Ammonia attacks!!

G

grant

Guest
Ok my ammonia has been normal, I do daily water checks but today I tested it and his ammonia was around 2!! I immediatly took him out and put him in the guppy tank (yes I took the guppies out). I changed the water in the guppy tank to tap water with a dechlorinator in it (their water wasn't cycled because they live in a plastic bowl). I am going to keep him in there until everything goes back to zero, but what do I do about the water for now? Should I do 100% water changes everyday? The "tank" isn't really a tank it is like a big plastic bowl. It probably holds about 2 gallons. Changing the water would be no problem though. I have no idea what triggered this. He has been living in precycled water from another one of my tanks for about a month now and everything has been fine until today. Oh and his pH is normally around 7.5 that isn't to high is it? I know they like really hard water.

(Message edited by gx3 on June 10, 2005)
 
Have you been doing partial water changes every week or so? If not, do one now.

And the precycled water - there needs to be some sort of filter media, or object from the original cycled tank to maintain the bio-filter, I think.

(Message edited by waltona on June 10, 2005)
 
It's not the water in your tank that is cycled, it's the bacteria growing in/on the filter, gravel, plants, glass, etc. so using "pre-cycled water" from another tank actually doesn't do anything. In order to pre-cyle a tank, you have to have the filter running on an existing tank for about 2 weeks, and then being carful not to stock your tank with more than half it's final bioload for about 2 weeks. Putting any decorations in there at the same time helps too.

My guess would be that your tank reached the point in it's initial cycle where the ammonia in the tank can spike, and it did. It doesn't happen all of the time, but it happens, so don't panic. Leave the water in your main tank, it should drop to more tolerable levels in a few days. Keep him in his little bowl, put in an air stone if you have one, and do a half water change every day on the bowl. Once the ammonia level is back down, you can move him back. Keep in mind though, that the tank isn't really cycled yet, so nitrite should start to increase next.

(Message edited by brian on June 10, 2005)
 
Ok. Well I could probably keep him there for a while its not to small. And I have a little bubbler thing that I keep in there normally for the guppies. Should I do full water changes everyday on the holding tank he's in now? And should I just keep him in there until the nitrite and then nitrate spikes then put him back in?
 
The tank with the ammonia, I would recommend you get a nitrite and nitrate test. Just reading your previous post where you got an axie a little earlier than you anticipated and there was some dissent as to whether your tank had cycled fully or not. As it has been running for over a month, I would have expected the initial ammonia spike to have happened and cycling to have been done. IF you detect nitrates in the water, this may be the case and all you need do is change some of the water to lower the ammonia level. You can add ammolock in this case.

If there are no nitrates present, it may be that your tank is just now beginning to cycle. We need to verify the water chemistry first before deciding where to keep your axie.

Having said that, I'm not an expert - this is the process I would go thru if I had your problem.
happy.gif
. Im sure there are plenty of other suggestions out there.
 
Not a bad Idea Anne-Marie. Checking for nitrates will tell you if your tank has cycled completely or not. I still have a hunch that it hasn't yet though.
 
Ok thanks Cynthia. Well I was thinking that my tank had cycled but now I'm not to sure. I never posted about what I actually ended up doing with my tank but what I did was I used water from another tank. The plants and everything are from a cycled tank as well, but now I just think that maybe it wasn't cycled even after that. So I will leave him in the other tank for a few weeks if necessary. But I have the other tests kits too.
 
Hello:

This is a message on behalf of my 10-year old son who recently acquired a 6" "wild-type" axolotl. We are very concerned because of the readings on the 10 gallon capacity glass aquarium (filled with 7.5 gallons has the following readings using the Red Sea Fresh Lab kit:

Water Temperature: 76F/24C
pH: 7.2
NH3/NH4: 5.0 ppm
NO2: 0

The axolotl is active and appears healthy. He is eating twice a day 2 sticks of Tetra's Reptomin or 2 granules twice a day of HBH Newt and Salamander bites.
Water is slightly cloudy.

Sales personnel at the local commercial aquariums has been conflictive and confusing ( belive due to a lack of expertise with axolotls).
We don't want to endanger this beautiful specimen and would appreciate any information regarding the above readings and corrective actions, if any.

Thanks,

Stephen and Jorge}
 
Stephen - Welcome to the forum.

From your water parameters it appears as though your axolotl is in a newly setup tank that has not cycled. While the tank is cycling it is dangerous possibly even lethal for your axolotl to be in there.

I would suggest that you remove your axolotl from the tank and place him in a food safe container of fresh dechlorinated water. The container should be a size that will be easy for you to change the water in daily. But not so small that he can jump out easily. He will need to live in this smaller container for 30+ days while the tank cycles. Keep the water in his container clean and cool.

You need to keep the temperature ideally between 57-68 Fahrenheit but definitely not over 75 degrees. At higher temps the axolotl will be stressed which leads to illness.

Once he is back in the tank running a fan over the top of the aquarium water will help cool the temperature as will floating frozen bottles of water. If you have a light on the tank keeping it off will also help lower the temp.

Please check out the following links for information on tank cycling, and axolotl basic care.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

http://www.axolotl.org

http://www.indiana.edu/~axolotl/axolotls/faq2.html
 
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