Please help: skyrocketing nitrates

[Toothpickthelotl]

Hi guys, this might be a little long but bare with me.
Before I get into it, I have one adult axolotl in a 20 gallon tank.
About 4-5 days ago I did a water change and afterwards noticed my axie was not acting like herself. She is a year old and is normally pretty alert and active, but she was very lethargic and barely eating. I checked all the perimeters of my water and it was ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. Since everything was fine I sort of blew it off as maybe she needed to poop or something. A few days later (yesterday) I realized she had no improvement and started to have a gaping mouth and was just not alert at all. I took water perimeters again to find the ammonia and nitrite still at 0, but my nitrate >80!!!!! I was absolutely shocked and confused and immeditately moved toothpick to a quarantine tub. I did a 50% water change and the nitrate still wasn’t going down!! So I decided to give the tank some time to settle and check it again in the morning. Well this morning I woke up, nitrates still around 70-80 mark. I reallt need advice or any ideas on what to do. Here is what I have tried already
1. Water change yesterday and 25% water change today
2. Cleaned out filter in dirty tank water. My filter initially was not flowing properly which I think might of been due to build up in the filter. It’s now flowing properly after cleaning it.
3. I have a live plant in the tank, I took it out and removed the dead leaves that I saw. It is a Java fern and I saw 2 dead leaves.
4. Siphoned the sand and got as much gunk out as I could. Used a turkey baster to get in hard to reach areas and got under decor.
Here’s what I’m thinking about possible explanations. I believe this was an error on my part
1. The filter being clogged and not flowing properly. Possible build up of nitrates within filter?
2. I got a fan to blow over the top of my tank about 2 weeks ago. Instead of doing a water change one week I just topped off the tank with new water (because the water evaporated in the tank). I was uninformed and didn’t realize that nitrates do NOT evaporate. Could this have caused an excess build up in my tank?

does anyone have any ideas of why the nitrates might be so high and why they aren’t coming down? What should I do? Should I just continue water changes everyday and hope it comes down? Toothpick reallt hates being in a tub and I want to get her in her tank as soon as possible, but I will not be putting her back in until I can get the nitrates below 40 and stabilized. I just can’t seem to do that. I attached a picture of her, does she look okay? She’s been a lot more active and responsive since she’s been in the tub

 

[minorhero]

Do bigger water changes. Also test your tap water and see if you have any nitrates in them. You can definitely add more plants as well. Some easy growing plants include pearl weed, hornwort, anubis's, and out of water with roots in, pathos.

 

[Toothpickthelotl]

Do bigger water changes. Also test your tap water and see if you have any nitrates in them. You can definitely add more plants as well. Some easy growing plants include pearl weed, hornwort, anubis's, and out of water with roots in, pathos.

Thank you. I just tested the tap water and it’s showing 5 ppm, so I don’t think it’s contributing. Before this spike my nitrates in my tank were stabilized below 10 ppm consistently. I also just ordered 2 more plants that are easy and fast growing. Hopefully they will be here in a few days and I can get them in the tank. I’ll also keep doing bigger water changes, I just don’t want to mess up my cycle.

 

[minorhero]

Thank you. I just tested the tap water and it’s showing 5 ppm, so I don’t think it’s contributing. Before this spike my nitrates in my tank were stabilized below 10 ppm consistently. I also just ordered 2 more plants that are easy and fast growing. Hopefully they will be here in a few days and I can get them in the tank. I’ll also keep doing bigger water changes, I just don’t want to mess up my cycle.

You can't mess up your cycle doing a water change. The bacteria that maintain your cycle are located on the surfaces in your aquarium. So long as you de-chlorinate your water you will have no issues. For example in the wild water changes happening all the time through the force of streams and rivers, and that water change is many orders of magnitude in volume higher than anything we could ever do in the aquarium.

 

[Toothpickthelotl]

You can't mess up your cycle doing a water change. The bacteria that maintain your cycle are located on the surfaces in your aquarium. So long as you de-chlorinate your water you will have no issues. For example in the wild water changes happening all the time through the force of streams and rivers, and that water change is many orders of magnitude in volume higher than anything we could ever do in the aquarium.

