Hello to all

[bangadrum]

Hello forum!

Been a long time lurker reading and gleening information prior to buying our axolotls.

We've had our tank set up since mid december, with plants in and a pump and airstone running. The tank produced good chemical readings just after new year (other than a PH of around 8).

Bought our axolotls (2 very young wild types) on Thursday and having just bought some new plants and a spray bar for the pump I took readings again.

We seem to be reading a bit high on everything:
PH 8ish
Ammonia 0.4mg/l
Nitrite 0.3mg/l
Nitrate 50ish mg/l

Now, some of the intial batch of plants had started to die (and had been removed when the axolotls went in; so I'm thinking a lot could be related to that.

I "hoovered" the tank and will replace the displaced water (10%) with fresh water tomorrow evening once it has declorinated.

Is the PH ok, and if not what should I do to bring it down?

Pics of the axies and tank setup shall follow!

 

[Jacquie]

Hi Bangadrum (love that username!),

Dying plants will contribute to an increase in ammonia, but the main spike was more likely caused by the addition of the axolotls themselves.

When the ammonia drops to zero, the nitrite drops to zero and the nitrate is readable the aquarium can be considered cycled. However before you add animals to the aquarium, do a 20% water change to lower the level of the nitrates. Different animals tolerate nitrates to different degrees. As a safety precaution, try to maintain the nitrate levels below 60 ppm through water changes. Usually 10 to 15% water changes each week are sufficient to keep the levels down.

Now the tank is ready for animals. However, the bacterial population will need to grow to match the number of animals added to the aquarium. The easiest way to accomplish this is by adding animals gradually. If you add several animals every 2 to 3 weeks, you should be able to safely increase the number of animals in the aquarium. The water should be tested on at least a weekly basis to monitor water quality and hopefully prevent potential ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

(An extract from http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml).

As the axolotls are now in the tank with ammonia and nitrite still present, I would test the water chemistry daily, and do daily partial water changes (10%) until the cycle is complete (this shouldn't take long - I think your cycle is looking very good!).

Axolotls are not too fussed about pH and find the range 6.5 - 8 to be acceptable. pH of 8 is fine. I wouldn't try adjusting it, as fluxuations in pH will cause more stress to the axolotls than maintaining the pH at the highest end of their preferred range.

 

[bangadrum]

Thanks Jacquie

The axolotls seem happy enough, although they have been very quiet today, but they did eat a lot yesterday and have produced a fair amount of excrement today...

More tank hoovering and another water change tomorrow.

One of them was floating head down tail up for a while, but this seemed to resolve post poo. Is this usual?

Pics of Boris and Charlie and their world in a tank will follow when they're not hiding in their cave.

 

[tonimeloni]

awesome i cant wait to see a picture of your axies! my pic is a photo of my first axolotl called Rosie

 

[bangadrum]

Slightly better results today

Ammonia 0.1mg/l
Nitrite 0.3mg/l
Nitrate 40ish mg/l
PH between 7 and 8

Axolotls seem bit quieter and sulkier than when they first arrived. Should I be worried, or this just cos they've settled in and they had a good feed?
They don't seem stressed, their gills are in a natural relaxed position and are just as feathery as when we bought them, they're just very quiet compared to the other axolotl tanks I've seen.

 

[melfly]

Hi and welcome! It could just be they have settled in. They can sometimes be active in new surroundings and then settle down. I wouldn't be too concerned unless the go off their food. Mel

 

[bangadrum]

Photos of tank and axolotls. The two bluer photos are the first ones, the whiter ones were just taken (we changed lamp to a duller and lower UV lamp on Saturday).

Boris!

Boris on rock, Charlie under pump.

Boris attacking plant.

View of tank.

The little flecks of gravel have appeared since they went in, as its similar to what they were on in the shop I'm assuming they're passing it
I wanted to get some that had never been on gravel, but all the shops have them on gravel and this shop had the smallest finest gravel and assured me they'd sort the axolotl out if impaction did occur.

They've woken up a bit today, I think they overate a bit when they first went in. We put some live daphnia in when they went in, as a live in food experiment.

Came down in the morning and not a single daphnia left. Greedy axolotls!

 

[callina]

Hi,

please, you should remove the pots and the cellular material (full of plant fertilizer) very carefully from the plants and the plump (toxic) too, because that leads to bad water conditions which can harm your axies.

Greetz, Tina

 

[bangadrum]

Never heard of this before. Is this unique to axolotls, as its never caused me any issues with my previous fish tanks?

There were some other plants in like that before the axolotls went in and the water tested out fine.

 

[callina]

did you test the water for plump and chemicals?

 

[bangadrum]

Tested for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

What do you mean by test for plump??

 

[callina]

solely because the tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate may be ok, it doesn´t mean, that there aren´t any toxic substances in the water - chemicals from fertilizer or plump f.e..

 

[BBJ]

I would not be concerned about the plants, plenty of people dump in plants in their pots. I have never heard of any issues regarding this, it is true that it probably contains some fertilizers, and that the various components in such may or may not be dangerous for an Axolotl (quite a well debated topic).
But in such small amounts as in the plant pots, i would not be concerned at all :happy:
However as a standard precaution, which goes for any aquarium, always rinse plants thoroughly before putting them in your tank.

Cute Axies by the way! and an interesting tank setup, looks very Axolotl friendly, i like the tile floor thing you got going

Regards Bjorn

 

[tonimeloni]

wow your axies look great! i love the colouring and the tank looks good too and it looks easy to clean