Whinge, moan, whine...

ok, i'm just about ready to chuck in the towel its all going horribly wrong and i think i'm better off with a hamster or sumthin. To start me off i was given incorrect advice from the pet store about cycling my tank... after nearly poisoning my two poor axies i removed them and they now live in tupperware boxes. The tank seems to be cycling now but i've got planaria, cyclops and some other stupid little mite in there. previously I was told daphnia would be good for axies and put some in - they ignored it and i ended up with a filter full of daphnia (which i cleaned out). have been putting some axie waste in the cycling tank occasionally to help the cycle but now my filter is dirty and i got these mites but water change/filter cleaning - i'm still cycling! the cyphon i bought sucks up my sank. also, being a worried parent i thought my axie had a floating problem but not so sure now although i don't really know the behaviour very well so cant really say. Whilst they been in solitary confinement they have grown considerably - so i bought a new tank today and thought i'd use the other for a few tropical fish (before i found the mites) and am now not really happy with the tank cos i have to fill it right up to cover the built in filter... and now i think there is too much water in there as its quite tall... plus hubby has put in some stupid ornaments but i have to let him get involved. my smaller axie jumped out of my hands when i was water changing and ended up falling down the back of my small stand i have the tupperware boxes on and has a couple of tiny blood spots on his tail from the incident (he hasn't pooed for about a week now btw) ... and on top of all this i have smashed my thermometer.

So if anyone else had a bad day and wants to share and make me feel better please feel free..........

omg thats bad. hey dont give up i have only had my axies for 2months and im all new to the thing as well. so far i have had no problems so its ok. but my advice would be to empty out the tank, clean the substrate really gud then put it all back together and let it cycle for 3-4 days (thats all i did and it worked really gud).
hope it helps

I disagree with Stipe. Keep working on cycling it as you are and it will be fine in another week or so. From what you told me on the chat, the "mites" are probably hydra, which are harmless.

Keep an eye on the one that fell. Hopefully it isn't hurt badly.

ye, i was going to let mine cycle for like 1 week but i just dont have the time and space to look aftre my axies in another container, so 4 days was gud and my ph, amonia, nitrate and nitrite levels are all good

Hey Andrea, what you have in your tank sounds like what I normally have in mine. I've excepted them because they do not harm my Axolotls, but if I don't keep a few small snails in with my Axies then the Hydra frost over the glass. My Apple snail just died recently, it was pretty big and probably pretty old I have no idea. As for keeping snails, most people on the forum are against it, some are for it, and some aren't sure. I keep them in my tank for the purpose to keep the pest populations down. There is no other way for me to do that other than have either a few tiny snails in the tank or a large apple snail. Because My snail died, the glass is starting to frost over again with hydra and other little critters, so I'll be getting another apple snail very soon. I wouldn't recommend getting snails, unless you really feel that you need to. Good luck

Also, did your thermometer break inside of the tank? if it did, I would keep your Axolotls out of there and instead of worrying about your tank cycling, I would worry about the murcury/red alcohol inside of those little things poisoning the water. I had a similiar problem a while back but luckily I got it taken cared for.

I hope your little axie friend will be ok.

iv'e never had a problem with my tanks....

thanks guys i have slept on it now so i feel a bit better today the thermometer didnt break in the tank i dont keep it in the tank i use it as and when to keep an eye besides i got containers and fresh buckets of water to check daily so i keep it on the table i might get a snail anyway but just the one if it helps. I spoke to Salmonella on chat and she has her tank filled up and axies are happy with that (i just wanted to try a setup like some of the pics in the gallery) hubby has agreed to take out his stoopid submarine and sunken ship lol and my lil guy went to poo!!

I been recommended to get something called Clearwater by Jungle to soak any new plants etc before adding to my new big tank so i feel better all round.

Shopping trip now for new stuff hehe

Thank you all for listening

gud luck, hope it all works out

Andrea, if you could get your hands on some potassium permanganate, I'd soak plants in this before adding them. If not, a good rinse in some warm salt water will kill most nasties you wouldn't want to introduce to your tank.

I'm glad you've got the cycling thing figured out. Sometimes it can take a couple tries, but is well worth the wait. I'd rather be patient for a month or two than risk the life of my axolotls.

Stipe, 4 days is not adequate for cycling. I recommend testing your water daily if you're going to introduce animals into an uncycled tank. Your ammonia will spike, followed by a nitrite spike. Both of these are very toxic to axolotls and will kill them if you let the levels get too high.

i know and thanks for the advice, i moved my axies to a holding tank and im going to check the levels today at the pet shop. should i leave the plants, rocks etc in to cycle with the tank??

I would take the plants out, as they will absorb the ammonia as their primary food source (put these in your holding tank with your axolotls, making sure to stay up on water changes, ~1 a day, depending on size of tank), and you want this to fuel your bacteria. I would leave the rocks and everything else in, as thats where the bacteria will grow.