A little worried about my water changes...advice please?

[Petersgirl]

Hey guys, just wondering if you feel this is okay.

I am doing an axolotlless cycle on a new 15 gallon tank that has been running for about a week. I am doing tests every other day and noting them until they stabilise. I have also placed substrate from another established tank in a net bag to help the process, as well as two generous doses of Quick Start (I know opinion on this is divided, but it was worth a shot, and it is axxie safe).

My axxie is currently in what I have dubbed a 'hospital tank,' which is basically a simple 3 gallon tank with nothing in it apart from water. She doesn't seem stressed out by having no substrate and of course I need to be able to clean it regularly. She also has a towel over it to ensure she isn't bothered by lights going on and off.

I have a couple of questions which are fairly basic. I was wondering what you guys thought.

1) I was a little surprised to read that one user (on a different site) believes that 100% water changes every week can lead to shock and the death of your axolotls. It scared me because Toothless's nursing tank is 100% water changed DAILY because she has no filtration system and because the volume of water is so low. Sometimes I have to change the water twice a day - for example, if she has gone to the toilet while I have gone out and her water looks a little mucky (I do hoover it with a baster but sometimes it just looks a little dirty). I know other users 100% water change tubs and other hospital tanks daily, so which has more clout? Should I be worried that the stress will kill my axxie? I dechlorinate the water every single time with Stress Coat + and of course she loves it fresh and cold.

2) About the water - I can't age it because I empty her water every morning, usually before University or Work, which means I can only float her in gently after adding the water for a short time. I could wait until later in the day but I worry her water will get dirty if I leave it. She seems very sensitive to ammonia, especially in this small a tank. I know some people say to age the water, but I have nowhere to store it. Is this a massive problem?

3) How will I know her other tank is cycled? Should it read:

0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
and less than 40 ppm Nitrate?

And for how long should I keep testing after I first get the results to ensure it really is safe for Toothless to live in?

 

[Alkylhalide]

What are you using to cycle the tank? I used guppies and as soon as it was stabalises added my axies and took out the guppies. The axies make so much more waste that they crashed the tank within a week! So i took them out and just left the water as is till it was normal and now they are back in and i have a cycled tank yay!

The tank wont cycle if there is nothing to cycle it

You will know its cycled once it has a spike in ammonia and nitrite and then they level off to 0 and you get nitrate values.

I have been doing 100% daily water changes for all my axolotls in tubs for almost two months with no problems at all.

As far as letting your water sit you should really let it age 24-48hours before using it. I use buckets for the tanks and pop bottles for my tubs so i always have tons of aged dechlorinated water for them.
All i do is as soon as i empty the bottles i fill them right back up so thag way they age at least 24hours before i need it again

 

[Alkylhalide]

As for storage i literally just have 2l pop bottles laying all over the house heh. But i have 30babies and two juveniles so it takes a lot of water everyday.

 

[Petersgirl]

Thanks Alkyhalide! That's wonderful to hear! She seems okay with the daily changes and, to be fair, at least I know her water is clean and her water parameters are okay. I just need to be steady with the halfway tub as I keep accidentally catching her toes while moving her. Poor thing! I will look into ageing the water in pop bottles as I only need around 1 gallon of water (4 litres or thereabouts) which is around 2 pop bottles full (this is because I only fill the water around a third full because it's easier for her to swim up and get air if she needs it and she still has lots of floor space).

I had her in the tank for two days before I realised it wasn't cycled and moved her to the fresh tank - there was a little poop and bloodworm left behind to help kickstart the cycle. I also added some of her 'poopy water' (from a water change) to add a little more ammonia.

Here are my parameters for the last few days in the cycling tank. I test every other day and if any of the parameters are high I empty a small amount of water (20% or so) to ensure that the levels go down. I was adding Quick Start after changes but my brother and Dad used it all on their new tanks! >.<

11/04/13:
AMMONIA 8 ppm (yikes!)
NITRITE 2.0 ppm
NITRATE 20 ppm

13/04/13:

AMMONIA 4 ppm
NITRITE 2.0 ppm
NITRATE 20 ppm

15/04/13

AMMONIA 0.25 ppm
NITRITE 5.0 ppm
NITRATE 5.0 ppm

17/04/13:

AMMONIA 0.25 ppm
NITRITE 5.0 ppm
NITRATE 40 ppm

How does this sound? Any recommendations?

