Illness/Sickness: Axolotl floating, tank was too alkaline.

Thanks in advance, this community is wonderful.
I got my axolotl a couple weeks ago, she is a wildtype baby. She was completely healthy when she arrived, although the container she was in got a little above the perfect range while she was in the mailbox. I did instruct them to put the container in the garage but evidently it fit so they decided that advice was unnecessary.
Anyway, recently she's been floating on and off. She still was very lively, swam away from my hand, still swims to the bottom to eat. However, she began floating more often and last night I discovered her on her side, floating, listless. She still did try to swim away, but with less energy.
I tested her water, to find high alkalinity. Turns out the sand (ALTHOUGH I TESTED IT with vinegar) contained some level of carbonate. I'm still not sure exactly what that mixture is.
I immediately took her out of the tank and put her in a pitcher with clean treated water with a much healthier pH. She continued to float. After more research, I put her in a tupperware container this morning, with water barely covering her back. She is still twisting a little to the side, about a 25 degree angle with the bottom. Sometimes she will sit flat and look perfectly normal. She is looking more lively already, and ate two or three sinking shrimp pellets. (small of course)
So my question now is, how did this affect her? I don't think it could be an impaction/constipation, the sand was very fine and she only ate in the tank once, the rest of the times I took her out because it was a pain to clean the leftover bloodworms. I read that high alkalinity can cause ammonia to affect them more, but she isn't showing signs of ammonia burn, her eyes are clear and her gills look good. She is a little pale, about the color she was when she arrived stressed from the mail. Could it just be stress?
Thank you to anyone who can help, I feel awful for hurting my little baby, although it was an accident.

As for the future, I will be removing the sand (obviously) and going bare bottom for a while, possibly with a placemat. I'll also run the filter with fresh water to get out everything I can, before putting it back in the aquarium. I don't want to have to change the filter because the bacteria just got settled and I would have to recycle my tank.
If the pH is still a little high due to residual stuff, I might use pH down in small amounts to get it perfect.

Water Parameters as tested yesterday: (unfortunately I do not have an ammonia test kit)
Nitrate:approx. 20 ppm (reads as safe on the test kit)
Nitrite: 0 to .25 (a little high, but it is a new tank, could this be the reason?)
Total Hardness: Soft
Total Alkalinity: 300 ppm (reads as high on the kit, 180 is "ideal"
pH: 7.8 (alkaline, of course)

pH7.8 is not alkaline, it's neutral and perfectly fine for axies. If you got a reading of over 8.5 I'd be concerned. pH up and down solutions are not recommended fo axies.
What do you mean by 'total alkalinity'? Do you mean the GH or KH readings? That is hardness - the total dissolved minerals in your tank. A reading of 300 is perfect for axies, they prefer hard water.

If you have readings for nitrite then your tank is not cycled - did you cycle it properly before your axie arrived? And are you using liquid tests or strips? Strips are not terribly accurate, and you really need to test for ammonia.

How big is your axie? Small axies often float because they like it, or because they have an air bubble. This phase passes as they grow, and it's not usually anything to worry about.

Axies go pale when they are asleep, and floating wonky usually means they have fallen asleep while floating and just tipped sideways a bit. If they can get to the bottom when they want to it's nothing to worry about.

auntiejude said:

pH7.8 is not alkaline, it's neutral and perfectly fine for axies. If you got a reading of over 8.5 I'd be concerned. pH up and down solutions are not recommended fo axies.
What do you mean by 'total alkalinity'? Do you mean the GH or KH readings? That is hardness - the total dissolved minerals in your tank. A reading of 300 is perfect for axies, they prefer hard water.

If you have readings for nitrite then your tank is not cycled - did you cycle it properly before your axie arrived? And are you using liquid tests or strips? Strips are not terribly accurate, and you really need to test for ammonia.

How big is your axie? Small axies often float because they like it, or because they have an air bubble. This phase passes as they grow, and it's not usually anything to worry about.

Axies go pale when they are asleep, and floating wonky usually means they have fallen asleep while floating and just tipped sideways a bit. If they can get to the bottom when they want to it's nothing to worry about.

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Thank you for replying! I am using test strips because they're all I had on hand at the moment. I am planning on upgrading my testing equipment, and getting something to test ammonia. The "Total Alkalinity" is KH according to the bottle. The pH was between 7.8 and 8.4 (also according the color reading) and I just rounded down instead of up. It still might be a little higher than neutral in my opinion of the color.
I did cycle my tank before the axie arrived, but due to the short notice (I had to buy before they were sold out) I used a single plant, some "bacteria in a bag" from petsmart, and fish food. I got about 5 ghost shrimp to clean up some of the food, and I allowed the bacteria to settle for a few days before the axie arrived. I then used a gravel vacuum to clean up the grossness I used to cycle, as well as remove about 50% of the water, maybe a little less? So I would say it's pretty decently cycled, although I could be horribly wrong.

