Keeping plants in sand

[bryce]

I have just got a larger 4 foot tank and i got sand and now i'm wondering how to get the plants to stay in the sand and whether they wil grow in sand or not. and also the guy at my fish shop said that keeping on sand is bad because sand kills the bacteria so i would like poeples opionions on that too

 

[jay]

For the plants they should still grow and a way to keep them down is first put them in the sand and get some rocks that are bigger then your axies head obviously to hold the plants down. Say about three rocks per plant. That way your plants will stay in and it might look alright too .

I am not sure about the sand killing bacteria thing seeing as sand isn't alive but if it does kill it somehow it shouldn't do too much damage. Sand is the best substrate for axies so i wouldn't worry about it.

 

[karrie]

I know that sand can get gas bubbles trapped in it. Live plants are good because the roots will help break the bubbles you can stir the sand up a little once a week to break them up. As for killing bacteria I don't know sorry.

 

[annmarie]

Well, certainly microorganism grown on sand partcles. My shrimps are always "cleaning" and "foraging" on sand particles...Yeah, pretty sure it doesnt kill bacteria...Algae definatly can grow on it, unless you have some crazy anti-bacterial coated sand and i doubt that. when you do water changes don't forget to stir up sand, because if you dont have a lot of plants rooting in it or snials burrowing in it, sand can compact and make a gas pocket or a bacterial pocket.
There are some plants that grow well with a sand substrate, some without. Just like you research when you get an axolotl, you should also research your plants. There are many that can live in a cold water sandy axolotl home. as for keeping them down, if you get a plant that throws out long roots, one only needs to place rocks on them until they get a hold in the substrate. if it is a non-rooting plant, either let it float or keep it down with multiple large and heavy rocks. The plants with small or no root structure easily can move when axolotl wants to play with them.
Really, dont take much of what pet shop people seriously, some make up wonderful tall tales.

 

[jennifer]

Plants can certainly grow in sand, the only issue is whether your axolotls create enough "turbulance" in the tank to uproot the plants. I guess it depends on your axies' activity level and how well the plants are secured in place.

Regarding bacteria, your pet shop source is (as is commonly the case) half-right. Beneficial bacteria actually grow very well in fine sand. The problem is that if you have a THICK layer of sand, the oxygenated water cannot get down to the bottom layer of sand. So the sand down below can become anaerobic (lacking oxygen), and this is bad. Anaerobic conditions cause swamp-like decay (nasty, stinky, black stuff), rather than normal aquarium-type decay (breakdown of wastes by beneficial bacteria). There are a couple of ways to avoid this problem. One is to keep only a rather thin layer of sand (less than an inch (2.5 cm)). Another is to have some method of stirring the sand periodically. Some snails, shrimps, etc do this for you. But of course this also limits your ability to root plants into the sand. You might want to consider using only a thin layer of sand, but rooting the pots in deeper (preferably somewhat porous) containers of sand. This would also help with the problem of axolotls uprooting them.