Uncycled and Leaving

Okay, so I have two Axolotls in a 40 gallon tank that is in the process of being cycled. It has been some time, and there is no longer any ammonia with small amounts of nitrites. The problem is, I know nitrites are bad. Up to this point, I've been able to do 25% water changes every day. But I have to leave for a week now. Is there any alternative to having someone come over and do the water changes for me? What can I do with them for a week to prevent them from being killed by the nitrite?

I would say this has to be a daily water change no matter what you do

You have a couple of choices, you could move the axolotls to individual large containers of fresh de-chlorinated water; the largest you can fit in your fridge.

While most people panic about ammonia it is nitrite which is the real killer. Axolotls are better off in cold water without any cycling swimming in ammonia than swimming in nitrite. Change them into clean cold water before re- warming as ammonia is more toxic at high temperatures.

While a week in the fridge without water changes is not ideal it is better than a week in a nitrite rich tank.

It is possible your nitrite levels will not increase to toxic levels if you do not feed and cycling is nearly completely established so this is a difficult decision to make. Your tank sounds like it may be safe to just leave for a week without any problem.

I would purposely test to see if they are okay being fridged first if you want to fridge them. Mine didn't like being fridged at all and he turned super red, tailed curled, gills stretched, and off color after being in there for a couple of hours.

Reading through your recent posts I would say think carefully and try to get a setup which will get you through a week. If you are where your profile indicates tank temperatures will not be safe without a cooler fitted in the tank or air con running. Nitrite may not be your biggest problem.

Try to get a safe setup. If you have someone coming in, overfeeding resulting in soaring ammonia production is best avoided by asking them not to feed at all.

You could possibly do a hybrid solution, one in the fridge in a bigger container than if both are in there and thus cut tank bioload in half.

Stay home.

I put them in two 1.8 gallon food containers full of dechlorinated water and brought them to a friends house. I placed them in the cold basement and taught friend how to change water every day. Should be fine, yeah?

That sounds a good solution. Have a nice break and hope the tank settles down during the break as well.