QUESTION! Sand?!?

Hi,
I bought an albino axolotl 1 month ago. We have a 70L tank. I bought it with everything already setup, eg. Filter, light, etc. However not knowing that they eat small pebbles I bought blue and purple small pebbles like the rocks you see in the bottom of fish tanks. After him living in this for 3 weeks he started eating the pebbles and he's been passing them out the other end, but it looks painful and is obviously not good for him. So after finding info on this site I went and bought white playground sand to replace the rocks with. 2 nights ago we emptied the whole tank out and filled it up with water and then with the sand. (We realised afterwards we should have done the sand first, then the water.) It was so cloudy you couldn't even see 1cm through the water. I left it to settle for 1 hour and then turned the filter on to see if this would clear it up. I cleaned everything in the filter out 3 times over that night and the next day. But the next afternoon it still didn't look much different. So we emptied all the water out again and refilled it. I turned the filter back on 30mins after this time. It's looking better than it was but still very cloudy. I didn't clean the sand, the person at the shop I bought it from told me it was clean. I realise now that I should have done this. But too late. Any advice on how to clean the water would be very very helpful. At the moment Axel is living in a bucket and is doing fine. But I don't want to leave him in there much longer. It's been 3 days in the bucket now, with a water change in the middle of that. Help?!?
I am scared that if I put him in there while it's like this it will hurt him.
Also, there are small bits of what looks like bark in the sand will this hurt him if I don't pick it all out?
Both photo's are 12 hours after we first did it. (Before we emptied it out and replaced all the water.) First one with the light off, second one with the light on. It does look better than this now. But still very cloudy.
Thanks.

Hiya! I've had a similar problem before, and the sand settled after a few days. Try leaving your filter off, as it may be stirring the water up too much right now. Just let it settle

As you've probably guessed, I wouldn't put your axie back in there until it's practically settled, as it could irritate him. He's fine in the bucket for a while. Just watch the temps, but as it's winter it should be OK. As long as you're doing frequent water changes and treating the water each time with dechlorinator, he/she can stay in the bucket for quite a while. We kept ours in the fridge last summer as it was so hot for about a month!

Two alternatives - take the sand out, wash it, start again. Or more drastically, start again completely with new sand from the pet shop/aquarium.

Good luck!

PS - I use a combination of sand and large pebbles, and have created a 'beach' at one end with the pebbles elsewhere. It's a bit messier (waste slips down between the pebbles) but it looks nice! Also, I keep a few snails in the tank with the axies, and somewhat controversially, a small cleaning 'sucker fish.' Don't know what type it is, but it's smallish, dark brown with black specks, and has a sail-type top fin. Doesn't hurt the axies at all, and keeps the muck down!

PPS - I just noticed you wrote 'playground sand.' Was this from an aquarium shop, or from a Bunnings-type shop? if the latter, there's no way it's going to be clean enough, and you may even have to consider boiling it to get the nasties out of it. If you get sand from an aquarium shop, it's much cleaner (still wash it first though!) and it's not that much more expensive.

I bought a 20kg bag of Richgro Playground Sand for $66.00 from Pet & Garden Supplies. I thought this is very expensive sand but bought it anyway as I didn't want him eating any more rocks. They told me it was cleaned already. As it cost this much, is there a way I can clean it so it won't hurt him? You mentioned boiling it... How do I do that? Take it all out of the tank then put boiling water on it and was it with that?
Thanks.

I didn't realise you had so much of it!

Kudos for asking before buying if it was clean sand, but I guess if bits of bark are floating up from it, it can't be as clean as it should be.... It's a pity when you try to do the right thing and end up with more hassles! I'm guessing that as it was a Pet and garden place, it was probably clean enough for non-aquarium pet uses, and for the garden obviously, but not at a good enough quality for a tank.

Yeah, I'd consider boiling it as it was so expensive. I've never done this with sand, but I have done with gravel. it's a matter of putting the sand in a pot, covering it with water, and then boiling the whole lot on your stove top for a couple of minutes. It'll take ages with 20kg though....

Alternatively, wait for the sand to settle, and then skim the gunk off the surface of the water, and run a net or a stocking-covered sieving device through the water and catch the worst of it. Then leave it a little longer and test your water levels and make sure everything's at proper axie levels.

But, sad to say, boiling's probably the best bet. Who knows where the sand's come from, or even what they used to clean it?

