Handling Nitrates

EasternRomioi3

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Hey guys, so I got my axolotl's tank cycle down pretty good. She's very active and curious but I've been spoiling her lately since I've been in quarantine with COVID half the summer, and thus, her nitrates are like, on their way to being a problem. I did a water change today, thinking I might do another. I honestly couldn't tell how high her nitrates were, the shade of red was dark but not as dark as possible, I think it's at like 60, which I know is bad. I have 2 anubias plants in there with her, I just got the second one today before I changed her tank. So needless to say, my overfeeding of her has contributed to this. Should I do another water change asap or should I wait and see what the numbers are tomorrow?

Her tank is at 62 degrees so she's quite pleased with that. Nitrates don't cause burns or anything obvious, do they? Like, I know ammonia will leave very obvious ammonia burns and I know nitrates can become toxic. Is it possible to tell if your axolotl is suffering the effects of a nitrate toxicity? Like, idk, they get purple patches or something super obvious, as an example.

Would more anubias plants help this in the long run? I am currently out of water for her to do a tank change with. Well, rather, I am out of cold water. I need to fridge some, the bulk of the water I have left is for the caiman, who decided to eat her filter and do the gator-roll on it, so she lost a lot of water. She's in like a 150 gallon tank, something like that, idk, she's my dad's project.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Hey guys, so I got my axolotl's tank cycle down pretty good. She's very active and curious but I've been spoiling her lately since I've been in quarantine with COVID half the summer, and thus, her nitrates are like, on their way to being a problem. I did a water change today, thinking I might do another. I honestly couldn't tell how high her nitrates were, the shade of red was dark but not as dark as possible, I think it's at like 60, which I know is bad. I have 2 anubias plants in there with her, I just got the second one today before I changed her tank. So needless to say, my overfeeding of her has contributed to this. Should I do another water change asap or should I wait and see what the numbers are tomorrow?

Her tank is at 62 degrees so she's quite pleased with that. Nitrates don't cause burns or anything obvious, do they? Like, I know ammonia will leave very obvious ammonia burns and I know nitrates can become toxic. Is it possible to tell if your axolotl is suffering the effects of a nitrate toxicity? Like, idk, they get purple patches or something super obvious, as an example.

Would more anubias plants help this in the long run? I am currently out of water for her to do a tank change with. Well, rather, I am out of cold water. I need to fridge some, the bulk of the water I have left is for the caiman, who decided to eat her filter and do the gator-roll on it, so she lost a lot of water. She's in like a 150 gallon tank, something like that, idk, she's my dad's project.

Any advice would be appreciated.
If your lotls tank stays at a solid 62, you can add some cold tap water and it will bring it up, but not enough to affect her. Anywhere from 40-80 is fine I’ve read, but I may be wrong. Regardless, I would wait till tomorrow to do another water change. I would maybe get a hornwort as well, they suck up nitrates super fast, or duckweed. Or both! Does your LFS have good plant selection? I’ve been into petcos near Pittsburgh and they are way better than where I live😂😂 I was lucky to fine java fern!
 
Do water changes until you get the nitrates to 20 or below.
Once they hit 40 you want to do a water change.

160 is the darkest red on the test which is crazy high.

I personally do a 66 - 75% water change every week regardless of test results. this allows me to keeps the 10 axolotl tanks nice and clean.

You need ALOT of plants for them to use a ton of nitrates.
 
Do water changes until you get the nitrates to 20 or below.
Once they hit 40 you want to do a water change.

160 is the darkest red on the test which is crazy high.

I personally do a 66 - 75% water change every week regardless of test results. this allows me to keeps the 10 axolotl tanks nice and clean.

You need ALOT of plants for them to use a ton of nitrates.
Thanks for correcting me! Nitrates vary on every fish/amphibian and I can’t always remember what axolotls nitrates are until I got to test my tank😂
 
My local aquarium store does have anubias plants. I guess I will need to get more. My dad says I'm obsessing and that I need to give things time to resolve in her tank. Maybe I will do another test before bed and just plan to do another big water change tomorrow. My dad is against doing anymore than 5 gallons out of her 20 when we do a water change because he doesn't want us to add too much new water, that is only close to the temp she needs. Doesn't want to inflict shock on her. I did add some Seachem prime to the water, hopefully that will lower them till I can get her water cool.
 
