Advice on maintenance?

[uppy2]

My 5 year old axolotl died. I got a new one and need better maintenance instructions. I have sand at the bottom which I had never tried.

When I added him in the tank was at
7.8ph
0ppm ammonia
0ppm nitrite
5.0ppm nitrate

It's been 4 days and I haven't done any water changes and now it's at
7.6ph
.5 ppm ammonia
0ppm nitrite
5.0 ppm nitrate

hes been very active since I got him and I thought that was just his personality but now I'm worried he's stressed from the ammonia. His first day he dropped several spermatopheres which my last one never did

 

[wolfen]

with the ph drop check your kh and gh, make sure the water oxygenation is adequate/good, make sure to turn the sand over regularly (best done before water change)
add 2g/l non-iodised salt to help protect against ammonia spikes (I assume the tank was properly cycled), was the sand added before or after the tank was cycled?

 

[uppy2]

with the ph drop check your kh and gh, make sure the water oxygenation is adequate/good, make sure to turn the sand over regularly (best done before water change)
add 2g/l non-iodised salt to help protect against ammonia spikes (I assume the tank was properly cycled), was the sand added before or after the tank was cycled?

What kind of test kit do I need to check kh and gh? I've got good oxygen from an air stone. The tank was cycled, i kept it going after my first one died and waited awhile to get this one incase any bacteria needed to get cycled out. I added the sand in after, the same day I got the axolotl.

 

[wolfen]

unless the bacteria was kept fed during the interval your bacteria colony could have shrunk and might need to be monitored to ensure that the ammonia and nitrites don't become excessive.
bacteria will inhabit the sand helping to reduce nitrogen compounds, by adding after a cycle it will increase biological filtration rather than relying on the sand for biological filtration as would be the case if added before a cycle, be aware though because the sand will share bacteria removal can still damage the cycle.
the best way to measure kh and gh is with liquid drops although test sticks can also be used, with the liquid drops it is 1° for every drop it takes to change the tests colour where as stick tests just have a colour chart ie.. 0-300 (to work out degrees divide number by 17.9 for example 180 would be 10°)