...Pretty weird water parameters? How to fix some?

[Morrison]

Okay. I noticed one of my axies scratching his gills. It wasn't in a 'panic' way but more relaxed like "hm... itch.... let's scratch" (and he's just damn lazy)...

So I tested the water parameters and this time they were different than almost any other times...

pH: 6.4 (my test thingy says "!!!!!" when it's around 6.4 and my normal pH always was about 6.8-7.2)
KH: 0-3 (...like ¿¿ It always was about 6...)
GH: 4 (that's pretty stable all the time)
NO2: 0-0,5 (needs a water change ofcourse)
NO3: From 10 it suddenly became 100-250! Poor axies!
Ammonia stuff: 0 (it never says anything else... but I think the test might be a little old (it says 11-2010 so I'll buy a new one soon. Don't trust the constant 0, or the water really is 'ammonialess' all the time... even with NO3 that high???)

Okay. I sure need to do some water changes for the NO2 and 3 stuff... (and maybe ammonia if it's lying (lol)...)
But... The pH. Is it really dangerous for axies that low?
And the KH also is really low I guess. How do I make it go up a bit to 'normal'? I don't want to use any chemicals, so maybe some easy tricks?

Prolly that makes my axie scratch his gills. (I'll also look for things like flukes or anchor wormeys or so)

 

[Shizeric]

How large is your tank? How many Axolotls are in it? What type of filtration do you use? How long has the tank been setup and how often/large are your water changes?

 

[Morrison]

It's a 90 cm tank with two axies in it. (I had three but it was a bit too much I guess. So the other one has her own tank).

I do water changes weekly. About 25-30%.

I use an 'average' aquarium filter that is good for a tank this size (that's what the box said. Don't know the name exactly. I thought it was Dennerle or something. Can't see it very well now.

I have the tank set up for about 4 months (I had to restart the whole thing when I had some 'diseases' a while ago. Last week the only thing that has changed a bit was the pH but now more things are pretty... off track.

(I also don't spot any leftover food or dead worms hidden under the (fake) plants)

 

[carsona246]

My ph is usually 6.4, so I don't think its necessarily a bad thing, the drop is a little concerning, but that happens naturally if you don't do water changes for a while. I'm a little curious as to how your nitrates got that high without you expecting it, how high are they usually?

 

[Morrison]

Most of the time it's around 10 or sometimes 25. (Just a week ago it was 10...)
I don't know where it comes from. I don't see poo, food or anything else. I don't have rotting plants because they're fake plants. No rocks or gravel where things can be trapped in. Just sand. I sometimes feed them pellets but they're all gone in 3 minutes. (I feed like 5 per axie...)

 

[carsona246]

did something crawl in your tank and die lol? 100 ppm's is pretty rediculous, I'd start fishing around your tank to see if anything's rotting. at least your tanks nice and cycled and it's only nitrate. Do you have a canister filter? Maybe something got sucked in the filter and got stuck in there and is just rotting and pumping out nitrates.

 

[Morrison]

I'll take everything out to see if I can find anything. Maybe it's something somewhere under the sand.
I have an internal filter thingy and I don't see anything strange in there as well.

Looks like a little mystery...:lame: *sigh*

 

[Grete]

Kk, so... from what I've read you've got the NO2/3 in the works... it's ph without having to use icky chemicals.
I (because my tap water averages about 6.4) keep an oyster shell or 2 in my tank and crushed oyster shells in the filter, so the output has to filter through the shells, thus upping ph. It helps raise the ph level ALOT. Vancouver water is 6.2 - 6.4 (recently) and this method brings it up to 7.0 - 7.2. If you don't have means to oyster shells, alot of people will take corals, bag them in pantyhose/nylon and it does the same thing w/raising the ph. A healthier alternative to PHup!

 

[Jennewt]

The pH in long-term tanks will usually decrease over time. Animal metabolism and most forms of decay give off acid, so this is to be expected. So pH can be one indicator that things are out of balance and water changes aren't keeping up with waste production. Your nitrate is another indicator telling you the same thing. Give the sand a good vacuuming (do you have a sand-washing siphon?) and do some extra water changes.

Although I hesitate to blame the filter, I am not a fan of internal submersible filters (although it's still not clear from your posts if this is what you have - is it submersible or does it hang on the side?). Submersible filters do a poor job of aerating the water and they tend to give off heat directly into the water. Neither of these are good traits for axies.

 

[Morrison]

Yep, it's a submersible one. I also have some spare cartridges so maybe this one I'm using now is also starting to get 'full' of eew-goo.

About the sand. I do a lot of siphoning and I have a special 'sand part' for it. (But sand still goes in it but that's okay )

The good thing is that I don't see any scratching on the gills. The only weird things is that a part of a gill is missing but it looks like a tankmate did it. (My wildtype is a nasty guy sometimes) but I'll keep an eye on it and the water parameters.