Your dad isnt an aquarist I thought?
He was into reptiles correct?

Axolotls would rather have a huge amount of fresh clean cold tap water treated with prime than only a little at a time.
Even my tropical fish prefer a big change to a ton of little ones.


My local aquarium store does have anubias plants. I guess I will need to get more. My dad says I'm obsessing and that I need to give things time to resolve in her tank. Maybe I will do another test before bed and just plan to do another big water change tomorrow. My dad is against doing anymore than 5 gallons out of her 20 when we do a water change because he doesn't want us to add too much new water, that is only close to the temp she needs. Doesn't want to inflict shock on her. I did add some Seachem prime to the water, hopefully that will lower them till I can get her water cool.
 
My dad had fish, freshwater fish, and frogs, but he prefers hardy, elegant creatures like turtles...and then his special case with the caiman.

Well, I'm cooling some water for her, it is already dechlorinated, I will another change tomorrow. She's been lounging around all night, checking out her new plants, enjoying the coolest tank she's had in months.

I do have two questions.

1 ) is there any physical indication of nitrate toxicity?

2 ) what if I saved her water, rather than dumping it out into the backyard, I saved it and put it in her old tank, and put the new filter I have in there. Would it be able to cycle appropriately? No axolotl or anything in the tank, just a prep tank. My friend said it sounded like a good idea. Like, a pre-cycling. The alternative she said was to just put the second filter in the current tank, keep both the old and the new in for 30 days before removing the old one. That would take a lot of space out of her tank though.

My biggest fault with this is my overfeeding her, I feel bad now because she used to come up to the top and take food right there, or come up to her drift wood and I'd feed her, but the overfeeding is more than likely the primary cause of the nitrates being high. And the test wasn't that super dark 160 red or whatever, it was like 60, which I know isn't good. It was hard to tell the difference between it being 40 and 60. Again, my dad says I've been worrying too much and I need to trust in the quality of her water, but she's pooped twice in the span of 7 days and that has me a little worried.

Oh and a third question, just how long can an axolotl go without food? I haven't fed her at all today, should I feed her tomorrow? I know it's supposed to be like every other day but all this has me worried.
 
My dad had fish, freshwater fish, and frogs, but he prefers hardy, elegant creatures like turtles...and then his special case with the caiman.

Well, I'm cooling some water for her, it is already dechlorinated, I will another change tomorrow. She's been lounging around all night, checking out her new plants, enjoying the coolest tank she's had in months.

I do have two questions.

1 ) is there any physical indication of nitrate toxicity?

2 ) what if I saved her water, rather than dumping it out into the backyard, I saved it and put it in her old tank, and put the new filter I have in there. Would it be able to cycle appropriately? No axolotl or anything in the tank, just a prep tank. My friend said it sounded like a good idea. Like, a pre-cycling. The alternative she said was to just put the second filter in the current tank, keep both the old and the new in for 30 days before removing the old one. That would take a lot of space out of her tank though.

My biggest fault with this is my overfeeding her, I feel bad now because she used to come up to the top and take food right there, or come up to her drift wood and I'd feed her, but the overfeeding is more than likely the primary cause of the nitrates being high. And the test wasn't that super dark 160 red or whatever, it was like 60, which I know isn't good. It was hard to tell the difference between it being 40 and 60. Again, my dad says I've been worrying too much and I need to trust in the quality of her water, but she's pooped twice in the span of 7 days and that has me a little worried.

