Water conditions

This weekend I'll finally have my aquarium and I hope in about a couple of weeks my two axolotls! Now I have some questions about the water conditions... The hardness should be between 8 and 12, but I tested the tabwater and it showed 16. The pH should be between 6.5 and 8 and it showed 8 (I know 7.4 would be perfect).

Now is my question, how do I get these lower? A friend told me 3 ways to do it, but I don't know which is the best and the most effective. The 3 possibilities are turf-filtration, adding oak-extract or adding osmose water (sorry if I wrote it wrong, I hope you still understand what I mean...). I know they aren't in there yet... But isn't oak-extract toxic for axolotls? And how does turf-filtration work?

I hope you can help me! I will probably ask more questions over time in this thread, I'm new with this :happy:

Hi! honestly neither of these things will hurt your axolotl, they seem to thrive in all kinds of hardnesses and PHs, they are 2 of the water peramiters which mater the least for axies.

With a new aquarium set up the peramiters you want to keep your eye on are amonia and nitrates/nitrites. Googe the nitrogen cycle if you do not know how it already works.

Also tempurature is big, keep the water cool and clean and you should find your PH and hardness no problem at all.

good luck!

Thank you for awnsering!

Well, keeping the water cool shouldn't be hard at this moment, but I worry about summer... I guess I could take the lid of the tank and put an icebottle in the water, but that's about it.

I have watertests for nitrites, nitrates, hardness and pH right now, but I can't find any for amonia. I guess I know a little about the nitrogen cycle... There are bacteria which are responsible for turning nitrites in nitrates (from food etc.) and those bacteria will need the time to grow before you put your axies in the tank, right?

correct, but they first change ammonia(the most harmful toxin) into nitrite

And if you have no axis a source of ammonia to start with

Well, I was thinking I should put some pellets in the water the first two weeks, so there would be some ammonia to start with. I just got my filter today, and I know I'll be having problems with it when I'll have to start the tank But I'll figure it out, I guess...

might as well throw some in there now, won't hurt to have some ammonia in there, even if the filter isn't running yet

My tank isn't filled with water yet... This week I'll get my background (hopefully, it takes so long!), and then I'll start to decorate! :happy: