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Cleaning Tank.

aird3

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Ok. I noticed one of my axolotls strange behaviour in the tank. I thought ok amonia level is up. Tested the water for amonia levels, and sure enough, it was sitting on 1.5, yet we did a clean of the tank 6 days ago. It is a new tank about 3 weeks old with a good filter system, so why did I need to do another clean after 6 days. I have removed most of the gravel and put bigger rocks in the bottom of the tank. Temperature has always stayed around the 18c mark. The amount of muck that was coming out of the gravel surprised me, considering it was vacumned 6 days ago. Left about one third of water in the tank, then filled the rest with clean water. Does anyone here remove their axolotls when cleaning the tank. I also cleaned the filter sponges. Hope their happy for the amount of work I seem to be doing for them.:D Ok I have tried to delete the heading leaning tank, it's supposed to read cleaning tank.
 
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Jacquie

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Re: Leaning Tank.

Ok. I noticed one of my axolotls strange behaviour in the tank. I thought ok amonia level is up. Tested the water for amonia levels, and sure enough, it was sitting on 1.5, yet we did a clean of the tank 6 days ago. It is a new tank about 3 weeks old with a good filter system, so why did I need to do another clean after 6 days.

Hi Aird3,

Your tank I would say is still going through its cycling which takes two to three months and the water is apparently suffering an ammonia spike. While cycling, you need to be doing daily 10% water changes. With an ammonia spike of 1.5 though (dangerously toxic to axolotl) I would be doing 20% daily water changes to bring that ammonia down. Six days between water changes is not sufficient while the tank is still cycling.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml (This article explains cycling in more detail).

I have removed most of the gravel and put bigger rocks in the bottom of the tank...The amount of muck that was coming out of the gravel surprised me, considering it was vacumned 6 days ago.

Axies are messy little devils and rocks are difficult to keep clean, as you need to shift the rocks and check under the rocky substrate daily to remove debris. Have you considered sand as a substrate? It's much easier to keep clean. I was delighted by the difference when I changed large stones substrate to sand substrate.

I also cleaned the filter sponges.

When you cleaned the filter sponges, did you clean them by shaking the sponges in a bucket of your tank water? Or, did you rinse it under the tap?

If you cleaned it under the tap, you will have killed your beneficial bacteria.

When enough beneficial bacteria has colonised on your tank surfaces and in the filter, it will break your ammonia and nitrite levels to non toxic when cycling is complete. Once cycling is complete, 20% water changes only need to be done once a week.

Until cycling is complete though, you will need to take water readings daily and do 10-20% water changes daily depending on your ammonia/nitrite levels.

You may get a faster response if you post in the Axolotl section of the forum rather than the newt and salamander section.

Cheers Jacq.
 

aird3

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Re: Leaning Tank.

Hi Jacq. Now I know what is happening. The tank is only 3 weeks old. Yes I do wash the filter in the water from the tank, something I have learnt. I will do a part water change every day. No I haven't thought of sand in the bottom. I thought that sand when your vacumning the borrom of the tank would stir up through the water more than pebbles. I have removed a fair amount of gravel so there is a thin layer on the bottom of the tank. Thanks for the useful information Jacq. I will try a few things. Cheers Carol.
 

ali000

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Re: Leaning Tank.

Hi, sand works really well.
It can stir up a little but then you need that so you don't create pockets of bacteria, but it doesn't stir up too much, sand is pretty heavy when wet ;)
 

moony1988

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Re: Leaning Tank.

I thought that sand when your vacumning the borrom of the tank would stir up through the water more than pebbles.

Sorry to kind of jump in, but i thought that when you siphon your tank, sand would get siphoned with the muck and you would loose half of your substrate every time you do a water change..or does the wet sand weigh to much or something?

Moony
 

Jacquie

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Re: Leaning Tank.

