Water quality -am I just lucky?

[Canaveral]

Hi all! I'd like to hear what you all think of this. My first axie arrived yesterday and I'm cycling my tank before I put him in. (I'm keeping a close eye on all of the levels of the water he came in and so far everything is stable, everything is in the ideal range.) From everything I've read I thought it would be a real grunt to get all the levels in my tank just right, especially with Florida's infamously processed water....however I seem to be experiencing the opposite.

I think I'm finding out that the levels of everything in my tap water here may actually work to my advantage -Florida water is laden with chlorine, so obviously conditioning is a big deal, but aside from the chlorine....I've tested everything in my conditioned water versus raw tap water, and all of the levels are exactly the same. They are all in the ideal range, with the exception of being a little over 8.0 in hardness.

In addition to this, when I test the water that my axie came in, the levels vary minimally from the levels in my tap and conditioned water. The only notable difference is that his water is a little on the soft side.

Am I just insanely lucky or am I missing something?

 

[EJgraydon]

Well theres nothing making ammonia in the tank yet so you aren't getting an ammonia, nitri/ate reading

 

[wandering]

Its like this. You put your axolotl in a tank and feed him every day for a few weeks. You put a gently flowing filter in the tank. You take out all the visible poop each day. After a while your axie starts to look unwell so you get on here and ask questions. You are advised to test your water and to your horror the ammonia is through the roof!
What you need is bacteria that will turn the harmful ammonia into nitrite and then into much less harmful nitrate. Its better to grow your bacteria first so that your axie does not have to get sick. The process of growing your bacterial cultures is called cycling and it usually takes about 6 weeks. The bacteria live on surfaces so you will find that your filter contains sponge or ceramic pieces or similar so that there is a large surface available. You start your cycle by adding pure ammonia. Your cycle is complete when you add pure ammonia and it is all gone by the next day. There are instructions for 'fishless cycling' on this forum.
Hope that helps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Alkylhalide]

Its like this. You put your axolotl in a tank and feed him every day for a few weeks. You put a gently flowing filter in the tank. You take out all the visible poop each day. After a while your axie starts to look unwell so you get on here and ask questions. You are advised to test your water and to your horror the ammonia is through the roof!
What you need is bacteria that will turn the harmful ammonia into nitrite and then into much less harmful nitrate. Its better to grow your bacteria first so that your axie does not have to get sick. The process of growing your bacterial cultures is called cycling and it usually takes about 6 weeks. The bacteria live on surfaces so you will find that your filter contains sponge or ceramic pieces or similar so that there is a large surface available. You start your cycle by adding pure ammonia. Your cycle is complete when you add pure ammonia and it is all gone by the next day. There are instructions for 'fishless cycling' on this forum.
Hope that helps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I cannot find this thread for "fishless cycling" Do you have a link?

Also Is there a thread here on cycling using fish? Instead of using my axies to cycle my tank, my idea was to use something less precious to me, so I am using guppies in my 10 gallon tank that are cycling the **** out of my tank! I have been doing 20% water changes every other day for about a week or just over a week now. I have an ammonia alert on the tank that doesnt test total ammonia like the test kits do, and its been sitting at 0.025ppm for about a week (No lower no higher, ever) Which is in the "alert" box.
I will test to water probably tonight, does anyone know what I should be seeing for number when I use the test kit(API Master Test Kit)
What numbers would be normal at this time of the cycling process? Anything else I can do to help the process along? I really want to get my axies out of tubs >.< To mucchhh water changes! (I have hatchlings too thats why.)

 

[Canaveral]

Well I'm doing 20% water changes every day, so hopefully that will circumvent any sudden spikes in ammonia toxicity. I've been checking the levels religiously too, so I think I'll notice if something starts to take a downward turn in time to take appropriate measures.