Question: Daily 20% Water Changes/Cleaning

1. I need to start doing my daily 20% water changes today. What sort of container should I used to remove the water? And how do I de-chlorinate the water before putting it in? I don't know if I have a big enough container for this.

2. How do I clean the small pieces of food out of the bottom of the tank? They are small little scraps that get left over.

a gravel syphon will help remove the water and clean small detritus from the gravel, getting one with a self primer saves you having to suck up the water. or you can just use a clean jug or bowl thats just kept for this purpose.
if your more adventurous a piece of flexible pipe will do the job, but may get blocked (hopefully just by gravel)

if you are only adding 20% of new water you are normally fine to just add this straight in, however to be on the safe side letting the water stand over night in a bucket will allow the temperature and any gases to equalise, and also for most of the chlorine to dissipate. (adding an airstone would be even better)

commercial water conditioners are safe to use and work almost immediately. sodium thiosulphate, the main ingredient is cheap and quite easy to obtain, but you could possibly overdose.

Firstly have you got a syphon? This is by far the easiest way to remove the water, you can also remove any debris from the bottom of the tank at the same time.
If you don't have a syphon then it'll have to be jug by jug (or whatever you want to use) into a bucket or large bowl. Of course the larger the bowl you are putting the water into, the less trips you need to make to the sink to empty out. Luckily enough I have a large bucket which means only 2 trips to the kitchen to empty the water!
Also the same in reverse, fill your bucket or bowl the same amount of times to replace the water you have taken out. You need to add the dechlorinator to the water you are putting back in, not directly to the tank. The only problem with smaller bowls is that it would be hard to judge how much dechlorinator to put in as the bottles usually assume you are adding to larger amounts at a time, such as 10 litres or so. It might be an idea to get a couple of large-ish buckets, there will be a lot of water going back and forth while you are cycling your tank!
Alternatively if you have enough buckets or bowls (and room to store them) you can fill them up with tap water and leave them to stand for 24-48 hours, this dechlorinates the water without having to add any chemicals.
One of the best ways to remove any food or muck from the bottom of the tank is to use a turkey baster. They are excellent for daily cleaning and are cheap to buy from any household goods or kitchen supplies store.
If you have any more questions ask away, there are plenty of people around who have a lot more experience than me!! Good luck, Kerry.

Hi Brella,

- As the two wrote above, a siphon is the best way to remove small debris from your tank.
Note: You do not have to suck on the tube to get the water flowing! Do it like this.
1.) Cover the open tube end with your thumb.
2) Fill the bell on the other end with water and then point it upwards.
3.) Holding the tube over a bucket, "burp" it by removing your thumb from the open end until the water pushes the air out.
4.) As soon as the water gets down to the end of the tube, cover the tube with your thumb again.
5.) If necessary, hold the bell higher up so that any water in the tube bubbles upward.
6.) The tube is now full of water. Fill the bell with water and then put in down into the tank. The water will now flow continuously.
It's really a simple process. I just can't ever explain anything quickly.

- A turkey baster is excellent for removing larger pieces of debris.
- If your water has chlorine in it, you only have to let the water stand in a pot or bucket overnight to dechlorinate it. If it has chloramine, you will need a chemical treatment (dechlorinator). You can contact your local water company or visit their website to find out what they put in your tap water.

Have fun with those daily water changes. :rofl:

-Eva

Hi Brella,

Only one thing to add to the advice you have been given and that is water dechlorinators are readily available at all pet stores and are some times called water agers. Simply add the required amount to the water you are replacing mix it around a bit and add it to your tank.

Nothing beats a turkey baster

I find the easiest way if you have a big tank is to just dip the bucket is the tank, let it fill and then empty. That way it only takes a couple of seconds to fill the bucket

That doesn't necessarily remove debris at the bottom of the tank. A syphon is probably the best way to clean your tank.

