Question: Water testing products + cycling questions

[Jessicat]

Hi all, kinda coming to terms that I wasn't fully clued in when I got my axolotl, and as such I don't actually know if the tank he's in has cycled. I've had said axolotl since late september, sellers reassured me that I only needed to swap out about 1"-2" or 20% of water from a 10 gallon tank once a week and besides an aerating(sp?) filter no other attention to the water was needed :\ Reading through the forums it seems there's some hardcore water testing business that goes on, kind of what I was hoping to avoid ._. How often should water be tested? What specifically should be tested? I've been surfing online and found a series of aquarium test kits made by a company called API; PH, copper, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and a couple others (for freshwater setups), in single-type tests and a combination strip-style test. Are these reliable and worth getting or should I look for other brands/types? Sorry for the ultra-newb questions, my specialty isn't water types, lol ^^;
Was looking into getting some Canadian Pondweed for the tank once it's available/in season (recommended by another forum member here), any other tips on keeping water (naturally) balanced aside from constant changes? (which I feel are stressing out my axolotl, he's not as active and been more jumpy lately). Any help/tips/info would be appreciated!

 

[Elise]

API Freshwater Master Test Kit is the kit most people here use. It's a good balance between accuracy and affordability. It includes tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph which you will use for monitoring your tank during the cycling process along with testing water for maintenance. The API kit is liquid based as opposed to strips which the general consensus here is they are far too inaccurate to be trusted. All other tests (copper, hardness, calcium) are for special cases and you generally wont need these. For example if you are using soft water or RO water and need to supplement minerals you would use the hardness test.
It's really not as intimidating at it seems and you'll pick it up rather fast. Plus you gain a lot of insight into what's going on with your water quality. Buy the master test kit, it will be one of the best investments you'll make for your axolotl.

The advice the seller gave you was incorrect and if you've only been doing 20% water changes once a week with an uncycled tank and only aeration, then I'm genuinely surprised you're axolotl has made it this far. If an axolotl was placed in 10 gallon uncycled tank with only a sponge filter, I would expect unsafe ammonia levels by the 2nd or 3rd day.

I'll wait to see what the others have to say on your cylce. You may have inadvertently done a fish-in-cycle.

 

[SuburbanGirl]

I took the advice of the local fish store, and when I put Jack in his first tank it was uncycled with a sponge filter and I didn't change the water for a month. I did use a strip test about once a week, and after about 4 weeks it indicated a water change was needed, which I did. I know this was the wrong thing to do, but he was small, so I don't think the ammonia was ever high enough to hurt him. He is fine now, but I do use a liquid kit and I check the water about once a week, and do water changes with the same frequency. I would say now that you know better what to do to start taking care of the problem and you should avoid any long term damage from stress.

 

[Jessicat]

API Freshwater Master Test Kit is the kit most people here use. It's a good balance between accuracy and affordability. It includes tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph which you will use for monitoring your tank during the cycling process along with testing water for maintenance. The API kit is liquid based as opposed to strips which the general consensus here is they are far too inaccurate to be trusted. All other tests (copper, hardness, calcium) are for special cases and you generally wont need these. For example if you are using soft water or RO water and need to supplement minerals you would use the hardness test.
It's really not as intimidating at it seems and you'll pick it up rather fast. Plus you gain a lot of insight into what's going on with your water quality. Buy the master test kit, it will be one of the best investments you'll make for your axolotl.

The advice the seller gave you was incorrect and if you've only been doing 20% water changes once a week with an uncycled tank and only aeration, then I'm genuinely surprised you're axolotl has made it this far. If an axolotl was placed in 10 gallon uncycled tank with only a sponge filter, I would expect unsafe ammonia levels by the 2nd or 3rd day.

I'll wait to see what the others have to say on your cylce. You may have inadvertently done a fish-in-cycle.

More recently I've been doing bigger water changes more often once I found out those half-marble glass things are like, the worst substrate ever. In addition, they were holding down a lot of debris (not just poop, also I guess bloodworm cube debris?), which I did my best to suction out with a turkey baster. There's still some of it around in the tank, and some of the deco has a bit of algae too. Said axolotl hasn't lost his appetite, been feeding him daily since I got him(or her). I miss when they're small and see-through so you know when they're full XD I had a bigger hanging-inside-the-tank filter before but it didn't make much air, it poured the water back in the tank like a small waterfall...I was using it with the airating-type filter until the in-the-tank filter started getting slimy so I took it out

As for the API Master Test Kit, that would be this right?
The PlantGuy- Canadian Aquarium Plants

Was searching for some live plants that are axolotl-friendly and relatively maintenance-free, are there any that they can't tolerate/be around for any reason? The Elodea is out of stock on this website (same as linked above), but they have other low-light plants HERE, are any of these good choices? (I don't have a substrate either, so that may limit my options too). Thanks a lot for the input all!

 

[auntiejude]

I took the advice of the local fish store.

