My Tanks Ammonia is 'Critical' at 6.0 and Nitrite is 0.5

Hi there

Iam new to keeping Axolotls
i have recently bought my first axolotl she's 9 months old and totally cute.

However i have a fairly new tank set up about 2 weeks old. I tested the water yesterday which showed alarming results, with ammonia at 6.0 and nitrite at 0.5 I panicked immediately ! and jumped on the phone to my local professional aquarium shop. They suggested that i do a 10-20L water change (my tank is 48 L filled up to 40L) and test again throughout weekend. gradually the ammonia should come down.

With me having such a new tank set up i don't want any cases of 'new tank syndrome' I treat all new water throughout water changes with fluvial water conditional and cycle products. new filter has also been dosed with fluval cycle previously. :bowl:

bit worried about my Axie but she seems really happy and showing no signs of stress or gasping for air despite the high ammonia reading. changing the water in this way seems to be the way forward as each time i do a water change she seems more active the next day.

I guess I just wanted an opinion from you guys and you have been keeping Axolotls longer than me and should have an understanding of my current situation.

You'll have to do daily 50% water changes every day for the next few weeks if you want that axolotl to be safe and happy. Coldest water you can get. Feed light. 9 months old in a 10 gallon tank is pushing it.

Doing a 50% water change every day would prevent a cycle from being established, potentially even stall a stabilized tank. This is because the bacteria which consume ammonia, Nitrobacter i believe, require the ammonia to grow into a colony capable of keeping ammonia levels low. When this bacterial colony has reached its max size in relation to the amount of ammonia being produced, (how many animals you have producing how much waste) then the Nitrobacter are considered 'stabilized' in their environment. Maintaining 0ppm ammonia kills off the bacteria via starvation essentially.

This exact concept directly applies to nitrite as well, with Nitrosomas being the applicable bacteria.

OP, have you witnessed the nitrite spike yet? Both ammonia and nitrite will want to spike as your bacterial colonies grow to catch up with waste inputs. Your job is to watch these levels and do water changes as necessary to keep ammonia and nitrite levels low, but present, I would say less than 1ppm. If axies seem stressed then lower.

Also, look into fishless cycling. It costs less than $5 for ammonia itself, allowing you to cultivate the bacterial colonies BEFORE you put animals in, less stress for them, no constant water changing for you.

Thank you for your comments.

I was not aware of 'cycling' as naively i used Fluval cycle enhancer - assuming this would be enough and it would sort itself out if the packaging is to be believed.

in hindsight this was probably not the best thing to do.

However I only have one small Axie in a 48 Litre tank this should be adequate for her i have 3 plants and she does not seem to be in any stress what so ever by the ammonia spike. I have been performing 10L water changes everyday and each morning she is slightly more active. she is happy.

however it takes a number of weeks for a new tank to become established as you have described. I think she will be ok if water changes are frequent as you say to help establish the tank.
I will look into fish less cycling in future. :happy:

Daily water changes do not prevent cycles.

Swag said:

Daily water changes do not prevent cycles.

Click to expand...

It depends on how much water is changed. I spent 3 months trying to cycle a tank. I was afraid high ammonia levels would kill my axolotl so I changed 50% of the water every day. For the entire three months the ammonia and nitrites stayed exactly the same. I was taking too much water out, which removed a lot of the beneficial bacteria. Once I switched to 30% water changes the levels started to get better.

Other notes to reply to earlier posts in this thread:

Bacterial supplement products like Cycle etc. don't work. They don't do harm, but they're a waste of money IMO. Either the bacterial culture in the bottle is already dead, or the bacteria species is wrong. Either way, I've never noticed any difference in the cycling process with these products.

Re fishless cycling, before trying it make sure you can find a source of pure ammonia, without soaps, colouring etc. It's very hard to find these days. Without ammonia you can use bits of fish food or raw fish, but the cycling process will take longer.