Cycling with axolotls in, how many water changes?

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Noey Hart

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Hi everyone.
I had to cycle my tank with my axolotl in, because I had a problem with time and my freshly new tank is not ready yet, so that's why they are in a temporary tank which is cycling. Stupid, I know I should have learn about cycling before but now it's done so my question is : How many water should I change ? It's an approx. 92 Liters
Everyday I am chaging about 25 Liters and I was wondering if it was too much? Because since 2 days I am starting to have nitrites and high nitrates in there. It's cycling since 7th august
 
So you're trying to cycle the tank with your axolotls in it?
You need to test the water everyday for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite need to stay under 0.5 ppm because those are very toxic to axies. You have to change as much water as needed to keep ammonia and nitrite under those levels. So for example if you test the water and there's 1.0ppm nitrite then you have to change more than 50 % of the water to get the level under 0.5 ppm.

Also because this isn't clear to everyone: do not add ammonia in a tank where there are living animals. Ammonia needs to be added when you're cycling the tank without axies in it.
 
Hm, this is not what I asked ?
I don't think you have read my question before answering.
I know how the cycling of a tank works, I am testing the water everyday and doing daily water changes. I asked how many water should I change, if I changed enough or too much.
 
OK... I did read your question.
Without knowing your exact water parameters I can't answer how much you need to change. You test the water so you'll know how much to change like I said in my previous post.
 
We don't count in "ppm" here, I don't know what that means. So I can't tell you the parameters, I guess the higher it is, the more I should change the water then.
 
Do you use mg/l? That is so close to ppm (parts per million) that it's practically the same thing when measuring aquarium stuff.
Yes basically the higher the measurements are the more you need to change.
 
Yes, it's mg/L. Today I had No3 : between 100-250 and No2 : 5
I didn't had any nitrites and really low nitrates until now, I did an almost 50% change today
Also, I tested my tap water and I already have nitrates in there. It's almost 50 mg/L so is there anything I can do for that ?
 
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Nitrate needs to be under 40 and nitrite needs to be under 0.5. So both of those readings were very high. 50 % water change won't be enough to bring the nitrite down to safe levels. If those readings are correct you need to do like a 90% water change.

Have you tested for ammonia?

What kind of test kit are you using?

Try testing your tap water again or even take it to your local fish store for testing. Maybe there just went something wrong with the test. Tap water doesn't usually have such high nitrates. Do you have city water or your own well? If the nitrates really are that high in your tap water then you need to get water that doesn't have them in it. Like buy water from the store and use that for water changes.
 
I don't have a test for amonia, I have testing strips, i'll test the tap water again when I'll get a complete set, maybe those strips aren't accurate. But I don't think my mom would allow me to buy a hundred of bottled water each week, I heard they weren't good either for axolotls.
I don't understand what you mean by "city water". I just get water from my sink, like everyone else I guess
 
Ammonia is very important to test especially when you're trying to cycle the tank with axolotls in it. Right now I'd suggest removing the axolotls from the tank and letting it cycle with out axies in it. You can keep the axies in big plastic containers with 100% daily water changes.

By city water I mean does your water come from a big place that provides water for the whole city? Or do you have your own well where only your house gets the water?

Some fish stores sell water to be used in aquariums.
 
Hm, will try that thank you. And the water is the same for everyone, why ? I thought about rain water but don't know how I could manage to make it clean
 
There are usually pretty strict regulations with city water so I doubt the nitrates would be that high. If the water came from your own well then there could be something wrong with the water. But try to test it later again to see if you get the same result as before.

If you're going to cycle the tank with out axies in it then you need to get some pure ammonia to feed the bacteria. Try to keep the ammonia level at about 4 mg/l and once the cycle can convert that 4 mg/l ammonia into 0 ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours it's ready.
 
Can I find the ammonia at the aquarium/pet store ? Or I use regular ammonia from any store?
I will test it again and will test it with the complete set that I'll bought. Should I go for the Jbl complete set or Sera aqua test kit ?
Also can I add plants in the tank right now or will it crash the cycle?
 
Plants should be perfectly find. The ammonia you can get from a hardware store, you want janitorial ammonia that is 100% ammonia with nothing added (it's diluted in water but that's it). I don't know anything about the Jbl or the Sera brands, but if you can find it the API Freshwater Master Test Kit is highly recommended.
 