But axolotls aren't fish! Your average LFS knows next to nothing about axies. Like the fact they create 3 times as much waste/ammonia as the same weight of fish, and as such need a lot of work to keep good water quality at the start.
If he's doing ok then you obviously got lucky, but from now on keep an eye on the water parameters.
Those half marbles are the worst for the health of your axie, let alone cleaning. Axies tend to eat them, then it gets stuck inside and the axie dies.

 

[layna]

You can get the api freshwater test kits off ebay and amazon for around £20 which is cheaper than the shops
Its for a piece of mind and a happy lottle, but they do literally last months on end, ive only ever bought one kit and my axie is 15 months old now.
You can add pothos roots to the tank to keep nitrates lower, just have the leaves and stems out of the water.
I would be doing daily 10% changes on your tank until you can test the water and see what the readings are, its better to be safe than sorry

Plants that are good in an axie tank;
most types of anubias
elodea (American or Canadian Waterweed or Pondweed)
water lettuce
mini water lettuce
marimo moss balls
most types of moss
water soldiers
hornwort
java fern

 

[Jessicat]

@auntiejude - I know, I saw the x-ray threads here with injested glass marbles and rocks, and that's when I took them out (I got my axolotl young and he hadn't eaten any, only heard him moving them around). I agree on the difficulty of cleaning, I had no idea all that junk was stuck in the tank until I took them out.

You can get the api freshwater test kits off ebay and amazon for around £20 which is cheaper than the shops
Its for a piece of mind and a happy lottle, but they do literally last months on end, ive only ever bought one kit and my axie is 15 months old now.
You can add pothos roots to the tank to keep nitrates lower, just have the leaves and stems out of the water.
I would be doing daily 10% changes on your tank until you can test the water and see what the readings are, its better to be safe than sorry

Plants that are good in an axie tank;
most types of anubias
elodea (American or Canadian Waterweed or Pondweed)
water lettuce
mini water lettuce
marimo moss balls
most types of moss
water soldiers
hornwort
java fern

Yea, I'm doing daily changes now, and keeping an eye on the filter, making sure to swap it when it gets full of debris. Also the webshop I linked in my earlier post sells that API Master Test Kit for only $23 (plus shipping), so I think that's the best price I'll get within the country, haven't seen anything like this locally. They also have moss balls and hornwort in stock so I'll grab some of those too. I'll post results once I have the kit and do the tests, thanks all! I can grab some pics in a bit of the tank too if that'd be any good.

 

[layna]

Hey

and keeping an eye on the filter, making sure to swap it when it gets full of debris.

If your trying to cycle your tank you shouldnt be changing the filter media, just rinsing it in a tub of tap water.
The 'good bateria' grows on the sponges and ceramic noodles ect so each time you swap it, your taking them away!
and dont listen to the lfs when they say you need to change them once a month, they last months on end and only need swapping when they start to fall apart
Even then you just swap one sponge at a time so as not to disturb your cycle.
Hope this helps

 

[Jessicat]

Now I'm even more confused, I thought the waste/poop/junk in the filter was what needed to be removed to keep the tank from going bad x.x ugh, I swear this is exactly what I didn't want to deal with, not even sure how my axolotl is still alive and eating considering by everything I've read he should have died a long time ago with the bad water ;>> Well I'm still waiting on my water test kit to arrive, I guess I'll see what results I get with that once it's here ._.

 

[layna]

The filter does exactly that, filters the water through the sponges ect.
You leave everything how it is but once a month or so, you take your filter apart and rinse the sponges ect in a bucket of tank water.
Thats it.
No disposable filters, no replacing the sponge ect
A simple 'rinse' the good bacteria grow on the sponges and it keeps your tank healthy haha.
When your throwing your filters away, your throwing away the 'good bacteria' that has grown.
Have you read up on cycling?
The (almost) Complete Guide and FAQ to Fishless Cycling - Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community
This is a good website that explains a lot. cycling is hard to understand at first, but one day (when you start testing ect) it will just click and youll be like "ohhhhh NOW i get it"

 

[Jessicat]

Okay, got my water test kit, did the tests, and the results are:
Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - 0.50 ppm
Nitrate - 5ppm

....how bad is this? ._. And how can I fix it?


Also tossed in some hornwort and a moss ball that I got into the tank; I rinsed them both in tank water before putting them in but there are still floaty plant bits everywhere from the hornwort now that it's in the tank ;>_> Does hornwort need to be grounded or can it just float around?

 

[layna]

You really want to keep ammonia and nitrite 0.25ppm or lower.
Soooo your test results mean your cycle has started YEY!

Assuming you now have a permanent filter, stick to daily 10-20% changes depending on the water test readings and in a couple of weeks, it should be showing 0 for ammonia and nitrite and you will have a reading for nitrAte (should be kept lower than 40ppm)

When you get those two zero readings, you can stop the daily water changes and instead do weekly 20-30% changes instead

 

[auntiejude]

Those aren't 'bad' results, it shows you have a start on your cycle.

You need to keep up the regular water changes to keep the levels down. If you test your water before you change it you'll get an idea of how it's going. When you have no ammonia when you test it means your cycle is established and you can cut down the water changes to just control the Nitrates (under 40)