How to speed it up

[joan]

I'm saying that your tank WILL cycle eventually, even if you're not actively trying to cycle it. The axolotl will provide the initial nutrients, without using brine shrimp or dog biscuits or gold fish or whatnot.

When you do regular water changes, you should only change 10% of the water or so. How big is the axolotl you're going to keep, and in what size tank?

 

[anne-marie]

Also I just want to say that when I got my first axolotl about 10 years ago, I didn't do anything right - not cycling, not good feeding, nothing - because the information was nowhere near as good as it is on this site

and I just didn't know about that sort of stuff.

My point is that axies are hardy, and while an uncycled tank isn't the best condition, they can handle it if given enough room. (I had one axie in a 2 foot tank to start, with weekly partial water changes)

 

[bookie]

well nothing is in the tank now. the fish that lived in it died. so we jus left the filter going and left the tank alone....

well my axie is only about 2 & 1/3 of an inch. and the tank is probly about a 1feet long and high. the other tank is probly 2feet. i might get a new tank.

 

[cynthia]

bookie - why don't you put him in the empty tank that is already cycled while you wait for yours?

 

[bookie]

umm haha..uh...water hasnt been changed in a long time....i dont know if its safe

 

[cynthia]

bookie - you never change all the water in an aquarium.

Normal maintenance consists of changing 20% of the water once a week and vacuuming the substrate.

I would suggest you change 20% of the water in that tank, vacuum the substrate and then test the water. If that tank has cycled and tests good then your problem about where to keep him could be solved.

 

[bookie]

mm good point ima buy a kit on friday...(thrudays for people by the states) i get paid... ill post the results

 

[bookie]

oooo um...instead of trien to use tap water. can i just buy some clean water from a store???

 

[cynthia]

There is nothing wrong with using tap water and a dechlorinator. It will be cheaper in the long run to buy some dechlorinator, here its one of the more affordable items the pet stores sell.

Pet stores here generally sell water that has been run through a reverse osmosis filter. You do NOT want RO water.

 

[joan]

Just make sure the water from the store is not chlorinated. A lot of times, 'bottled' water is bottled right out of the tap from somewhere.

Go buy dechlorinator. It's not that expensive. An 8 ounce bottle of ACE dechlorinates 480 gallons, or 1800 liters. If you went to the store, and bought 1 gallon of water a week, you've already spent $52, when you could have bought a bottle of dechlorinator for $10

 

[bookie]

ok today i just bought stress coat to get the chlorines and chloramines. and i bout a um siphon and all the test kits i need...

 

[bookie]

oh and i was wondering about this frozen brine shrimp...um can i jus use regular shrimp?? do i jus drop the shrimp in the water and jus let it sit there...

 

[joan]

You can, but regular shrimp are way too big to start decaying right away. Take a shrimp, put a little piece in the blender with some dechlorinated water, dump it in the tank. Let it decay.

This is why I think it's easier to cycle with the animals in the tank. It may take longer, but it's SO much easier! And now that you have the test kits, you don't have to guess when to do water changes.

 

[bookie]

hehhe yea....but i think im just going to cut a small piece from the shrimp...like the size of an eraser. or a dime..will that do?? because i dont have a blender...

 

[joan]

Mash it with a fork. The smaller the bits, the faster the cycling starts.

 

[bookie]

ok i did. it..befor i went to work. the pieces look all cloudy. but i test for ammonia. there was some about .25 i belive..

 

[joan]

That's a start! Keep on it. Cloudy is good (for the cycling process, anyway).

 

[bookie]

heheh...well Mookie looks chocolate now instead of his origanal black.... its weird...i wana get pictures...but dont got a camera..and he too busy tyring to eat bubbles...is that bad....oh and when i was looking at him. i saw something purple in his tummy and it was really purpley. you can only see it good on one side...is it part of him..i wana see pictures of axies that u can almost see through..

 

[joan]

Bubbles from the airstone? Mine do that too. Or they'll play "ride the bubble coaster". It's cute.

The purple could have been his heart or his liver. When they're very young, they're practically clear, and you can see the brain, and the optic nerve, and all the internal bits. It's very interesting.

 

[bookie]

lol ok thanks. yea. well hes not in his tank because the cyclying. but i put him in a bole wit a tube from a air pump from an old tank. he eats the bubbles sometimes so i keep the water level low so he wont be stress from floating because he ate to many bubbles. is that bad that he eat the bubbles though???