravel and use sand, river pebbles larger than the animals head or have a bare bottom tank.

Sand is preferable, as river pebbles are hard to keep clean and trap a lot of waste, I personally keep my axolotl on a bare bottom tank with potted plants.

Unfortunately, this renders your current filter setup useless, and you will not a achieve reverse undergravel filter with sand, it being too fine, and will clog, and river pebbles would not create the same effect. as for plants, they do help maintain water quality, so think they are a must because axolotls are very messy. You also will not need a heater in a axolotl tank, infact, here in Australia especially in summer, a chiller is preferable.

Also remember axolotls do not like much light, so try to pick plants that can tolerate cooler water and lower light if you want to successfully have a planted tank.

Hi, thanks for the quick reply! Its great that you like the tank and I agree greatly about the plants.

The gravel is 1mm or under and can in fact sometime fall through the undergravel plate and is quite safe for the axies. Their feeding habits as it is mean they rarely dig in the gravel, when they do they may pump and take in some gravel, most of which is promptly spat out. I clean there poos up daily and only once has there been stones in it, and the two that were there were easily passed out his/her cloaca. I had actually read somewhere in a book on amphibian care that many enthusiasts prefer sand but in comparison to fine gravel or large rocks sand can actually build up and deposit in the animals stomach/intestines, slowly causing an inability to maintain homeostasis and resulting in stress and often early death. The rest of the stones are far too large to be swallowed, as advised on this very forum some months ago.

I agree with the lighting and there sensitivity, hence why I currently have under 1W/ p.G and many hiding places (easily hiding space for 6 axies, and thats not including the very shady areas but if the addition of CO2 does not correct the pH (as the plants are pulling carbons out of the water and causing alkalinity) a second light may be in order, hence my interest in floating plants to provide greater shade over the general area. A second light would still only make it a bit under 2W/ p.G which is still quite a low light aquarium, especially for bottom dwellers. And the heater is only there so in winter the tank does not get too low in temperature to kill the plants as it is set to 18 degrees, plus maintaining a constant temperature allows me to avoid letting Mr Mastofoles become spontaneously 'horny', I guess would work.

I did choose my plants quite carefully, all being plants that are suited to cold water, are adaptable to cold water and just grow slower or ones that, for now, I am just trialling as I read that many plants like pond weeds are able to quickly adapt to cooler temperatures, the trick is to slowly remove the original plants and use the more adapted off shoots, hence all my cuttings.

Still though I would love answers to the other queries I posted, thanks for the feedback, I hope my response made sense...

It's such a shame because it's such a beautiful tank but I agree that they will eat the gravel and it won't be good for them... so I would advise swapping it out for sand sorry

I think you are beginning to understand why mixed use aquaria are so challenging to maintain. Your axolotls prefer one set up and your plants prefer a much different one.

I believe your best approach to raising plants is to increase the amount of light your tank is receiving - a lot! Axies are not particularly fond of light. They might spend a great deal of their time in hiding. Also, the need to fertilize the plants raises interesting questions about how that will affect your animals. I would even be concerned about the need to constantly maintain your pH with chemical buffers. However, I don't have any experience with either of these two issues.

I do think your idea for a "reverse flow" undergravel filter is a bit odd. It might be just the thing to keep any detritus from collecting beneath your substrate and I suppose that the direction of the flow of water past your rocks won't be of any consequence to the bacteria that are there to take advantage of the ammonia, etc.

Adding CO2 for the plants will also help to reduce the pH.

Hi, thank you for the replies! Do you really believe that the 1mm or under gravel is unsuitable? Like I said the rare times it's been ingested (once to my daily siphoning knowledge) it's been passed and I did buy this after some time ago on this forum people replied to me or someone else that a fine gravel is ok, like it nearly doesn't work with the undergravel plate...

I am honestly more concerned with the sand as in my three years of axolotl keeping have I ever had an issue with pebbles but I did read about sand 'building up' so you all may be seeing no harm to the sand while it really pulls 3 or so years or something like that off the creatures life.

I thought the extra light would be ok, especially with their hides and shade that will be given with floating plants, though it's only if the co2 doesn't completely do it's job... The plants are mostly doing great though so I shall avoid the fertilizer. And the reverse flow undergravel works great! It's just about putting large items and thicker gravel at one end so the pressure is great enough to have the water released up all along the filter plate!