 

[Alkylhalide]

It looks like you are on the right track anyways! My only tecommendation is since there are no fish in your tank you can completely omit water changes. There is no need to dilute the ammonia if there is nothing to kill. It will help get it cycled quicker

Just everyday add some poop to the tank to make it seem like there is something producing waste and keep checking the levels

I would wait till you have 3-4concecutive days of 0ammonia 0 nitrite and under 40ppm of nitrate before addingyour axies and just test daily after they get settled for a few days just to be sure your tank is actually cycled and not joking like my tank was! Lol i had a "cycled" tank till i added my axies and then it was like "haha just kidding" and i had to take them out

Mine took 6weeks to cycle 4weeks with guppies one week with axolotls and then a week with just poopy water everyday. But i was doing daily water changes because i had fish in there.

 

[Petersgirl]

Thanks! Your information is absolutely invaluable! I will be looking to stop taking all the water out - to be honest it'll be a relief >.< I must also start adding poopy water everyday as, at the moment, there isn't a lot dirtying up the tank (it sounds weird saying this - normally we're like 'how can we get this dirt/poop/ammonia OUT of the tank?' Lol!)

Haha! My tank will probably be all like, 'ha, fail!' after two days of me thinking it's balanced. Thanks so much for the experienced eye - I've never done this before and Toothless is my first axxie. She even got her very first prawn tonight as a treat (I'm trying some different food now and again for a bit of variety, but she mainly eats worms). It's great to have your help

 

[Alkylhalide]

Im definately far from experienced hehe echo and texas are my first axies too and i had never cycled a tank before. It took a lOT of questions and research and headaches and stressing out and having mini heart attacks but im the kind of person that needs to know exactly how something happens. So until i understood why i was doing what i was doing and whAt exactly happens during a nitrogen cycle it all made sense to me!

Your readings from the 17th shows that you are definately getting there. You had your ammonia spike and it is going down and you currently have a nitrite spike.
I heard nitrite is the longest wait to get the bacteria to turn nitrite into nitrate. I got some help though from an established tank when i got desperate after my nitrite went off the chart WItH my axies in there! And it got my tank finished in a week.

Without fish in a tank(if you can produce enough ammonia as though there was fish in there) you dont need to worry about diluting the toxins so it cycle faster

 

[layna]

You should really be ageing your water as the chlorine in it has a bad effect on axies health, i have a bucket that i fill to the top and add 'API stress coat +' to, then it just sits there until its empty, it lasts me days and days

 

[Petersgirl]

You definetely have way more experience than me Alkylhalide, especially with all your wee ones! Sometimes I find one juvie a handful, even though she's quite chilled (her Mommy is not though! ). Thanks for that information - for some reason, I've really struggled to find that kind of 'day to day' info on cycling - it tends to be kind of 'you'll get an ammonia spike, then you'll get these results and you're done!' Leaving me a bit like, 'err..okay, that makes sense...but what happens in between?' and gawking at my test kits like, 'the colours are pretty...but what the heck is happening to my tank? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?' (Doing a Jack Skellington from NBC, LOL!)

Hey Layna, welcome to the discussion! I followed Alkylhalide's lead and got hold of two large bottles which I've dosed with Stress Coat +. They're sitting aging for tomorrow as we speak! I realised that, if 5 mls will treat 40 litres, 40 litres = 8 Gallons, therefore, 1 gallon is around 0.6 mls (5/8 = 0.6), so my 1 gallon nursing tank needs 0.6 mls of treatment while my larger tank needs around 6.25 mls of Stress Coat. Thank goodness I have an old clean syringe from when I had to treat my mice!
Just in case anyone else is having trouble dosing, 0.6ml = 1 gallon = around 4.5 litres, (I round up to 5 litres because of physics training) so just multiply 0.6ml by gallons needed to treat in order to figure out the dose. I struggled with it because maths was not my strong point!

I also had to put up a sign warning people not the drink the salamander water and wrote on the bottles - you never know! :blob:

 

[layna]

Haha I hate the tiny measurement but the lid does come with 1ml and 5ml measurements on so that's easier
I too had a nightmare cycling and don't know how I managed to get there in the end! I like the comment "the colours are pretty" that's all I used to think too haha!
I've just bought another tank too so I'm cycling again but I think I've got the hang of it now and I use pure household ammonia for my ammonia source.
Thankfully this time round I have an established tank now and a spare sponge filter that has been hanging around in there so I can just swap the sponges everyday to introduce the 'good bacteria' (or so I hope!)
God I really HATE cycling :O

 

[Petersgirl]

Haha yeah! It's bad when you look at a highly scientifically accurate liquid test sample and all you can think is, 'that's a nice colour for the downstairs loo wallpaper!' >.<