I did fish-in cycling for my tanks including my axolotl's, but it's hard if you can't have constant watch over the tanks. You should test the tank daily for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and make sure that the ammonia and nitrites stay under .5 I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I had 2 or 3 plants and I was given a sponge from a healthy aquarium to seed the bacteria, but all that does is make things quicker. Also, my tank never cycled until I changed from the small filter I had to an aquaclear, but you don't need the filter, it's all in the media. A cartridge with carbon in it I believe will hinder your cycle and is quite ineffective. In the aquaclear I was able to stick an aquarium sponge, ceramic media and filter floss. When I got my new tanks with Tetra filters I just replaced the cartridge with filter floss and stuck a sponge on the intake. That way the bacteria has more places to live. You can just stick a sponge where the cartridge goes.

What I did was do water changes of about 60% or so whenever I saw anything other an 0 ammonia or 0 nitrates. If I tested and it came out all 0 then you're good, the moment it marks some just do a big change, leaving enough water for your axolotl to be comfortable in the tank, maybe like an inch above their heads. Then just replace with treated water of the same temperature. You'll see some ammonia spikes first and just do a big change, eventually you will get 0 ammonia and some nitrite spikes. Do the same thing there then you'll see 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and you'll get nitrates. When you get to 0 everything and some nitrates just do a big water change to bring it under 40mg/L, preferably under 20.

It's perfectly normal to see some ammonia, nitrites and nitrates at the same time as the bacteria starts building up. It's hard for me to remember everything but the Nitrates because I just changed the water every time I saw it wasn't at 0. It's MUCH easier to do if you under stock your tank. I believe the plants also make it easier, as the spikes that I saw were very small compared to what I had read.

I hope my info helps, good luck!

Edit: Needed to add that if you're cycling your tank with your axolotl in, you don't need to put in any ammonia. Keeping him in a smaller container would be easier since you don't have to change the tank water while cycling, but you do have to change the water in the axolotl's tub daily with dechlorinated water. Keiko explained the fish-less cycling perfectly.
 
Thank you so much !! That really helps me :)
For the testing kit you're talking about, I'm afraid it is only a US thing :/ Here in Europe everyone talks about Jbl or Sera, so that's why I asked which one was best. In fact they were in containers before they got into this tank, they looked so sad and the containers are tiny so I tried to cycle with them in. I have Tetra filters and there's no carbon in those as I know it's bad. That's what I did too, doing daily water changes but probably didn't change enough water, so I bought a new bucket so I can remove 35L at once now. I am waiting for my marimo balls so hopefully this will help :)
 
Hopefully someone who knows about those brands can help. The Tetra filters are pretty good, and the clip for the filter cartridges is great for holding filter floss, so you can make your own and not have to buy all the refills.

I have a moss ball in each tank and want more, they're very cool and seem to help your water quality. I got them just because I liked them though, and it's fun when you catch your axolotl playing with it.
 
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You can get API freshwater master test kit from Ebay. I got mine there and it was a lot cheaper than anything I could buy here in Finland (It cost under 30€ including postage). I have no experience with Sera nor JBL liquid test kits but from what I've heard Sera is good. I've heard some bad reviews about the JBL liquid test kits though.
 
I'm sorry but I don't get what should I do with a filter floss? ( I don't even know what it is ) and I found the API test kit on ebay but if it's in ppm it will not help me at all..
Also I heard there's snails and other nasty things like worms etc in plants, snails and stuff are the things I hate the most on earth. So did you had snails in your marimo balls ? Because if I ever get other "animals" than axolotls in my tank, I will never put my hand in the tank again :(
 
ppm is pretty much the same as mg/l so it doesn't matter which one it says on the color chart.

About ppm and mg/l:
At first glance, they appear to be two very different forms of measurement, but that’s not the case. They
are both ratios, and to see how they align with each other, it’s easiest to start with ppm, or parts per
million.
As an example, let’s say you’re trying to determine the salinity of seawater, and you get a reading of
35,000 ppm; that simply means that for every million parts of water, there are 35,000 parts of salt.
What are parts? Parts can be any measure. Pints, gallons, or a drop of water (grape juice, antifreeze,
etc). The size of the sample is irrelevant. It’s the RATIO of the tested parts (salt) to the total number of
parts (seawater) that’s important.
It’s pretty easy to grasp ppm, but how about mg/L? A liter of water (which is a metric measure of
volume, or capacity) weighs 1 kilogram. That’s 1,000 grams.
Now think about a milligram. It is 1/1000th of a gram, making it 1/1,000,000 th of a kilogram. Put another
way, a liter of water weighs 1,000,000 milligrams. One million milligrams… see where this is going?
For our purposes, 35,000 milligrams/Liter is the same measurement as 35,000 parts per million.* Both
measurements tell us how many parts (milligrams) are present in every million parts (Liter).
Click to expand...
 
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