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Illness/Sickness: Very Bad Ammonia Problem

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IanK

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Hey everyone,

I've got a pretty serious ammonia problem in my tank. I have an axolotl about 5 months old in a 10 gallon tank. The pet store I go to was selling bad R/O water, so every time I bought R/O to clean up the water, it was actually adding more ammonia.

I have no source of R/O water. I've read that I shouldn't put water with too high of a pH in the ammonia, but I don't exactly no why. I bought distilled water today; I know its too soft but would it be better than the ammonia?

Let me know. Thanks

Ian
 
hacelepues

hacelepues

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Just buy some basic dechlorinator and put that in your tap water.
Did you cycle your tank before adding the axie?

Also, a 10 gal. for 1 axolotl is wayyyy too small! He needs at least 20 gallons (general rule is 10 gallons per axie, but you should never have less than 20). It's probably not helping your ammonia issues.

Plant filters are also good to help lower ammonia. I'll take a picture of my set up so you can see what I'm talking about.
 
carsona246

carsona246

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why not use tap? do not use Distilled, not sure about ro, but personally I wouldn't use it. Don't worry about ph, unless it is hardcore extreme. However, seeing as you have already been using ro water, if you do a waterchange with tap water do small waterchanges at a time. Your tap water will most likely be harder, and have a higher ph then ro water. So make the change slowly. I personally have no idea why you would pay for ro water, when tap water is better. The only reason you would need ro water for a freshwater is for topping off a tank for evaporation, and if you have plants, even then its not necessary
 
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IanK

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Ok sounds good. But won't the pH of the tap water be harmful in combination with the ammonia?
 
HappySkittles

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RO water is too pure...I would know...we have an ro filter (use for marine tank) and we dont use it for anything else.

Just use tap water. Thats what i use for everything. What ph is your tap? I bet it's better than the soft ro water.
 
HappySkittles

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That's a pretty perfect ph for an axolotl. Use tap water and treat it with something called Prime by seachem. Red and white bottle. I use it and I've heard it's the safest for axies

Do your water change slowly so the axolotl can adjust to the ph change.
 
FRANCOIS

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I would not really go easy on water changes right now, 50% is what I would change, a change of PH is stressful but too much ammonia is deadly!!! I would do a 50% water change and another 25% 6 hours later TODAY.
 
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IanK

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I have prime and can do these water changes today. But two questions:

How long do I need to wait to use the water after I treat it with prime? I usually wait a day.

And there is no bad reaction that can take place between the water with ammonia and the water with a high pH?
 
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I am just very nervous about this; I've read everywhere on the internet that ammonia toxicity is much higher when pH increases...
 
carsona246

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How much ammonia do you actually have? The ammonia does not get more toxic, but the ratio of ammonia to ammonium just gets higher the higher the ph. However the ratio is still going to be pretty low.
 
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Ammonia level is finally at zero! I took everyone's advice and I thank you for it. Felix is a happy lotl once again!
 
carsona246

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I've heard of people who dump dechlorinator in the tank after doing the waterchange to dechlorinate
 
HappySkittles

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When I do water changes, I put the water straight from the tap into the tank with the axies still in and add dechlorinator (prime) never had any problems.
 
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