Water change time

[Kal El]

Distilled water may be free from chemicals but this does not mean that it is safe for your axolotl. There is a difference between distilled and deionised (DI) water. Distilled water is water that has been evaporated thereby removing all impurities such as heavy metals, bacteria, radionuclides etc. and leaving behind the pure water vapours upon precipitation. DI water on the other has been treated via reverse osmosis (RO) which as the name implies removes all electrolyes (sodium, bromide, chloride, potassium etc) from the water, essentially making the water inert. DI and distilled water is not good for axolotl because all the essenetial minerals and electrolyes have been extracted, thereby reducing the general hardness (GH) of the water. Axolotls require somewhat hard water to maintain the integrity of their skin which in turn makes them less susceptible to illness.

Jay.

 

[oceanblue]

You can add salts to de-ionised/distilled or rain water. Tap water here is also very low salt. The recipe at http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/guide.htm works fine. When making up dissolve the calcium chloride before adding magnesium sulphate otherwise a coating of calcium sulphate forms and you get a lot of cloudy liquid.

For sodium chloride any table salt will do. Potassium chloride is available in the UK as 66% of Lo-salt, just cut back a fraction on the ordinary salt. Magnesium sulphate can be bought at garden centres as Epsom salts. Calcium chloride is dehumidifier granules at most hardware stores.

An approximate metric formula for a stock solution to be used at 25ml/Litre is
Salt 40g
Lo Salt 4g
Calcium Chloride 4g
Epsom Salts 10g

You do not need to be particularly precise with your measurements!

 

[oceanblue]

Sorry I was not very clear in the above post. The stock solution should be made up in 1 Litre and then used at a final dilution of 25ml in each Litre of water.

 

[Jennewt]

...My exp is that chlorine and chloramine in normal drinking water concentrations will dissipate from a bucket in 24 hours with nothing more than a small pump and an airstone. I prefer this method to adding any chemical to the water. I know of a few folks who have several larger tanks and need more than the occasional bucket of water. For these folks a nalgene tank of 5-50 gallons is used to age tap water. The tank has an airstone and a canister filter running carbon or some other media as needed. The tank runs constantly so there is always clean water available. When 5 gallons is removed, 5 gallons is replaced. Works like a charm.

My experience is different. I have a chlorine test kit, the kind sold for swimming pools, and I've done some tests. Depending on the temperature, it took from a few days up to several weeks for ordinary chlorine to dissipate. In my basement, it took about 2 weeks. Adding an airstone only slightly decreased the time needed to reach near-zero chlorine. Chloramine should take even longer, but I haven't done any tests with it.

The reason water aged for one day (or zero days) works OK for people is that chlorine isn't very toxic, particularly when it's only a partial water change. Not that I'm recommending this. It's better to get rid of the chlorine before adding the water, just to be on the safe side. And aging has the added benefit of bringing the water to the correct temperature and allowing it to de-gas.

The second method you mention is something I'd never heard of, but this sounds good. If only I had a spare canister filter around...