foggy water

please help my axis water has gone foggy white and carnt see my axis as its that bad how can i get rid of it as it keeps coming back iv got 2 tanks its the 4ft tank wiv 3 adult axis in it that keeps going foggy but the 3ft tank with there juvi is fine thats realy clear.im realy worried in case its harming the 3 adults we have 2 filters in there with them. some one did say its because the weather keep changing its hapend 5 or 6 times this year. and only hapens in the sumer. iv tryed doing 10%water changes every day and doesnt help much please help as i want to see my axis proply. is there any thing else i can do that dont harm my axis....

How long has the tank been set up for? Dose the water small strange?

you might have more success if you increase the volume of water you are removing.
my six foot tank hasnt finished cycling yet andwent very foggy removing 20% wasnt enough, but now i have increased it to 30% [takes a long time i know] it is finally clearing.
i should increase yours im sure it will make a big difference

Hi Lisalee2, Have you tested the tankwater on that tank at all for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates - and how often/much do you feed? Do you have anything other than axolotls in the tank, ie companions? Do you have gravel or sand and what have you been feeding them, do you have a lid for the tank or not?

hi again,wish i had a nice big 6ft or bigger tank for my beauties,ill get them a big tank when we move out.there new tank and water has been set up bout 5months. the adults tank and the juvi's test readings were both the same last week so i would of thought the juvis tank of gone the same if its because of that. ill do another load of tests tomoro again and let you know kapo what the readings are. yeh they get fed daily the same time every day on frozon dillies, bourght clean earth worms, prawns. and blood worm as a treat every nown and then.e.g a worm and half each, one day, dillies ( small fish ) about 3 to 4 each, another day if you know what i meen i like to give them a variety as they must get bord like humans eating same food every day.the botom of the adults tank is big stones bout same size as head nealy, so they carnt try and eat them. iv changed there water again to day bout 15% ill take bit extra out tomoro.im just woried bout them is it some thing iv done wrong it just keeps coming back.i wana see my beauties but carnt propley unless they come to the front of tank its just hard to find them and hand feed them with the horible water.

sorry forgot to say kapo that i havnt got any thing else in with the axis in case any thing nibbles them. just have the usuel plants, pots, big rocks so they can hide and climb/swim on to. also yes we have got lids for them but beens its been warm we have keept them off wiv a fan over them and put lids on when its winter.

Mine is doing the exact same thing at the moment, I am doing 50% water changes every few days at the moment but my black axolotl has started to develop little patches of fungus on his gills which come straight off in a salt bath. I have noticed there is a little white froth on the surface every now and then which does smell chemically. I use large stones as well and siphon anything from in between the stones every couple of days. i am thinking it may be worth getting a lot of plants in there to aid the filtration.

hi
that seems an awful lot of food to be feeding adults,
if they are full grown i would cut it right back to 2-3 times a week.
axies are opportunist feeders, if its near my mouth in it goes, this doesnt mean they are hungry its just instinct.
they will be putting a lot of waste into the water and if this is not cleared within an hour or so will foul the water very quickly, the same with uneaten food, espescially if it is warmer.
i think this could be the reason for your problem.
also you need to check under the rocks ect for waste as this needs to be cleared, you will be surprided how much can be hiding under there even if you cant see it, it always amazes me when i move mine,lol.

Lisalee2 - I agree with digger. Adults should be fed once every 3 days, or twice a week. And yes, I also agree about the rocks and gunk/waste building up beneath it, that combined with daily feeding could very well be causing your cloudy water. So it would be good to see your test readings for water parameters, in particular ammonia/nitrite and nitrate. Increase the waterchanges to 20-30% per day. I wouldn't do 50% waterchanges

You say you have two filters, is one by chance an undergravel filter (beneath the rocks) and an internal one that hangs on the inside? If you have an undergravel filter a lot of waste falls beneath the plate as well, which will remain hidden unless you actually removed the stones and lifted the plate out. How often do you clean your filters? By clean I mean when was the last time you rinsed them, in tankwater, not changed the media completely? Rinsing in tankwater will still retain the established bacteria/changing the filter media each month (which some petshops advise people to do) will basically mean you have to establish the bacteria on the new filter media.

Depending on what kind of filter you have you may need to change or clean the filters. Some varieties have carbon bags/pads that have a limited life time and some have fabric filters that can become blocked.

I would also change 20-30% of the water every other day until your tank clears up. Something in the tanks natural bio-system isn't working your tank should be cycled and settled after 5 months.

Good Luck

we normally check under the stones but always easy to miss bits i suppose. we'll cut down on there food intake and see how we go. how much food is a decent amount at feed times?
we've got two uptall on the side of the tank filters which get cleaned out in aged water regulary. did some test readings earlier on, well too high for my liking- ammonia- 2.0mg. Nitrate- 0.1mg, Nitrate 12.5mg, ph- 8.5. we've done a decent size water change since these readings and they have dropped dramatically, im very doubtfull on the accuracy of the test kit being used now so going to get a new kit asap. cant understand why those readings would be so high as we have been doing a fair few water changes/cleans since and before the cloud appeared.
the cloud did happen before in the summer but cleared up by its self, at the time all i could put it down to was slight flucations in the temp, does this sound like another logical explaination aswell.

thanks very much for all the help.

combined with the amount of food and waste produced i would say yes,
the warmer it is the quicker food ect deteriates.there for problems occur quicker, i suppose the easiest way to look at is is this, in the winter you can milk out of a fridge for hours but in the summer minutes is enough to turn it if its a hot day.
3 adults eating daily produce a lot of waste combined with heat is not a good formula.
i would cut back to maybe 1-2 worms twice a week thi as ample for adults as they are not as active as young ones.if you can get your tank as cool as poss this will help also as this will slow their activity and therefore desire for food.

ok we will cut there food down, feal bad tho i feal im starving them feeding them 2 or 3 times a week. shall we do the water changes daily till the water goes clear again.thank you for all the help.we will let you know how they are geting on with the axis and the water turning back to normal.

if i where you i would pop axies in a tub with some tank water,syphon and save as much of tank water you can.then remove the substrate and all the hidden gunk, rinse the filter and all hidey holes ect in old tank water and then discard what water is left.
replace everything except substrate (maybe just have a few bits scattered for easy clean.)
top up the water with dechlorinated water and pop axies back in.
this will give you a much easier controlled enviroment.
just monitor the water and continue with water changes as necessary.
dont forget just rinse everything dont scrub it as this will kill the good bacteria and only use old tank water.
well that would be my way of doing things and hope it was of some use.
good luck.