I never thought about it like that! I had read that if you like do too big of a water change it will cause your cycle to crash. With that said, do you think it’s okay for me to change the water like twice daily until I get the nitrates down? I did a 25% water change this morning, should I do another one tonight? Or should I just stick to one change a day

 

[minorhero]

I never thought about it like that! I had read that if you like do too big of a water change it will cause your cycle to crash. With that said, do you think it’s okay for me to change the water like twice daily until I get the nitrates down? I did a 25% water change this morning, should I do another one tonight? Or should I just stick to one change a day

I'd stick to just once a day simply to keep from stressing your critter. That said, try changing more then 25%. I'd change as much as you can without stressing your critter, meaning change water until the water level is just above them (80-90%). While you are at it, clean your filter if you haven't already and gravel vac the substrate. Chances are very good your nitrates are so high because there is left over food/poop in there that is rotting. Getting that out will make all the difference.

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Hi guys, this might be a little long but bare with me.
Before I get into it, I have one adult axolotl in a 20 gallon tank.
About 4-5 days ago I did a water change and afterwards noticed my axie was not acting like herself. She is a year old and is normally pretty alert and active, but she was very lethargic and barely eating. I checked all the perimeters of my water and it was ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. Since everything was fine I sort of blew it off as maybe she needed to poop or something. A few days later (yesterday) I realized she had no improvement and started to have a gaping mouth and was just not alert at all. I took water perimeters again to find the ammonia and nitrite still at 0, but my nitrate >80!!!!! I was absolutely shocked and confused and immeditately moved toothpick to a quarantine tub. I did a 50% water change and the nitrate still wasn’t going down!! So I decided to give the tank some time to settle and check it again in the morning. Well this morning I woke up, nitrates still around 70-80 mark. I reallt need advice or any ideas on what to do. Here is what I have tried already
1. Water change yesterday and 25% water change today
2. Cleaned out filter in dirty tank water. My filter initially was not flowing properly which I think might of been due to build up in the filter. It’s now flowing properly after cleaning it.
3. I have a live plant in the tank, I took it out and removed the dead leaves that I saw. It is a Java fern and I saw 2 dead leaves.
4. Siphoned the sand and got as much gunk out as I could. Used a turkey baster to get in hard to reach areas and got under decor.
Here’s what I’m thinking about possible explanations. I believe this was an error on my part
1. The filter being clogged and not flowing properly. Possible build up of nitrates within filter?
2. I got a fan to blow over the top of my tank about 2 weeks ago. Instead of doing a water change one week I just topped off the tank with new water (because the water evaporated in the tank). I was uninformed and didn’t realize that nitrates do NOT evaporate. Could this have caused an excess build up in my tank?

does anyone have any ideas of why the nitrates might be so high and why they aren’t coming down? What should I do? Should I just continue water changes everyday and hope it comes down? Toothpick reallt hates being in a tub and I want to get her in her tank as soon as possible, but I will not be putting her back in until I can get the nitrates below 40 and stabilized. I just can’t seem to do that. I attached a picture of her, does she look okay? She’s been a lot more active and responsive since she’s been in the tubView attachment 87462

I agree with minorhero, if you have not been doing water changes as frequently because of evaporation, your nitrates will get high very quickly. If she is already tubbed, go ahead and do like 80-90% water change today and then do another change tomorrow for good measure. Wait about 24 hours and test the water again. Testing your water right after doing a water change can give you false readings so I always prefer to wait until the next day to test. It sounds like youve already done a good thorough cleaning of your filter media and sand, so that should be ok. She looks good so I'm not too worried about her as long as you can get your nitrates back down.

