pH problems :(

[Axolotlnewbie]

back story is my parents have an axolotl in a 70L tank they were gifted from our family member who owns a fish store so don’t be mad at me for the shut this poor guy has been through I’ve taken it upon myself over the past two years to learn everything i could about axolotls to give him the best chance and he WAS doing so well up until September/October. I live 2 hours away so I don’t see them too often but they didn’t know sea shells and other limestone like substrate are chalked full of calcium carbonate, put a ton in as the bottom substrate cause they were huge shells and totally F’d the pH up (was giving me readings of 8.8 from the API high range test kit).

he’s been recovering periodically in the wine fridge at 10° C because about 2 months ago when he got bad again, i had them send me the water parameters and saw it was a tad high for pH so I told them to fridge him and re adjust the pH. yet they left out the newly added shells.
So for the last two months they’ve been readjusting the pH with pH down, cycling it for a day retesting, putting him back, then the tank would go back up in pH so they would take him back out into the fridge and do that over and over. Poor guy has been THROUGH IT and all it would have taken was a simple google search to realized what the problem was but I will not vent and get nasty cause that’s not helping the animal.

Anyways he’s resting comfortably in 100% bottled water and some stress coat in the fridge and will be there until I can get this pH under control and it stays constant for a couple days. Obviously I’ve taken all the shells out and did a big water change but I’m still getting readings of 8, I’ve been periodically adding pH down which last night got it back to down to 7.4-7.6 but this morning we are back at 8 maybe I missed some shells or will it just take a bit for it to equilibrate? Was considering getting some tea leaves or a piece of drift wood to get some tannins in there but I’m afraid to add anything new lol

 

[wolfen]

I assume the bottle water isn't in the tank so the tank water would be tap water, if so test the ph of the tap water, shells/limestones etc.. increase kh and gh and as such buffer the ph to prevent drops, it sounds like the tap water is slightly alkali, bottled water unless mineralised isn't good either as axolotls require moderate to hard water.
if the tap water is unsuitable for axolotls the ro/distilled/bottled water can be used but the minerals etc.. need to be added, info here.. Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity
what stress coat are you using as it is generally frowned upon to use it, 1. because it can interfere with the breathing through skin and gills, 2. because some stress coat contains aloe vera which has been reported as slight toxic to axolotls.

 

[MnGuy]

Please be careful about using bottled water. If it's distilled water, that is very bad for amphibians and can kill them. Treated tap water would be safer unless you have atrocious tap water.

 

[Axolotlnewbie]

Please be careful about using bottled water. If it's distilled water, that is very bad for amphibians and can kill them. Treated tap water would be safer unless you have atrocious tap water.

It’s mineral water so I thought that would be better but I can just start doing treated tap!

 

[Axolotlnewbie]

I assume the bottle water isn't in the tank so the tank water would be tap water, if so test the ph of the tap water, shells/limestones etc.. increase kh and gh and as such buffer the ph to prevent drops, it sounds like the tap water is slightly alkali, bottled water unless mineralised isn't good either as axolotls require moderate to hard water.
if the tap water is unsuitable for axolotls the ro/distilled/bottled water can be used but the minerals etc.. need to be added, info here.. Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity
what stress coat are you using as it is generally frowned upon to use it, 1. because it can interfere with the breathing through skin and gills, 2. because some stress coat contains aloe vera which has been reported as slight toxic to axolotls.

Tested the tap water before doing anything after removing shells it’s 7.0 we have pretty decent tap water here I just thought the mineral water would be better for him, won’t add the stress coat again even though it doesn’t have aloe in it thank you so much for all the information!

 

[wolfen]

how often is the water changed and how much water is changed.
also do you know the nitrate levels.