Uncycled Axie Tank

[Rxoc]

Hello!

Ok so I am stressed, I am on my second week with my axolotl. When I got her I had to get a brand new tank and filter for her. Therefore, I had to start a cycle. Well, I got her tank set up and added a filter and even added some established media to her filter. Everything was fine and I had a cycle started. The ammonia began at .25-.5 ppm which is what my tap water carries. Then all of a sudden my cycle crashed, no more nitrites were showing up, my ammonia skyrocketed and no nitrates. I have been doing water changes since my ammonia is always 1ppm or higher. However, I am worried my axolotl will get ammonia burn. Therefore, I followed some suggested and added her to a small container so I could do 100% water changes.
My problem is that despite being in the small container with dechlorinated water, even if I test freshly changed water...I get a reading of 1ppm....but when I test my fish tank I get a lower reading so it's not the test. I'm so confused...how is my fresh water still so high in ammonia????

Having her in the container is stressful as she doesn't like it and on top of that every time I have to move her to change the water she gets more stressed...I am feeding her and she is eating fine and pooping fine. No curled tail....she has no gills so she cant curl them.


What do I do?! This is stressing me out.

 

[tundrabadger]

Is it possible that the treatment you are using to dechlorinate the water is reacting with your ammonia test? why not do a test on some tap water and then one on some freshly treated water and see if the results come out different? If the treatment is reacting with the test then the freshly treated water in your bin would probably test higher than your fish tank, since I imagine you're not doing daily 100% changes in the tank.

 

[Rxoc]

Yeah thats what I did...my tap water readings:

pH-7.6
Ammonia - .25-.5
Nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0


But my actual tests on my tanks and the container come out all wonky.

 

[tundrabadger]

Yeah thats what I did...my tap water readings:

pH-7.6
Ammonia - .25-.5
Nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0


But my actual tests on my tanks and the container come out all wonky.

I don't think it's as wonky as you think...if your fish tank is cycled, even if your tapwater naturally contains ammonia, the ammonia is likely being broken down. If you are getting high readings off freshly treated water that has not, and this is key, had your axie in it for any amount of time, then what's most likely happening is the treatment and the reagent in your test kit reacting...a false reading. But to be sure, if you haven't yet, I would suggest treating some water in a clean axie less container and testing that if you haven't already.

 

[Tye]

Two weeks is a little too early to have a cycled tank anyways. My guess is that the beneficial bacteria on the filter medium was killed during the move to the new tank and hasn't had a chance to re-colonize. And if they didn't all die, then a noticeable amount did.
It's normal not to see nitrites that early anyways. I didn't see any in my tank until about a month into cycling. Then after the nitrite spike it was two weeks before both ammonia and nitrite were zero and nitrates at 30-40ppm.

The only conditioner I know that throws false positives on tests is Seachem Prime. They have a page on their website where they talk about what types of tests are effected. I checked during my cycling adventures to make sure I was really reading the correct numbers after I thought my cycle had stalled a month in. I just hadn't waited long enough.


I don't have any solid suggestions on what to do if your tapwater is high in ammonia naturally. I'm not sure if the correct action is to use an ammonia detoxifying conditioner like Prime, or to switch water sources. I'm also not sure how much of an extra ammonia load an established tank can handle. Perhaps an established tank can handle the extra tap water ammonia during the weekly 20% water change. Maybe there's another thread that talks about that with some input from people who know more than me.
What were your tank readings? You just said they were wonky.

 

[Hayleyy]

I've got ammonia in my water source as well and am using seachem prime to help. I don't usually retest the water until a day or so later because of the dechlorinator, as tundrabadger said. If you can, treat a bucket of water a day or more before doing a water change in the axie tub so that when you test it it isn't freshly dechlorinated, if that makes sense. You might find that helps. In a cycled tank the ammonia in the water source isn't too much of an issue unless you're doing major water changes. I do around 20% a week.

 

[Rxoc]

Okidoki, so I will not test my water until 24 hours later to ensure I don't get a false reading. I put my axie back in her 10 gallon tank but what I did was remove the sand from the tank. This helped a lot the ammonia is down from 1-2 ppm....and is now around .5-1ppm 24 hours later despite her being in...it has helped me clean the tank easier too as poop was hiding under the sand. My only issue is my axolotl seems uncomfortable since its hard for her to move around now. I might do a scape where only part of my tank has some sand so that I can add plants too.

I am going to be adding moss balls for her to mess with and some more hides. She has started to explore this giant rock structure I got for her with holes for her to go inside so that is good...but she misses the fake plant I had for her which used to love swimming through...but without sand, it won't stay. I added that and one of the filters to my barb tank. My hope is that eventually, I can bring the filter from the barb tank back into the axie tank with beneficial bacteria already established to move the cycle along.


My LFS suggested I add my axie to the barb tank with a divider between the two and I entertained the idea until I realized two problems....the gravel and the temperature.

My tiger barb tank has three small barbs but they have gravel so that would be bad for axie...and I could just remove it from her side of the tank....but then there is the problem with the temp...my axie currently resides in 68-70 degrees water....I don't know if my barbs would be okay with that temp...they are currently in 80 degrees water.

 

[Tye]

Please don't put your axolotl with your barbs, even in a divided tank. The temperature barbs need to thrive will kill an axolotl, and the temperatures axolotls need to thrive will either kill or hurt your barbs.
Plus if the axolotl jumps the divider, or knocks it down it could be seriously hurt by the fish. Keeping other species with axolotls usually spells disaster for the axolotl and other species involved.

 

[Rxoc]

Yeah I wont be, she seems to be doing fine so far. Its been two weeks and my axie is faring well....so I will just continue having a diligent eye over things