Oh and a third question, just how long can an axolotl go without food? I haven't fed her at all today, should I feed her tomorrow? I know it's supposed to be like every other day but all this has me worried.
First question, I don’t know the answer too. Yes, that would work! Make sure you dose ammonia though. I thought u smashed her new filter? Adult axolotls can go 3 weeks without food in an emergency when sick, but every keeper feeds every other day. I
 
Hm, see that has me worried. I can't tell and I don't want to go in there yanking her or stressing her. She's FINALLY calmed down. She's had a "stress tail" all summer, which probably had to do with the bad heatwave we had here and me being sick and in bed half of June, not able to pay attention to her.

And I salvaged the filter, just came apart is all.

And so if I just deprive her a little, like 2 days no food, that should help me get back into the routine of feeding her every other day, right?
 
Hm, see that has me worried. I can't tell and I don't want to go in there yanking her or stressing her. She's FINALLY calmed down. She's had a "stress tail" all summer, which probably had to do with the bad heatwave we had here and me being sick and in bed half of June, not able to pay attention to her.

And I salvaged the filter, just came apart is all.

And so if I just deprive her a little, like 2 days no food, that should help me get back into the routine of feeding her every other day, right?
I think it’s fine. It won’t kill her to be in the tank with high nitrates for one night, I believe. Ammonia or Nitrite would be painful, but not nitrate I would assume. If your worrried, add some extra prime. And, yep! I didn’t feed my 5inch lotl for one day after vacation because her feeding schedule got out of wack. 2 days should be perfect for an adult.
 
I hope you're right. I did another test just now, it's either at 40 or 60, I can't tell at all. I don't if I am having a hard time seeing it because it's red, or if I'm just tired.

I have her water in the fridge, if I can get the puppy and the cat out of the house, I can do her water change in less than 10 minutes but I can already tell I'm worrying and gonna be up all night.
 
Hiya! Seems you two have it mostly under control, but I'm just popping in with some things that stood out to me.
Sorry if it's a bit long.

- It's very hard to overfeed an axolotl. Don't blame yourself for "overfeeding" her - you probably didn't. Sure, feeding more will lead to more nitrates, but that's not a problem. You can get rid of those.

- There are no specific nitrate poisoning signs that I can think of, but the general warning signs apply: sudden changes in breathing (either going up for air or heavy gill activity), listlessness, loss of appetite, etc.

- Putting the water in another tank is possible, but... It won't do anything there. Same goes for a second filter.
Nitrate is the end station of the tank cycle. In a well-cycled tank, all the dirt and poop and food gets processed into nitrates, and there the cycle ends.
(Honestly, in most aquariums it's not technically a "cycle", since it ends with a lot of nitrates).
A second filter will help in making nitrates, if you have too much ammonia or nitrites. It won't get rid of the nitrates.
Putting the nitrate-rich water in a second tank will not get rid of the nitrates either. It will just mean you have a second tank with lots of nitrates.
The only (practical) way to get rid of nitrates is plants or water changes.

- For water changes, if you can, do a water change whenever you see more than 40 nitrates.
No hurry, though. It's fine. The axolotl can handle it. If you don't have time, or you're distracted, wait a day. Or a week, for all I care.
You are obviously right you want to get rid of the nitrates - that's good! I do agree with your dad that you shouldn't stress about it.
Honestly, out of all the risks to an axolotls' health, a stressed owner is by far the most dangerous one.
Your axolotl is better off with a little too much nitrates but a calm, relaxed, happy owner than the other way around.

The same goes with food. Most of us feed regularly - but this is just as much for our own schedule as for the axolotl. It's easier to keep track of, it's stable, you don't have to think about it.
Axolotls are cold-blooded salamanders. Adults can go weeks without food. You only need to worry about a feeding regime when they're larvae.
If feeding every other day is workable for you, go for it! If you'd prefer every day, give them a little less every day. If you're only home in the weekends, feed them friday evening and a large portion sunday evening. If you're going on a two week vacation, give them a big meal before you leave and they'll be fine.
As long as they're fat and chubby you're doing good.

