Question: Cloudy water after cleaning

[Egglebear]

I feel like a bit of an idiot.
This morning I took my baby axies (3 and half inches long) out of their 3 ft tank to give it a clean.

I have put them in small Tupperware boxes (separately) and covered them with a dark blanket, but now I feel like I can not put them back in the tank. The water looks too murky if I look longways down the tank.
I do not know if these particles will harm them in any way.

I think this may be because I have removed some sand which is now floating around, or because I have cleaned a bit too vigorously.

I'm thinking of changing my substrate to gravel or sand now because I'm having problems with cleaning in between my slate rocks, also I feel like the rocks although hard to swallow are uncomfortable for the axies to lounge on.

Do I need to get every last little bit of waste in the tank (which is pretty much what I have done) or can I leave a small percentage of it to decompose in the tank?

When should I put my babies back in? (they haven't got much room in the Tupperware boxes.)
I have included a picture from the side view of the tank.

My plan at the moment is to leave the filter on full blast for 24hrs, and keep the axies in the Tupperware boxes until the tank is clear again.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Is your substrate just rocks at present?
If so, it looks like there was a fair amount of trapped waste that has now been stirred up. Large rocks etc do hide all sorts of stuff, and as you may have found have become a nightmare to clean out. Ideally all waste should be removed as it will end up polluting the water, and this will lead to your axolotl's health deteriorating.
I would not use gravel as it is potentially dangerous to your axolotl. They are a bit daft at eating and will gulp it in while feeding or snuffling about. Sand looks good, this will need regular ( daily at least) spot cleaning and weekly 20% water changes. The easiest option is a bare bottom...its what I use.
If the gunk floating around is only waste and not sand then leave your filter running ( you do not switch it off do you? ). Give the water a chance to clear, do a water test for your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels . If all is good then put them back in.

 

[Egglebear]

Yes it is just slate rocks which I thought would be a good idea, so they don't swallow anything, but yes I think I have just made things harder for myself.
I'm going to change to sand and just have a few rocks dotted about. With such a large tank and so many rocks it took me two hours to clean everything.
I only turned it off when I was cleaning around it, I've done a ammonia test and it was good.

 

[Jennewt]

When you say "clean everything", can you explain what you mean? There are good kinds of cleaning and bad kinds of cleaning. Removing debris under rocks is good. Scrubbing the rocks themselves is bad. The reason it is bad is that it removes the biofilm, and the biofilm on the glass, rocks, and filter is where the beneficial bacteria live and work.

I agree that the cloudiness was probably caused by the stirring-up of dirt. If you did clean off all the rocks, etc., I'd recommend continuing to monitor the ammonia level in the water for the next week or two. Most likely, the cloudiness itself does not pose a threat to your axies.

 

[Egglebear]

Yes I did scrub the glass because I thought algae would grow otherwise, but I wont do that again.
I didn't scrub the rocks as much, but I could feel they had a film on them, so I may have disturbed it a bit.
I'm going to put them back in then because the ammonia level is good and I can't leave them in a small box any longer.
I will continue to monitor the levels, I have now taken most of the rocks out so I can see where uneaten food and waste is and I will keep it as clean as possible.
Thanks for the advice guys
I will keep checking this post to see if there is anything I've missed
xxx