Taking out substrate?

[PeterPan]

So, just curious how anyone else went about this (if you have). I started out my tank with sand as my substrate, but I am highly considering taking it out and just doing a bare-bottom tank. The cleaning will obviously be easier, but I am just not sure. My axie came from a tank with no substrate, and has gotten pretty use to the sand I think, so my questions are:

1. Will he be upset with the removal?
2. How do I go about removing all of the sand in regards to housing him in the time being, as well as the water (since a full water change would not be ideal)

thanks for any input

 

[Jcay727]

My advice, (from a novice) would be to house him in a bucket of your current tank water. Also try and keep 75%ish of the water in buckets or another tank if possible along with hides rocks etc to best preserve the good bacteria which cycles the tank. Remove the sand. refill as normal with the tank water rocks, etc. add the extra fresh water and add your axolotl.

Would basically be like a 20 - 25% water change and removal of the sand.

The only down side to removing sand I see is the bacteria needed for cycling grows on just about everything, tank walls, hides, rocks, plants, sand. You will inevitably loose some of this bacteria and may see adjustment in the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels in the tank for a short period.

As for your axolotl getting upset, the way I personally would look at it is if someone came into your house and took all the carpets and flooring, would you be upset? Granted eventually you'd become accustomed to the change. As their natural habitat is/was probably sand and silt based I feel it's best to keep axolotls or any other animal in an environment as similar as possible to their natural home. Some people feel the glass base of the tank can stress axolotl's as it's harder to grip to when walking than sank or rocks.

Hope my advice helps, also if any of the above is wrong, feel free to correct me

 

[auntiejude]

Why do you want to take the sand out? If it's just a cleaning issue you can try what I did - acrylic plate with sand siliconed down. Best of both worlds - texture for axie feet to grip and easy to celan.

Axies are pretty resilient, they don't really seem to be bothered about substrate the same way we humans are . I personally think they prefer something to grip onto, mine seem happier with my base now than the large smooth rocks we had before.

If you want to remove the sand without emptying your tank get a cat litter tray scoop, cover the scoop bowl with muslin or an old tea towel (old so it can be discarded and won't shed lint) and use that to scoop most of the sand out - water will drain through. You can then use your siphon to suck up the rest.