Aquarium 'lawn'

mrspeckles

mrspeckles

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Hi, this is my first post here but I've been reading this forum for a long time :)

I have had two axolotls in the past, which I regretfully had to sell when I moved house. Now that I've settled in, I have purchased another axolotl.

It is a male wild type, and his name is speckles :cool:

my question!

I currently have fine sand as my substrate, however I find it a pain to clean and it takes forever to settle. I don't like using pebbles rocks etc, due to the risks associated, and big rocks also make it hard to clean up waste.

I found an artificial auquarium 'lawn' or grass in my local pet shop. It looks pretty cool, and I figure it would be pretty easy to clean as it is joined as a sort of mat (just lift it up and clean etc)

I am worried however that it might be too hard/have sharp edges for my axolotl. It seems fairly soft, but I'm not sure. Do you think it would cause any harm? I'm not entirely sure how hardy an axolotls skin is, but I assume it is fairly fragile.

NOTE:
This is a similar product
Green Artificial Grass Lawn Aquarium Ornament 24.4"x17" | eBay
 
About the sand - how long have you had it ? Did you wash it before putting it in ?

When you do water changes, it helps to put a plate/saucer or something down so the water's energy isn't going directly to disrupt the sand.

During water changes, my water takes less than an hour to "settle down", probably less than half an hour (never really timed it).

Do you have a turkey baster ? What colour is your sand ? I have white and it's really easy to spot clean with the baster whenever I see something. And before I had live plants, that wasn't often at all, I fed only pellets back then (so no food mess to clean up) and there was pretty much nothing to clean up but her occasional poop.


I wouldn't bother with the fake lawn. If you have to, how about bare tank with maybe just a few big rocks ? Have you seen the slate-bottom tanks around on here, I'm not sure who did it, but it was totally awesome ! Without cutting it, I think you could get a similar sort of set-up by choosing good sizes and just cleaning on/around them.

I had fake plants in my tank for a while, and I always cringed when she landed on them, that lawn looks a little better, but it seems harder to clean to me than sand... so dense, you'd have to take it all out and rinse it and use tank water so as not to kill BB... and I'd wonder if their legs would poke through like a bog or something.
 
I had it for a day, in which I washed it several times before putting it in.

Thanks for the idea with the saucer. Mine took a lot longer to settle down, about a day, and I was hesitant to put my axolotl in until it had cleared a fair bit.

I invested in a turkey baster, which is really helpful, and I have white sand.

As you said, it is probably a better idea to stick with the sand or a bare bottom tank. Just throwing around ideas.

How much sand do you have in your tank? I have tried to keep mine to a small layer.
 
I used to have too much sand, but I've gotten it down to maybe... 3/4-1". It's enough to keep plants rooted, and I don't think I'll have the decomp problems I was having (it used to be 2" and stuff would get trapped in it, but with my new tank hood it looks like the light can penetrate the sand completely now, previously it was just ambient room light, and I think that contributed to decomp).

I have some river rocks over part of the sand, and I usually pour the water during changes on them, it works sort of like a plate. I don't usually remove the axolotl and she doesn't seem too bothered, I just pour the water in pretty slowly (and with slower, you should disturb the substrate less as well).

If you're feeding messy food, I've heard that some people put it in a sideways cup or even a feeding dish - just to keep it better contained to make cleanup easier.
 
I have a rather thick layer of sand to keep a heavily planted tank rooted. I've never had problems with sand settling, though. Cleaning can be a pain sometime, but not so much with a siphon. It gets pretty much everything. The only problem I have is that the preferred litterbox in their tanks are their deep hides. I have to lift those up :p

Though, I stopped feeding bloodworms for it being a pain. I couldn't just sit them in a cup either, because my guys require hand feeding. Lazy little suckers. Earthworms make cleanup a lot easier...

But there is actually a type of sand out there that is very fine and very heavy - it's the easiest for me to clean, because it's so thick. It comes moist and in a pack, and has instant cycling materials in it. Interesting stuff. It's kind of like this stuff, but freshwater:

aquariumsandlive.com – No Waiting Just Add Fish! Instant Cycling Guaranteed!

You should see if you can find that brand. It'll make cleaning much less of a pain, if using a feeding dish doesn't work and cleanup is still a pain. (Let's face it. It's their poop that's difficult to clean!)
 
Thanks for the ideas guys :) think I might try a different kind of sand, like the one you said esn.
 
The general rule for cleaning sand before putting it in a tank is clean it until you think its clean. Then clean it for another 10 minutes.
 
I just have fine reef sand in mine. When it's not being moved to a new tank, it settles down pretty quickly. I think it helps greatly to not pour new water directly on the sand.

I spot-clean with the turkey baster every day and it's pretty tidy and poop-free. :p
 
I wish I still had the bag. I don't think it was "reef sand" as in marine sand - that's just what the person at the store called the finer sand they had, I'm pretty sure it's just white silica sand.
 
Honestly I like my sand coarse. Close to the size of table salt, it might be just slightly bigger . I just collect mine from a lake shore as needed. I find it is less likely to pack down and cause axolotl waste breakdown problems. It also settles fast when I syphon out waste.
 
I've used pool filter sand for years (the same bag, even!). 50pounds cost me $7, and I have never had to replace any of it. My axolotl tank has had the same sand in it for close to 10 years.
 
After reading this I decided to invest in a new substrate myself. I was already in the process of remodeling my vivarium. I ended up buying some neat riverbed sand and it looks great in my tank, the guys are not in there yet but they will be excited. My main issue so far is that it has been a couple days so far and the water is still cloudy. I also got rid of the internal filter, and my waterfall idea with pvc (only wasted 7 dollars), and bought an external canister filter; the zoo med nano 501.
 
After reading this I decided to invest in a new substrate myself. I was already in the process of remodeling my vivarium. I ended up buying some neat riverbed sand and it looks great in my tank, the guys are not in there yet but they will be excited. My main issue so far is that it has been a couple days so far and the water is still cloudy. I also got rid of the internal filter, and my waterfall idea with pvc (only wasted 7 dollars), and bought an external canister filter; the zoo med nano 501.
 
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