Yay, sand!

[ellenant]

I finally managed to get some sand in my tank.
My two axolotl Max and Suzie both miss all their limbs
(see the axolotl limb regeneration threat) and so they
were pretty much slipping around on the bare glass.
Now I provided some foothold for them...
I bought 1.5kg bright red sand from the pet shop,
washed it for ages until it was mostly clean...
(water only minimally fogged)
The axolotl really enjoy it and really can move about
much easier now.
The only problem is, their axolotl pellets have
the same colour as the sand!
So they have to rely on smell alone to find the food...

Finally some grip!

 

[ellenant]

New setup- Yay, sand!

Here is the tank in whole view--
with bright red sand!
It is the red sand that is sold for reptiles.
I gave it an extra good rinse and I nearly had
no cloudiness in the tank!

Hidey- hole!

 

[LeanneT]

that looks cool Ellen, wish
I could find some coloured sand!
Your axies are doing so well! congrats

 

[ellenant]

Hi Leannne,
do you have an "animates" store next to you?
They sell the red coloured sand there in the reptile section.
It is 14$.
I saw it and thought it would look awesome together
with my white axolotl.
You just have to give the sand a very good wash because
there is so much dust for it.
I washed the sand for nearly 45mins...
But it was worth it!

 

[Abrahm]

Do you still have the bag for this sand? Oftentimes the sand sold in reptile stores is some kind of "calci-sand." It's a calcium salt and it will slowly dissolve in your tank and raise your pH. It's usually best to avoid these sands because when you do water changes you will drop the pH (as tap water will generally be lower pH.) This can be stressful to your axolotls.

 

[ellenant]

No....
I dont have the bag of that sand anymore.
It was a pretty pathetic bag, saying
"Real middle australian desert sand, ideal for your bearded dragons".
With a picture of the bearded dragon.
It did not say anything about calcium in the sand....
(I also dont have a test kit at the moment, because
I am running a bit low on budget)
I do still my water changes every day after I have to
cycle the tank with animals in it.
The axies dont look stressed at the moment (I compare
with the picture of the stressed axolotl on the axolotl.org page).