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Tank cycled?

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grant

Guest
Ok my axie has been in the holding tank forever now. I have been testing the tanks water (with my loach in it) often and about a week and a half ago the ammonia was a little high and the nitrites and nitrates were really high. I just tested it and there is no ammonia but there is .50 nitrites and low nitrates. Is this water safe or not? Should I just let it cycle for a few more days? Because I know there should be no nitrites but my melanoid axie will be coming in tomorrow and I would like to put him and my golden in the tank if possible.
 
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anne-marie

Guest
Okay, sounds cycled to me judging from the presence of the nitrates. Do a partial water change to lessen the nitrites then re-do the water tests tomorrow before you decide where to put the axies.
 
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grant

Guest
Yea thats what I was thinking. The ammonia went from pretty high to zero in about a week and the nitrites have been falling pretty quickly so by tomorrow they will probably be around .25 without a partial water change so I think it should be okay but I'm going to check the water again. I will only put them in if it is less than .25 because that isn't to bad and it will disipate in a day or two.
 
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halszka

Guest
The nitrites are not as harmful as ammonia. I talked to someone at an aquarium and they said while ammonia can kill your fish or axie, nitrites only limit the oxygen their blood carries. As long as the water is well oxygenated then there's little to worry about.

Can anyone else confirm this?
 
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cynthia

Guest
Grant - You should isolate the new axolotl for a while and keep an eye on it for illness and parasites before you put it with your current axolotl.

I would wait for nitrites to read zero and nitrate reading to start dropping before I put the current axolotl in the tank.

Halszka - High nitrite levels are always something to worry about. Though not as toxic as ammonia it is a stress factor and should always be taken seriously.
 
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grant

Guest
Well what I was going to do is put my current golden back into the tank so I can put the new axie in the holding tank. But the new melanoid axie I am getting is from the same breeder as where I got my golden from so disease shouldn't be to big of a problem, but I am still going to put it in the holding tank for about a week.
 
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brian

Guest
I know you are impatient to get your axie in your main tank Grant, but it's not safe to do so until your nitrites have reached 0. Once that is done, do a 1/3 water change to get rid of the excess nitrates. Then it will be safe to put the little guy in. I'd probably say about 3-4 more days, so keep testing.
 
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edward

Guest
unless you put some salt in the water to interfere with the uptake of nitrite, nitrite can kill the axolotl. I'm not sure where the idea came from that it is less dangerous than ammonia as it binds to the hemeglobin molecule in the blood cell and prevents the cell from carrying oxygen. This is fairly irreversiable so over time, fewer and fewer cells are available to carry oxygen so it doesn't matter how much oxygen is in solution as the organs will be starved for oxygen as the nitrite binds to the blood cells.
 
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halszka

Guest
The notion came from an aquarium person I spoke to, and yes, I know, don't trust everything they say *grin* and this just proves it. I didn't know that the process of binding is irreversible, just thought that it's a matter of concentration.

Anyways, thanks for clearing that up, Ed
happy.gif
Much appreciated!
 
G

grant

Guest
Well I went to get him today and I guess they couldn't get the melanoid but they got a cool looking wild type so I just took it. I have both of them in seperate plastic bowls (like a gallon and a half each). But I tested my water again and I didn't find any traces of nitrite, but I will wait another day and test again.My tank actually took quite a while to cycle (about a month and a half)but now everything seems to be good. My new axie seems very healthy he is very active and in good shape and the little guy has already ate a good sized red worm and 3 pellets today. Only thing I've noticed is that his gills were curved inward a bit probably just from a strong current in his old tank but they seem to already be straightening out good. But I never noticed how much my golden has grown!! He was the same size as my new wildtype but in the last month and a half he has grown about an inch but his head is a lot bigger and his gills are way bigger and longer and really fluffy and red. I'll post pics soon.
 
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