Also the chemical agents are just because my local water has a high ph of 7.6 with low buffering capacity so creating an ample buffering capacity without making the water very alkaline can be tricky...

Yaimfat said:

I did read about sand 'building up' so you all may be seeing no harm to the sand while it really pulls 3 or so years or something like that off the creatures life.

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You didn't happen to read that in a book called "Keeping Axolotls" by Linda Adkins did you, by any chance?

It may have been but I somewhat doubt it, I have never heard that name nor perused any books about axolotls. My dad used to keep reptiles and amphibians and never had a problem with fine gravel as he too had heard of this. I think I read it in a book on amphibians at the university of sydneys library, though I can't be sure. I do however know that many animals, and I'm positive that would include amphibians, ingest small stones on occasion in order to improve their digestion, acting like a crusher in the bowels.

I'm sorry if this bothers other forum members but I see no issue with this gravel and until I read if an incident with such fine gravel or of problems with it I will not change my position. If my axies do fall ill I will nurture them and care for them and that will change my position but considering my previous experiences I'm not concerned.

Your sand looks fine; I have sand of the same consistency and have used it for many years.

As for the reverse flow undergravel, that's the only way I recommend people use an undergravel filter. Otherwise, as you've probably found out on your own, you just get a large amount of mulm under the plates.

Thank you for reassuring me on the gravel size, I thought it was fine. And this is actually my first experience with an undergravel filter, I was just looking for a silent and effective way to dissipate the flow from external filter, but it's worked a treat, apart from that the 4ft plate doesn't completely cover the base of a 4ft tank...

morphyrichards said:

You didn't happen to read that in a book called "Keeping Axolotls" by Linda Adkins did you, by any chance?

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Didn't mean to sound condescending there but I've never ever heard that sand can build up and take 3 years off the life of an animal. I'm struggling to make sense of that statement, I cant reconcile the idea that an axolotl would be unable to pass fine particles of sand when it passes a movement whereas much larger 1mm + pieces of gravel would not cause such a problem.

If the gravel you're using is fine, then it's fine, its the statement about sand causing blockages that I've got a problem with.

Hi, I understand where your coming from, and the three years was just a random number by all means however if this were to be true I think it would come down to the sands fine nature, allowing it not to get caught and maneuvered through the digestion but rather sinking as its so fine and cant be 'gripped' if you will, causing pockets of sand in the digestive tract. I only brought that up as a point as to why I don't believe my gravel is inappropriate, I still cant pinpoint where I read that... Don't be concerned, I highly doubt its an issue, its just as minimal an issue as my gravel could possibly be was my point all along.

Sorry to post something incorrect

Hi,
This is a beautiful tank set up, however, it sounds to me like you are a little more concerned about your plants health than your axolotls. I have several java ferns and anubius that grow great without any lighting. I don't know why you would want to have your axies hiding all day instead of enjoying their beautiful new habitat.

Also, am I the only one who is concerned with the fish being in there? Or am I missing something?

I just tore down my planted tank for an axoltol tank, and I think people overestimate how much plant fertalizers change the water parameters. I've never had an unstable ph while dosing fertalizers, or with plant substrate such as black flourite sand and I monitored all my parameters pretty heavily because I had a fish that was pretty important to me in the tank. Most plant people fertalizer KNO3, KH2P04, and a mix of micro nutrients, which shouldn't create an unstable tank. The only danger of dosing for plants is the KNO3, which raises nitrates, which are quickly sucked up by plants, and co2. It is my understanding through previous research regarding ph swings caused by co2 was that it would not harm your fish at all. I was actually very concerned about ph swings with co2, because I typically have very soft water and usually add crushed coral to help buffer the water. I think that as long as the gravel in his tank is safe for axoltol's there is nothing to worry about, the chemicals you would add for plants are typically perfectly safe, and would be found in natural conditions anyways.

'This is a beautiful tank set up, however, it sounds to me like you are a little more concerned about your plants health than your axolotls. I have several java ferns and anubius that grow great without any lighting. I don't know why you would want to have your axies hiding all day instead of enjoying their beautiful new habitat.