Eeek! Really? DAILY? Okidoki, they say every day you learn something...well, it's only 42 minutes into today, and I have already learned something valuable today! How did I miss that we would be doing DAILY 20% water changes?
I don't mind doing it, good thing I read it before I let the little dudes sit in the water for the week before changing the 30% I was planning on...phew! Crisis averted, thanks guys! Paula [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=helvetica, arial][FONT=helvetica, arial]
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I only do 1 to 2 20% water changes a week as it is not good for the axis as you will be taking the good bactiria out of the tank and it depends on how many axolotls you have in one tank, more than one axi will cause more pollotion. I always look for poo and any uneaten food daily thats all. There is no need for every day water changes. my axis have always been happy and healthy by the way i do it and what other people on this site have told me.

When you clean your axi/axis out use a big bucket to sypon the water into, sypons are easy to use it will pick up poop, small uneaten food and is the quickest way to take water out. daily i use the turky baster to get big bits of uneaten food and poo out.when you do the water changes make sure you put the right amount of declorinater in the bucket and let in stand for 24 hrs to let the gasses etc out and this will give the water time to get to the same temp as the tank water.

If starting a new tank you will need to do 20% water changes daily for atleast the first 4-6weeks (don't quote me on the this all as I am relative new to all this myself) after that the good bacteria would have started to developed in your tank and filter system for you to be able to cut down on the water changes to 20% every 2-3rd day for 4 wks and then 1-2 times a week after that.
Like brella said you don't have to suck on the syphon to get it going just fill with water and let it flow into the bucket. (I learnt this for myself reading the instructions on the syphon packet after I had swallowed a good mouthful of my tank water yes swallowed really not nice).
I Have a big bucket that I fill from the tank water with syphon (20% always make sure your axies are kept covered with water), empty onto the garden and plants, refill with clean tap water & add required amount of dechlorinator bought at local pet store for a few dollars (I've even seen some grocery and convenience stores sell it) swirl water to mix, then scoop water into tank with small container as axie's don't like water flow it's better then pouring from the bucket. Good luck with your axies nat

lisalee2 said:

I only do 1 to 2 20% water changes a week as it is not good for the axis as you will be taking the good bactiria out of the tank and it depends on how many axolotls you have in one tank, more than one axi will cause more pollotion. I always look for poo and any uneaten food daily thats all. There is no need for every day water changes. my axis have always been happy and healthy by the way i do it and what other people on this site have told me.

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Hi Lisalee2,

I am assuming your tank has been fully cycled, so yes when fully cycled 20% water changes need only be done once a week. If your tank has not fully cycled, you need to be doing 20% daily water changes.

When living animals are cycling the tank, it is imperative to do 20% water changes daily to dillute the Ammonia and Nitrite to acceptable levels for the axolotl/s living in the water. Doing water changes only once or twice a week while still cycling the tank runs the risk of exposing the animals to toxins that can make them sick or kill them.

The 'ideal' reading for Ammonia and Nitrite is '0' - any reading higher than this is toxic to an axolotl.

While cycling, these levels will spike to toxic levels as part of the cycling process, there is no avoiding this but you can make it livable for the axies by partial water changes each day to bring these readings down to 'acceptable' levels for the one to three months it can take to complete the cycle.

The good bacteria colonises on all the tank surfaces such as tank walls, rocks, ornaments, filter, substrate, plants and removing 20% of the water does no harm to these bacterias. If for whatever reason you need to clean the filter media, give the sponges a clean in a bucket of the tank water - never use chlorinated tap water to clean the filter or other tank surfaces as this will kill the bacterias.

Once the bacteria is established, an indicator of this is when Ammonia and Nitrite read at a consistant '0' and the Nitrate reads 10-60, the tank is considered completely cycled. When completely cycled, this is when 10-20% water changes need only be done once weekly.

That was a really good and detailed answer. Thank you!

Buy a new bucket for the water, as old ones that have had chemicals like soap and paint in them are highly toxic. I use API water conditioner because it's incredibly potent and economic. A bottle that costs less then $15 treats between 5,000 and 10,000 gallons!

Havelock said:

Once the bacteria is established, an indicator of this is when Ammonia and Nitrite read at a consistant '0' and the Nitrate reads 10-60, the tank is considered completely cycled. When completely cycled, this is when 10-20% water changes need only be done once weekly.

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In hotter weather it may be beneficial to carry out 20% water changes twice a week. And its also dependent on the number of axolotls you have in a tank. After a while you should be able to judge for yourself and your testing kit will help you decide how many each week.