Tank OK?

Hey,

We have been cycled our new tank for 6 weeks, all the levels are fine and there is no sign of ammonia!

There is an earthy smell to the tank but all the levels are fine so we put our axolotl in last night. He seems OK - was just walking around getting used to the new set up.

Good decision? If all the levels are fine, is the smell a indictor of a problem?

What were the readings? I the pet shop said they were fine they might be wrong. Pet stores most of the time are wrong.

If the tests for the good old ammonia/ nitrate/ nitrite are all good then I would think alls well, being slightly paranoid about the water conditions I'd test every other day too make sure!!. I noticed my tank did have a distinctive aroma around the time it had cycled, I put half a carbon filter in my filter aand the smell went away quite quickly, I've not noticed anything smell wise with the tank for ages now.

kclinton said:

What were the readings? I the pet shop said they were fine they might be wrong. Pet stores most of the time are wrong.

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We have those kits where you can test the levels at home - we have been testing the levels every day for the past 6 weeks. Its like a colour chart to compare all the levels.

bellabelloo said:

If the tests for the good old ammonia/ nitrate/ nitrite are all good then I would think alls well, being slightly paranoid about the water conditions I'd test every other day too make sure!!. I noticed my tank did have a distinctive aroma around the time it had cycled, I put half a carbon filter in my filter aand the smell went away quite quickly, I've not noticed anything smell wise with the tank for ages now.

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We never cycled our first tank - to be honest, we didnt know we had too - so we just put him in and did water changes every day. We didnt notice a smell doing it this way so we thought that maybe the smell occurred this time because the tank hadnt been lived in?

Does that make sense?

Yes it does make sense! If you did waterchanges every day with your first one, as long as they weren't full waterchanges you were in effect cycling with your axolotls in it.

I'm sure you'll be fine, as you have the test kits, you can try testing every couple of days if you feel the need, as the things may increase slightly with the addition of your axolotl and its feeding, otherwise once a week before waterchanges is fine.

kapo said:

I'm sure you'll be fine, as you have the test kits, you can try testing every couple of days if you feel the need, as the things may increase slightly with the addition of your axolotl and its feeding, otherwise once a week before waterchanges is fine.

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Any idea what the smell is then? I know a carbon filter would take the smell away but isnt that just masking the smell rather than removing the problem?

The smell maybe waste related in which case you could try cleaning more often. Just to clrify by clening I mean vacuuming waste from the bottom of the tank not totally cleaning your tank as this would wipe out alot of healthy bacteria.

Also i would suggest using a carbon filter it may well remove the bacteria that are causing the smell.

From my experience my tanks only get that smell occaisionally when I have missed a clean and the smell clears within a day of cleaning.

Good Luck