- Anubias are nice, but anubias alone won't help much with the nitrates. They're tropical plants that need warm water and lots of light. Because they're so indestructible, they survive in cold-water tanks too, but they will be very slow-growing.
Plants use nitrates by growing. If you want to use plants to get rid of nitrates, you want fast-growing plants.
These you will have to trim, and that's how you remove the nitrates from your aquarium: instead of removing the nitrates in the water, you're removing the nitrates in the plants.
If it works, it works amazing. I have four axolotls in an aquarium and I haven't done any water changes in eight months. Instead, I trim my waterweed twice a month (about five minutes of work), and my nitrates are always zero.
I would recommend it to everyone, but it requires a bit more set-up. Water changes are fairly simple.
If you're interested in it, look for waterweed/elodea, hornwort, vallisneria, duckweed - everything that looks like it's a weed will work :)
 
Hiya! Seems you two have it mostly under control, but I'm just popping in with some things that stood out to me.
Sorry if it's a bit long.

- It's very hard to overfeed an axolotl. Don't blame yourself for "overfeeding" her - you probably didn't. Sure, feeding more will lead to more nitrates, but that's not a problem. You can get rid of those.

- There are no specific nitrate poisoning signs that I can think of, but the general warning signs apply: sudden changes in breathing (either going up for air or heavy gill activity), listlessness, loss of appetite, etc.

- Putting the water in another tank is possible, but... It won't do anything there. Same goes for a second filter.
Nitrate is the end station of the tank cycle. In a well-cycled tank, all the dirt and poop and food gets processed into nitrates, and there the cycle ends.
(Honestly, in most aquariums it's not technically a "cycle", since it ends with a lot of nitrates).
A second filter will help in making nitrates, if you have too much ammonia or nitrites. It won't get rid of the nitrates.
Putting the nitrate-rich water in a second tank will not get rid of the nitrates either. It will just mean you have a second tank with lots of nitrates.
The only (practical) way to get rid of nitrates is plants or water changes.

- For water changes, if you can, do a water change whenever you see more than 40 nitrates.
No hurry, though. It's fine. The axolotl can handle it. If you don't have time, or you're distracted, wait a day. Or a week, for all I care.
You are obviously right you want to get rid of the nitrates - that's good! I do agree with your dad that you shouldn't stress about it.
Honestly, out of all the risks to an axolotls' health, a stressed owner is by far the most dangerous one.
Your axolotl is better off with a little too much nitrates but a calm, relaxed, happy owner than the other way around.

The same goes with food. Most of us feed regularly - but this is just as much for our own schedule as for the axolotl. It's easier to keep track of, it's stable, you don't have to think about it.
Axolotls are cold-blooded salamanders. Adults can go weeks without food. You only need to worry about a feeding regime when they're larvae.
If feeding every other day is workable for you, go for it! If you'd prefer every day, give them a little less every day. If you're only home in the weekends, feed them friday evening and a large portion sunday evening. If you're going on a two week vacation, give them a big meal before you leave and they'll be fine.
As long as they're fat and chubby you're doing good.

- Anubias are nice, but anubias alone won't help much with the nitrates. They're tropical plants that need warm water and lots of light. Because they're so indestructible, they survive in cold-water tanks too, but they will be very slow-growing.
Plants use nitrates by growing. If you want to use plants to get rid of nitrates, you want fast-growing plants.
These you will have to trim, and that's how you remove the nitrates from your aquarium: instead of removing the nitrates in the water, you're removing the nitrates in the plants.
If it works, it works amazing. I have four axolotls in an aquarium and I haven't done any water changes in eight months. Instead, I trim my waterweed twice a month (about five minutes of work), and my nitrates are always zero.
I would recommend it to everyone, but it requires a bit more set-up. Water changes are fairly simple.
If you're interested in it, look for waterweed/elodea, hornwort, vallisneria, duckweed - everything that looks like it's a weed will work :)
Do you use CO2? I’m looking to get plants but don’t really want to use CO2, I like more low tech set ups.
 
Do you use CO2? I’m looking to get plants but don’t really want to use CO2, I like more low tech set ups.

I don't!
Haven't needed it, so far. I have relatively little light and no fertilizer (other than axolotl poo, which is technically fertilizer too). That means CO2 is unlikely to be a limiting factor.

