Unusual Aquascape Concept

[Astrolotl]

I'm working on a black/white concept for my 55 gallon I have planned. This is a rough painting of what I want it to look like. I know it's kind of hard to see what's what because of the color scheme, so I labeled the more important parts.

1 & 2 are hides, 1 being closer to the front & 2 being closer to the back.
3 & 4 are platforms, 3 being in about the mid ground & 4 being in the very back.
5 is a stalk of live black bamboo that 1 & 4 are attached to

I originally didn't think plants would look good in it, but I think they help break up the stark contrast of the black on white a little bit.
I'm not really sure how well the substrate will stay divided, but I plan on using acrylic strips to keep it separate.

I'm also not sure if an axolotl would use a platform very much. If anything they might land on it by accident, but Latté always liked to sit on things so maybe they would.

I don't want to use any rooted plants because those always get dug up and it's a pain to have to re-plant them every day. I just want to have a lot of moss balls, anubias, and moss.

The shapes of the hides and platforms are inspired by ink dropped into water. I'm going to commission a ceramics artist on Etsy to make them for me.

Also this tank is going to be a tribute to my recently passed lotl, Latté. The lotls that will go in here will be a white albino named Milk and a melanoid named Espresso, because milk and espresso make a latté.

 

[dannyyyallenn]

Ever thought of multicolored aquarium sand? A good jetblack pack of it and pearl white pack of it could meet your needs. Yeah idk what to say about keeping it from mixing. Since Axos like to play in the sand some it could get pretty mixed up. Acrylic sounds like a good idea but there's always the chance that the surface sand will drift around and mix anyways. Bamboo would totally look cool there but idk how practical platforms would be with an axolotl. Cool design tho

 

[Astrolotl]

It might be cool to see what the sand looks like mixed together.
Even if the lotls don't use it I can always plant a bunch of moss on it and maybe the shrimp could get up there if I decide to get shrimp too.

 

[dannyyyallenn]

True. If you do it right the sand could settle really well and just be a swirl of black and white, but it could also mix down to a smaller level and come out grey. And that's an idea, shrimp would keep the tank relatively clean too, and would be good for any type of live plants you keep in your tank. The plants will thrive with some extra carbon dioxide give off from the shrimp as well as will feed off of their waste.

 

[STCxB]

This is my albino, Pearl, using the ledge under the larger ledge in their tank (my other axie also uses it but I don't have pictures of her doing it). I have a 55 gal too and I think you'd want to make the hides slightly larger if you wanted them to use them frequently.

The bamboo I'd be concerned about growing and then expanding and damaging the hides, also.

I've had many ghost shrimp in my tank and one way or another, they always disappear. I'm not sure if my newest ones are just really good at hiding or if they became a nice snack.

 

[STCxB]

Here's an image of the full tank, so you can get a sense of where that is and what the scale of everything is.

 

[Astrolotl]

I'm really awful at doing technical drawings to scale, haha! What dimensions would you recommend to be comfy for an axolotl?

I didn't even think about the bamboo expanding. I'd still like to have it in there, maybe I'll just put it in the corner.

I have a seperate 20 gallon I can breed shrimp in if the axolotls get good at hunting them.

Thanks for the pictures! I really like the setup of your tank and I think I have a better idea of scale now.

 

[STCxB]

That little hole in the column is probably 2" wide and 4" high and the ledge is about 2.75" high and maybe 9" radius (about ¼ circle shape). I wouldn't go smaller than a 2" hole if you want them to use it. I'd probably say 2.5" is pretty good. I always get nervous that the axies will hurt their gills when they use the small hole in the column but they seem to like it!

For the bamboo, maybe consider planting it on top of a hide so that it can root and then grow upwards and it looks like it belongs a little more than if you just stuck it in a corner.

I'm glad you like the tank! I need to do a little writeup on how I did it sometime in the near future. Haha

 

[Astrolotl]

Cool, thanks! I'll save those measurements for my next work up of the tank.

planting the bamboo on top of a hide is a good idea too.

If you do ever get around to doing a write up, I would definitely read it!