Sorry to kind of jump in, but i thought that when you siphon your tank, sand would get siphoned with the muck and you would loose half of your substrate every time you do a water change..or does the wet sand weigh to much or something?Moony

You lose a little bit of sand as you stir the pot, the syphon isn't powerful so you lose miniscule amounts. I'd be very upset if I lost half my substrate every day - that would be 10 kilo! :p
 

Daniel

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Although the tank was not really "old", you will have removed quite some bacteria by washing the filter and removing the first substrate (a lot of bacteria are living at the surface of gravel). Therefore you restarted the cycling process.
In my experience cycling does not take several months, but several weeks for sure (the fastest cycling in one of my tanks took 3.5 weeks, the longest 6 weeks but I use a different kind of filter). If you already have your Axolotls in the tank, make sure to do as Jacq supposed and do daily partial water changes.
 

Jennewt

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Re: Leaning Tank.

Any kind of stones, pebbles, or course gravel will trap debris (uneaten food and feces mostly), and this decaying material will create lots of ammonia in an not-yet-fully-cycled tank. This is probably contributing to your problem.

Regarding siphoning sand, you just use a "gravel-washing siphon" and the sand falls back down and stays in the tank. I did a quick look on youtube, and sure enough, here's the demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Jozm78x3I
The demo tank has gravel, but the method works with sand too.
 

aird3

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Thanks everyone. After scooping out some of the gravel, I have added bigger pebbles as a mix. I have just done another water change. I am on tank water where I live so am using a lot of water since I got the axolotls. I have a question. Should I be doing a test on the water every day. I would have thought that would get too expensive buying test kits all the time. I payed $21 just for one testing kit, seems an expensive hobby if you have to keep testing the water everyday and doing water changes. The tank is over 3 weeks old and we have constantly cleaned the water, cleaned the filter and tested the water, surely we shouldn't have to be doing this all the time, or do we?:eek:
 

Jacquie

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Thanks everyone. After scooping out some of the gravel, I have added bigger pebbles as a mix. I have just done another water change. I am on tank water where I live so am using a lot of water since I got the axolotls. I have a question. Should I be doing a test on the water every day. I would have thought that would get too expensive buying test kits all the time. I payed $21 just for one testing kit, seems an expensive hobby if you have to keep testing the water everyday and doing water changes. The tank is over 3 weeks old and we have constantly cleaned the water, cleaned the filter and tested the water, surely we shouldn't have to be doing this all the time, or do we?:eek:

Hi Carol,

While you are cycling the tank and the axolotls are living in the tank while it is cycling, yes it is imperative for the sake of the axies living in this water that you test the water daily and do a partial water change in accordance with your readings.

If the readings are low, 10-20% daily water change / if the reading is very high - 20-50% water change may be required daily.

Once the tank is cycled, you will just need to test it about once a week and do about a 10 - 20% water change once a week.

You dont need to be cleaning the filter 'constantly' - indeed I would leave it alone so the beneficial bacteria can cultivate. I give my filter sponges a good shake in a bucket of the tank water about once every 4 - 6 months depending.

You do need to spot clean on a daily basis however as axies can regurgitate their food at any time and deposit a lot of waste which gets trapped under rocky substrate that the filter does not capture and affects the water quality.

Cheers Jacq.
 

Lisa

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The period while your tank is cycling is quite busy yes. But once your tank is cycled, and weekly checks/water changing is generally all that is required, it's much easier. It takes me no more than 30 minutes a week to test the water and do a water change on my 4 foot tank. And as I've got a sand substrate there never seems to be any uneaten food to clean up once my little pigs have been at work.

I've had big pebbles in a tank before and they are definately harder to clean under (and very necessary). If they are only in a single layer, you can stir them round with the siphon during your water change and clean up poo, uneaten poo etc whilst removing water from your tank and that's what I used to do. You may already have one, but if you haven't, a turkey baster I now consider essential for in-between spot cleaning.

Good luck.
 
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