I do have light (one 39 Watt T5, which is on ~9 hours a day). I believe that's not very much light for the tank (about 350 liters), but it's plenty. Keeps the algae away.
I also have a cannister filter, but it's closed to a drip. It's only there because the tank likes a little bit of water flow; it's barely filtering.

I only have plants for amateurs. You need plants for cold water, low tech set-ups that are hardy enough to survive axolotls and their destructive behaviour. I decided I would just stick with the easy, slutty amateur plants. Especially the waterweed is amazing. You just can't kill the stuff.
I'm sure someone with more plant experience could keep exotic plants as well, but not me.

I can post some pictures shortly, because it's good to know what you're getting into ;)
Heavily planted tanks have a lot of advantages (clean, stable water without much maintenance), but also definitely some disadvantages. My tank looks utterly gross; there's poop and moss and bugs everywhere. That's great for a healthy tank and healthy axolotls, but it looks like a muddy forest pond.
You could drink out of it - it's as clean as spring water - but it looks disgusting.

So that's up to personal preferences.
(Also, I might have taken the "no maintenance" obsessions a bit too far. There are plenty of people with planted tanks that do look neat and tidy. Just requires a bit more work.)
 
@Murk

When you say heavy gill activity, what do you mean? My girl only flicks her gills when she's angry or defensive. Like, sometimes when I clean her tank and she comes up to the surface to see the intruder, she will flick her gills but generally she only does it she has to move quickly. Like, going for food, or of the few times I've had to pick her up and place her in a tub, she did it there, but she puffed up and put her gills up too.

And yeah, I am very stressed over her, it's been a bad summer, getting sick, being in the hospital away from her, then being home all the time, I worry to begin with, like in general. My usual negative state is 'worried.' Like, not sad, or angry, just 'worried.' But thank you for saying that, I am going to do another water change for in a bit. Just to try and force those nitrates down, since they're around 60, given the color.

And thank you for suggesting those other plants. I will look into those as well, but I have a question. You mention you have to trim your plants. Does that include trimming the anubias or is that just whatever because of how slow growing they are?
 
Gill activity (and gulping air) really depends on the individual. Some prefer going up for air, some have very active gills.
That's all fine, as long as it's consistent. If you see a sudden change that might be a sign of stress, and can be an indicator of bad water quality.
Not always, of course.

I doubt you'll ever have to trim anubias. Would be very impressive!
But yeah, they grow way too slowly to need trimming. If they're doing really well (and depending on the amount of light), there might come a point where you want to split them at the rhizome (cut them in half, basically) so you have two smaller plants - but in cold water this would take at least a year, I think.

That's also why they're less effective against nitrates - they just don't need that much.
Don't let that discourage you from anubias, though! They're nice plants, easy to keep, they're a good home to beneficial bacteria. If you treat them well they make lovely little white flowers.
 
@Murk

So now that the temperature in my area is lower, I can get her tank down to 62 degrees. I try to give her a little blitz of cold before I go to bed since she'll only have her fans on at night. I noticed the other day after I cleaned her tank, she was sitting atop the charcoal filter I have hooked up onto her sponge filter. I don't know if she likes the bubbles or is upset over something. She did it again tonight. And I mean she perches on it, her back fin sticks out of the water, she seems to just be pleased with the view or whatever, but she leapt off it and swam right to the bottom tonight. I didn't know they could jump, well, I mean, she leapt forward and dove straight to the bottom.

She usually prefers the opposite end of her tank, at least during the day for sleeping. Idk. I haven't done a water test since I changed her water on I want to say Tuesday or Wednesday. I am probably going to change her water before Monday. I try to do it every Monday but I am very worried about her water quality. I couldn't get any hornwort at all, no one had any near me.

Also, I noticed she's had like 3 little bowel movements in like 10 days. Not full sized like usual. Might be the overfeeding...I feel bad. I just want her to have a good quality of life and live a long time.

Sorry, I meant to reply to you sooner but I've had a stressful week, due to work.
 
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