Ammonia help

vampybabe

vampybabe

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Sorry to keep asking so many questions on here but im panicing a bit! Ive come home today and my water is really cloudy, no idea why! I have sand, I clear out any uneaten food and poop etc... Ive just done an ammonia test and for the first time its registering that there is some, normally i get a reading of 0 and now its a pale beige colour so around 0.6 Im not sure what would of caused this. I have a small plant that im thinking of taking our as its slowly turning brown, cant remember the name of it but it was one recommended on here. I have 3 babys abour 6 months old and I feed them frozen bloodworm, I did buy some frozen mysis from the shop but they dont seem to like them as much as the bloodworm.
Not sure what I should do. Im doing weekly 20% water changes and I even changed 20 % yesterday because I noticed it starting to cloud a bit. Filter still seems to be working fine too.
I just want my axies to be happy and the way its going ill not even be able to see them in the tank :(
 
Hi I dont know much but is your tank cycled?...
 
lol me too... Maybe your cycle has just started and you need to do daily water changes to keep the ammonia levels down untill your cycle is complete I think :rolleyes:... How long have you had the tank set up with your axolotls in it...
 
Tank had sat there for a week and I did regular water tests, the axies have been in there for just over a couple of weeks. Im topping the water up every other day cos its evaporating quite a bit.
Ive just this sec taken the plant out.
 
Hmm i think your cycle may have started... Someone with more experience should be able to help more than me... I think you should test your other parameters if you havnt already and post them... If your cycle has started then you need to do around a 20% daily water change... But as i said someSomeone with more experience should be able to help more than me and give you some more accurate help :happy:
 
Random question Haley, did you get your axies from a breeder in kent? if so we have relations lol
 
lol that would be cool if we did... I got mine in eltham from someone off of gumtree.... :happy:
 
vampybabe said:
Honestly havent a clue, the whole cycle thing confuses me
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Hello. There is a really good explanation of cycling in this older post, the cloudy water might be because your tank is still cycling and the cloudiness is the initial bloom of infusoria, bacteria and little microscopic thingumybobs.
Just on the off-chance does the water smell funny?

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-beginner-newt-salamander-axolotl-help-topics/f48-axolotls-ambystoma-mexicanum/f57-axolotl-free-all/65321-nitrogen-cycle-diagram-kinkyoto.html

Weird that your plant went brown though, living plants are normally beneficial because they absorb nitrates so the fact that it went brown might mean something else has gone wrong. Where did you get the water from for your tank? Was it tap water? Did you de-chlorinate it? Do you have a light on your tank? If so have you got it on for too long? Try doing a google for "brown algae on plants" and see if anything that comes up is similar to your problem.

Thats my best ideas, like Hayley this might be one for someone with a bit more experience.
 
Haley!! looks like we are related lol. Thats exactly where I got mine from, Rachel in Eltham, I got 3 from her. cool!!! :) I liked her pool in the back garden :)

Steve, Ta Ill have a look. Ive just had a sniff :) smells just like my goldfish tank use to, not like plain old water but has an odour to it. Water is tap water that I treated and left standing for a day. No light, I disconnected it before I put everything in the tank. The plant is a mystery, no idea why it started dying, I maybe need to get a different plant, it was putting bits of it in the water all the time, didnt like it. I need to find some moss maybe?
 
vampybabe said:
Tank had sat there for a week and I did regular water tests, the axies have been in there for just over a couple of weeks. .
Click to expand...

This just occurred to me, did you have anything in your tank when it was sat there for a week other than the plant?
If not then your tank definitely didn't cycle and its happening now. There is a good chance that a dangerous chemical called ammonia which comes from your axies poo, etc. is building up in your tank. Maybe you should try doing another water test, it's possible you will need to do a 50% water change with de-chlorinated water, and then keep doing daily water changes using decholrinated water until the cycle completes.

Basically cycled means that your tank has 'good bacteria' which break down the harmful ammonia into relatively harmless 'nitrates' which gets taken in by plants (basically nitrates are plant fertilser) and taken out of the tank by you doing water changes. Trouble is the good bacteria take some time to get established in a fish tank (2 weeks or so)

Another question for you, do you have any sort of filter in your tank?
 
Sounds like your tank is definitely cycling. You will need to step up your water changes, I'd say to do a 50% change now (because your ammonia is high) and then return to 20% tomorrow to get through this spike. The advice given about getting a full set of parameters is good - do you have a set yet? What are you using to treat your water? The plant could have been affected by the ammonia spike as well.
 
HI
Ok, really panicking now, Nitrite test has gone bright dark pink where as the other day it was a light pinky purple :( and the nitrate is the same
Ive got a about 10 ltrs of standing treated water in my room I can use for changing now. Is it ok to use straight tap water with the aqua safe stuff in with to change now? I havent got enough water that Ive had standing.
So if I change 50% now and then 20% daily after that will everything be ok. They seem happy enough at the moment but Im really worried now.

Oooh Ive got a filter :)
 
oooh Ive got a 5lt bottle of mineral water, is that any good?
treatments Ive got lying around but dont know whats safe to use.
Interpert bioactive tapsafe
Tetra Safe start
Waterlife Bacterlife friendly bacteria (speeds up nitrogen cycle apparently)
 
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Yeah, use all that to change the water now and don't worry about letting it stand, the ammonia is far worse than any leftover bits of chloramine to your axies. The most important thing is about getting the ammonia back down to safe levels.

Your going to need to do 50% water change now, let it stand for 10 mins and then do another test, if its still pinkish then do about a one third water change again. Keep this up until your ammonia level is safe again.

You will then need to do 20% water changes every day and keep testing, every day at first and then every other day until everything stabilises.
 
Right, axies are out of the tank in my best giant cooking pan, the things you use to improvise! and Ive changed just over 50 % of the water, sands gone everywhere so just waiting for it to settle and Ill do another test :)
thank you so much, I would of been so upset if anything had happened to them :(
 
vampybabe said:
No light, I disconnected it before I put everything in the tank. The plant is a mystery, no idea why it started dying,
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Plants need light to live, that might be why the plant died... I have light on mine for about 12 hours a day.
 
The room is fairly well lit. even though I keep my curtains closed (keeping the tank cool) a fair bit of light still gets in so I would of thought enough for the plant. My light kicks out alot of heat and im having trouble keeping the temp down as it is :(

Ive just tested the water, ammonia levels gone down but the nitrite is still coming out a dark pink
 
cool, cheers Neo :)
They should do an Axolotl keeping for dummies handbook! Theres one for everything else :)
 
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