Also, am I the only one who is concerned with the fish being in there? Or am I missing something?'

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Hi, regarding my concern for the plants health it is because I have set it up completely axolotl friendly and now wish to help the plants, though the reason im so cautious is to avoid disturbing and stressing the axies. They hide alot of the day, as they always did when there was no light, but as the lighting is under 1W/ p.G (done for the axies comfort as this is extremely low light) they still come out during the day before retreating back to a hide. I only use Flourish Excel as I am aware of the 'possible dangers' of fertilizers though as carsona said I believe these would all be naturally occuring as is in the axolotls environment, however until I test the effect of the CO2 I cannot be sure whether any fertilisation will at all be necessary. If I were to add another light it would come to around 1.6W/ p.G, which is still very low light.

Regarding the fish they are White Clouds and are perfectly safe, they do not attack the axies gills, they are a coldwater fish, they are generally fast enough to avoid getting eaten and live generally in the top water of the tank, making them the perfect axie fish, the only problem with having them is on my wallet as I watch $3 go down my axies gullets every few days!

:happy: Looks good
Your unidentified pond plant looks to be the immersed form of Water Wisteria, it looks very different when grown out of the water.
Bacopa I'm afraid while it IS a cold water plant is one that likes light to be on the high side so no it won't look it's best in an axie tank. Liliopsis also prefers higher light but can sort of adapt to lower light levels.

LOVE the reverse flow setup :happy: very nice.

I have NEVER heard of plants raising pH and I've had a lot of planted tanks. Hubby grows aquarium plants as a business on the side and he's never heard of it either. The vallis you have will actually help lower pH as it sucks carbonates out of the water making the water softer and lowering the pH. As will the CO2.

I have 2 planted and aquascaped tanks running for my Axies at present. Low light, cold (19 degree) water, no fertilizer and no CO2 and they are growing just fine. I too selected my plants very carefully. Vallis, Javamoss, Ambulia, some swords, chain swords and a little true hairgrass in one tank in the only sunny patch in the tank.
There is no reason you can't have nice looking plants AND happy axies.
Good luck.

Daphnia is getting more and more difficult to find here :? If you have a good relationship the guys at a GOOD aquarium specialist store they may be able to get some in for you.
There may be suppliers online as well but depending on where they are and where you are you may find quarantine will be a real pain in the backside. Here in WA for example there is no way on Gods green earth I would get daphnia very far across the border That said you may find a nice colony in a near by lake or dam that you could utilize. Adding them from such an unknown source could be risky as far as disease and other nasties are concerned though.

'Your unidentified pond plant looks to be the immersed form of Water Wisteria, it looks very different when grown out of the water.'

Oh, ok, well maybe I should allow it to grow? It's good to hear the ferts probably aren't necessary and I'm glad you like the tank! The plants are all going great, except for the Bacopa, which I will remove soon. Might just stick with brineshrimp with daphnia being so hard to find. And the plNts can do this, I have read it several times though it depends on the plants, for example Vals can take carbon directly from the water column, heightening pH, and I have alot of Vals!

Do you, as an Aussie, know anywhere to get floating plants?! Nobody sells them.

I have wisteria in my tank, and i'm 99% sure that's what is in yours.

I have to agree with the others re the gravel. I would not use it in my tank. Of course it is hard to say for sure from the pics, but it sure looks bigger than 1 mm to me.

I have java ferns, anubias, wisteria, Christmas moss, elodea (floating) and 2 x java moss walls

I have my light on in 2 shifts of three hours, i use flourish excel, 2 x air stones, i dont add any Co2 or other nutrients, i rely on the axies to supply the Co2 and the airstones to encourage the gases transfer

I've found that the current set up is in the goldilocks zone - just right

The plants are growing well despite low light and nutrients, i dont get any algae to speak of, and the axies have good hides to go to when the lights are on.

Floating plants? As i said, i float a bunch of elodea in mine. This is simply cut stems i bought over 12 months ago for my daughters goldfish bowl (RIP goldies ) - what i like about the elodea, is it just keeps growing, it doesnt seem to care if it's floating or planted, and as it grows and the older parts get a bit scrappy, you simply snip the scrappy end off and feed it to the worm farm.

You can also get lots of floating plants on ebay.