 

[ArpTheAxolotl]

Hi guys, this might be a little long but bare with me.
Before I get into it, I have one adult axolotl in a 20 gallon tank.
About 4-5 days ago I did a water change and afterwards noticed my axie was not acting like herself. She is a year old and is normally pretty alert and active, but she was very lethargic and barely eating. I checked all the perimeters of my water and it was ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. Since everything was fine I sort of blew it off as maybe she needed to poop or something. A few days later (yesterday) I realized she had no improvement and started to have a gaping mouth and was just not alert at all. I took water perimeters again to find the ammonia and nitrite still at 0, but my nitrate >80!!!!! I was absolutely shocked and confused and immeditately moved toothpick to a quarantine tub. I did a 50% water change and the nitrate still wasn’t going down!! So I decided to give the tank some time to settle and check it again in the morning. Well this morning I woke up, nitrates still around 70-80 mark. I reallt need advice or any ideas on what to do. Here is what I have tried already
1. Water change yesterday and 25% water change today
2. Cleaned out filter in dirty tank water. My filter initially was not flowing properly which I think might of been due to build up in the filter. It’s now flowing properly after cleaning it.
3. I have a live plant in the tank, I took it out and removed the dead leaves that I saw. It is a Java fern and I saw 2 dead leaves.
4. Siphoned the sand and got as much gunk out as I could. Used a turkey baster to get in hard to reach areas and got under decor.
Here’s what I’m thinking about possible explanations. I believe this was an error on my part
1. The filter being clogged and not flowing properly. Possible build up of nitrates within filter?
2. I got a fan to blow over the top of my tank about 2 weeks ago. Instead of doing a water change one week I just topped off the tank with new water (because the water evaporated in the tank). I was uninformed and didn’t realize that nitrates do NOT evaporate. Could this have caused an excess build up in my tank?

does anyone have any ideas of why the nitrates might be so high and why they aren’t coming down? What should I do? Should I just continue water changes everyday and hope it comes down? Toothpick reallt hates being in a tub and I want to get her in her tank as soon as possible, but I will not be putting her back in until I can get the nitrates below 40 and stabilized. I just can’t seem to do that. I attached a picture of her, does she look okay? She’s been a lot more active and responsive since she’s been in the tubView attachment 87462

Hi guys, this might be a little long but bare with me.
Before I get into it, I have one adult axolotl in a 20 gallon tank.
About 4-5 days ago I did a water change and afterwards noticed my axie was not acting like herself. She is a year old and is normally pretty alert and active, but she was very lethargic and barely eating. I checked all the perimeters of my water and it was ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. Since everything was fine I sort of blew it off as maybe she needed to poop or something. A few days later (yesterday) I realized she had no improvement and started to have a gaping mouth and was just not alert at all. I took water perimeters again to find the ammonia and nitrite still at 0, but my nitrate >80!!!!! I was absolutely shocked and confused and immeditately moved toothpick to a quarantine tub. I did a 50% water change and the nitrate still wasn’t going down!! So I decided to give the tank some time to settle and check it again in the morning. Well this morning I woke up, nitrates still around 70-80 mark. I reallt need advice or any ideas on what to do. Here is what I have tried already
1. Water change yesterday and 25% water change today
2. Cleaned out filter in dirty tank water. My filter initially was not flowing properly which I think might of been due to build up in the filter. It’s now flowing properly after cleaning it.
3. I have a live plant in the tank, I took it out and removed the dead leaves that I saw. It is a Java fern and I saw 2 dead leaves.
4. Siphoned the sand and got as much gunk out as I could. Used a turkey baster to get in hard to reach areas and got under decor.
Here’s what I’m thinking about possible explanations. I believe this was an error on my part
1. The filter being clogged and not flowing properly. Possible build up of nitrates within filter?
2. I got a fan to blow over the top of my tank about 2 weeks ago. Instead of doing a water change one week I just topped off the tank with new water (because the water evaporated in the tank). I was uninformed and didn’t realize that nitrates do NOT evaporate. Could this have caused an excess build up in my tank?

does anyone have any ideas of why the nitrates might be so high and why they aren’t coming down? What should I do? Should I just continue water changes everyday and hope it comes down? Toothpick reallt hates being in a tub and I want to get her in her tank as soon as possible, but I will not be putting her back in until I can get the nitrates below 40 and stabilized. I just can’t seem to do that. I attached a picture of her, does she look okay? She’s been a lot more active and responsive since she’s been in the tubView attachment 87462

Since you’ve said they haven’t been eating bloodworms or pellets, maybe try something else? Or maybes their just full. How long has it been since they ate?