Oh wow! This is sounding like a mission. Boiling that much of it will take forever.
I know I hate it too when you try to do the right thing and it doesn't work out.
I told the guy at Better Pets & Gardens what I was using for and he said it's fine. They sell fish and axolotls there so I took his word for it. I think I'll try the scooping technique first before anything else. I don't have the water testing kits, but I have a friend that does I'll ask to borrow it on the weekend. Poor Axel will need to stay in the bucket till then.
Thanks for all your help.

That's OK - this website was invaluable when I got my first axie too

Definitely the sieving method will be the easiest, and hopefully will produce good results. Once you eventually put your axie back in though, keep a super-close eye on him for any unusual activity or change in his appearance. Hopefully testing the water will reveal whether the sand's OK.

It might be worthwhile purchasing your own test kit, as by rights their water should be tested after you change it, or at least once a fornight to make sure all's OK. You can get reasonably good pH and nitrates kits at aquarium shops, and search the forum for the right level ranges. I picked up an electronic pH tester on eBay for about $15, and it works well and means you don't have to bother with the messy chemicals!

Ok cool, I'll try that.
I might take a trip to the local fish shop where I bought him from tonight after work to see what sand they have and how much it costs and I'll look at a water testing kit too. :wink:

I'll go and look for the correct PH Levels now. I know I read it somewhere in here.

Ta

For sand substrate you will only need a layer of about a centimetre, an inch maximum. A centimetre depth makes it easy to clear gas pockets that may develop under the sand and for general cleaning.

With a 20kg bag of sand, you will have a lot left over - a 20kg bag of playsand was enough to cover the base of my four foot and three foot tank by an inch each.

There's no need to boil the sand.

I would take it all out (you may need a few buckets) and use the bucket method to clean it. Put some sand in a bucket, add water, shake your hand through the sand to stir it up, pour out the water. The water run off will be cloudy. Continue with this until the water run off is clear - add the cleaned sand to the tank.

Axolotls are happy in a PH range of 6.5 to 9 - they are not very fussy.

The most reliable test kits are the liquid test tube kits. Do not buy test strip test kits as these lie and give woefully inaccurate readings.

The most important test kit is for Ammonia. Any reading higher than '0' in Ammonia is toxic to an axolotl.

Are you familiar with cycling? http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

If not, have a read through the article I have linked above, and if you have any queries please ask - cycling can be difficult to grasp.

Thankyou so much!
I am not familiar with cycling, I had a read through that.
Does that need to be done everytime you do a water change or full water change or just for the new aquarium. I am going to the fish shop on the wat home to buy a PH Test Kit and an Ammonia Test Kit. We have had the tank for approx 3 months now and had goldfish in it before we got Axel. He's been in it for about 1 month. So does that mean it already cycled?

KYLZE said:

We have had the tank for approx 3 months now and had goldfish in it before we got Axel. He's been in it for about 1 month. So does that mean it already cycled?

Click to expand...

With having the fish in the tank, the tank may have been cycled.

But...

KYLZE said:

2 nights ago we emptied the whole tank out and filled it up with water and then with the sand. (We realised afterwards we should have done the sand first, then the water.) It was so cloudy you couldn't even see 1cm through the water. I left it to settle for 1 hour and then turned the filter on to see if this would clear it up. I cleaned everything in the filter out 3 times over that night and the next day.

Click to expand...

When you emptied the water out and filled it up - did you refill it with the original tank water or with new fresh water?

If you used new water and have scrubbed your filter and tank out - I'm guessing your tank will have to be recycled from scratch as cleaning everything will have in all liklihood killed the beneficial bacterias.

Recycling...Are you ready? Here we go in a nutshell:

Your lovely axolotl is going to be involved in cycling the tank.

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.

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.

If you need any help or have any questions, please fire away! Unlike our axies, we don't bite.

Cheers Jacq.

Yes, boiling was definitely a worst case scenario! I have heard it done though, especially when the provinence of the sand/gravel/ornament was dodgy, or if ick got into the environment. But with that volume of sand, it's definitely out of the question!

KYLZE said:

I bought a 20kg bag of Richgro Playground Sand for $66.00 from Pet & Garden Supplies.

Click to expand...

That's VERY expensive sand. May i suggest next time that you try maybe a gravel/sand wholesaler? I got two 20kg bags of heat-treated and cleaned river sand for $8 each...

I hope its cleared up by now! Do you have any more recent pics? I've got two axolotl tanks w/sand. Last year they were slate and large rocks and bare bottom. Trying something different this time! 1 is white sand, the other is brown. I've been browsing pics for a few days getting ideas.

Sharon