# cold water npt?



## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Is there anything special I would need to do for a cold water npt for my axolotls? I have the plants and everything for low light and cold water, but I was wondering if I should get a special plant soil or anything?

Also any tips would be super appreciated, as this will be my first planted tank. Lol


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

You could use organic miracle grow potting mix, filter out the large mulch pieces and this time of year this would be kind of hard to do but to avoid the ammonia spike, you could wet it and let it dry about 5 times to leach the ammonia spike out when you first introduce it to the tank. Keeping it inside in the heat might actually be fine if you use a large tub to spread it in.

Moss actually grows better in cold water tanks. A lot of times the heat from betta takes don't agree with some plants and especially mosses. I have learned I have to acclimate moss to my shrimp tank then move it over to the betta tanks after it is growing in my water.

You would want to look up and make sure they won't eat your plants and that they don't dig in the substrate. Waking up or coming home to a tank that has been dug up and is muddy water is not a pleasant experience, I've had it happen with a pleco we used to have. I'm not familiar with that species other than to know they need cold water and I can't afford a chiller to keep them alive. They are so stinking cute, if they won't eat the plants you should totally plant your tank for them.

An alternative to using soil (or with it), you could dose ferts in the tank. I use PPS-pro in our tanks daily, we chose those because it's daily and you don't have to remember some weird rotation of dry ferts every day, every week. Make sure that they are compatible with excel in case you have an algae explosion, if not, have a back up plan to fix the algae. I'd just plant it as heavily as you can and still be comfortable for the cuties, that usually cures algae issues to heavily plant from the get go.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

The plants I have should be fine, they are pond plants, I believe she said they were twisty val? I could be wrong lol I will get a hold of her and ask. But she has them in with her lotls and they are fine. 

As far as digging... ive never seem that, but they do tend to sort of all bug out occasionally, and that kicks up a lot of sand... maybe I won't do an npt... I could just plant them in the sand and do ferts?


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

Well, if you have a thick enough sand-cap with large and fine grain sand over your soil that should prevent 'muddy' water. Or so I've been told.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

yes, but how thick is too thick for the sand cap?I have 6 adults axolotls in the tank right now and they do bug out and kick up a lot of sand so I'm just worried that they'll do that when I'm not paying attention and it will end up uncovering the dirt underneath but I've got a lot of rooting plants in there so I don't want to have the sand too sick so that the roots can't reach all the way down in the potting soil.


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## Joshaeus (Dec 8, 2013)

From what I understand, axolotls tend to accidentally uproot plants. Thus, if you try to keep axolotls in a planted tank, I would advise either potting them, or putting some relatively large rocks around their bases in order to prevent the salamanders from repeatedly uprooting the plants.


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## srf312 (Sep 2, 2013)

i'm going to try an axolotl planted tank, but i think i'll pot most of my plants. with my luck, the lotls would uproot all my plants:|


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Hmm... could I pot and then bury the pots in the sand? Or would that have the same effect? Lol I'm just trying to avoid the look of a bunch of pots just sitting around in my tank.


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## Joshaeus (Dec 8, 2013)

I'd be surprised if burying the pots was not helpful...


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## srf312 (Sep 2, 2013)

if you got plants and moss that you could tie to driftwood and rocks, the lotls would have a harder time tearing it up.. or so i think


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Maybe I'll try potting them and then burying them in sand... do I have to pot them in anything special, or will just plain sand work?


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

So this is what I came up with, what do guys think? I found some pond plant substrate that isn't soil based, it's actually little rocks that aren't big enough to cause an impaction issue, then planted the plants in that and capped it with sand. 

I want to get some sort of centerpiece and tie moss to it, but I'm not sure if I want wood or a rock... hmm


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