Lastly, I do have some good news. I left her this morning slightly floating, with water barely covering her, after feeding a couple shrimp pellets. I just came home to find that she has passed some waste, which is colored as one would expect, and also seems to contain sand. I think it was a slight impaction. She is MUCH livelier, and I placed her back in the pitcher to do a water change on the small container. She is at the bottom, not fighting to stay down. I think that might have resolved the floating problem.
My question is now...
Should I still remove the substrate, or will she learn how to eat on it eventually?
I will be removing her for feedings until she gets big enough for earthworms anyway, because I don't like cleaning up loose bloodworms, so once she's eating earthworms will she stop sucking in sand?
Of course, it still may contain carbonate, which would be grounds for removal anyway as soon as I can tell for sure, but I think that right now that wasn't the problem.

Also, in response to the nitrite thing...the strip said white was no nitrite, and as the squares got darker, so did the nitrite level. My strip was BARELY pink at all, I would say even paler than the .5 ppm square. I just didn't want to say 0 ppm when in reality it's probably about .25, because for all I knew it could have been nitrite problems and I would hate to inadvertently lie and hurt my baby. So yes, it's not quite .5 ppm but not a perfect 0.

Sounds like you cycled your tank for a few days? It takes several weeks to cycle a tank. Definitely get an ammonia test kit ASAP. I recommend keeping her in a Tupperware with daily 100% water changes until you get a test kit. In my experience bloodworms can cause rapid ammonia spikes while cycling, more so than pellets, so I would err towards caution until you know for sure the ammonia levels aren't harmful. I didn't know anything about cycling before this site, and found this super helpful: Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling
Good luck with your new pet! Once you get your water quality in order it'll be smooth sailing!

ChristineB said:

Sounds like you cycled your tank for a few days? It takes several weeks to cycle a tank. Definitely get an ammonia test kit ASAP. I recommend keeping her in a Tupperware with daily 100% water changes until you get a test kit. In my experience bloodworms can cause rapid ammonia spikes while cycling, more so than pellets, so I would err towards caution until you know for sure the ammonia levels aren't harmful. I didn't know anything about cycling before this site, and found this super helpful: Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling
Good luck with your new pet! Once you get your water quality in order it'll be smooth sailing!

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Thanks for your help. I have her separate right now, I'm continuing to cycle the tank. I do have one last question though. Is the sand safe? I think it must contain something that is raising the alkalinity, like carbonate. However, if it was entirely calcium carbonate I would have noticed a reaction when I tested it. Should the mixture be safe? How could an excess of carbonate hurt axolotls?

If it's children's play sand or aquarium sand I would think it would be fine. I don't think that's likely to be the problem, unless she ingested some. To avoid that, try feeding her in a dish or sideways glass jar. Many people use turkey basters to move the thawed worms into the feeding area to avoid mess and accidental sand ingestion.

ChristineB said:

If it's children's play sand or aquarium sand I would think it would be fine. I don't think that's likely to be the problem, unless she ingested some. To avoid that, try feeding her in a dish or sideways glass jar. Many people use turkey basters to move the thawed worms into the feeding area to avoid mess and accidental sand ingestion.

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It is children's play/craft sand.
I'll continue feeding her out of the tank until I get to earthworms, then I'll use a dish. Thank you for all your help. I'll re-introduce her to the tank soon, at a time when I can keep an eye on how she does.

Well, now I have a problem.
I introduced her to the tank again, and left for school. When I got home, little girl was floating.
This time I hadn't put food in for her, so I personally blamed the substrate for influencing something that my strips don't test for. I say this because everything on the strip is perfect. I tested the water before I put her in, and after I found her floating. Zero nitrite, almost zero nitrate, good temperature, good pH, good everything. I've been putting some food in while she was out of the tank to keep the cycle from crashing, but I removed all that before putting her back in.
I took her out, repeated the "anti-float" cycle, and she's back to normal now. But she did pass sand again!
I have no idea why she decided to eat it, considering I wasn't trying to feed her. My only thought is that she tried to eat the pellet residue from me feeding the bacteria. However, she hadn't seemed interested in the pellets before I put her back in, because I did try to feed her.
So now I'm stuck, I don't know whether the substrate is harming the water chemistry or if she just ate more sand and started floating again. The only solution I can think of is putting her back in and watching her for a day. I'm going to try feeding her bloodworms before, to hopefully fill her up with something more desirable than good smelling sand.
What do you guys think of my plan? Is it reckless to put her back in even though she recovered so well from floating this time?