Axolotl bacterial growth

[Kevinjr0208]

I’m not sure if my last comment went through but I did 1 cup of salt in a 5 gallon bucket (which was at 5% salinity) put it in my aquarium and the salinity in the aquarium registered at 0%. So I figured I needed to add another cup of salt…same results! Am I doing something wrong cause I thought I should be able to see what the aquarium water salinity level was at?

 

[wolfen]

how are you testing it? when you put 2.5 cups in a bucket it read 35% but when you put 1 cup in a bucket it read as 5%???.
as it is right now your salt level is at 3.5ppt which is around the same as the salt level in 100% holtfreters, you don't need to add any more salt.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

how are you testing it? when you put 2.5 cups in a bucket it read 35% but when you put 1 cup in a bucket it read as 5%???.
as it is right now your salt level is at 3.5ppt which is around the same as the salt level in 100% holtfreters, you don't need to add any more salt.

I have a refractometer

 

[Kevinjr0208]

Do you only test what is in the bucket and not fully in aquarium?

 

[wolfen]

if you are needing to test the salinity then testing the salt water solution in the bucket will be easier as the salinity is higher and more likely to register, in the aquarium it will only be a couple of notches so is hardly noticeable.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

if you are needing to test the salinity then testing the salt water solution in the bucket will be easier as the salinity is higher and more likely to register, in the aquarium it will only be a couple of notches so is hardly noticeable.

So am I ok with the 2 cups of salt I put in or should I do a water change and just add the half cup like I normally would

 

[wolfen]

should be fine to wait until you do weekly water changes, when you do a water change do a 50% but don't add any salt, then when you do a follow up in a fortnight add salt to the amount of water changed ie.. half cup for 50% water change, quarter cup for 25% water change and so on.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

should be fine to wait until you do weekly water changes, when you do a water change do a 50% but don't add any salt, then when you do a follow up in a fortnight add salt to the amount of water changed ie.. half cup for 50% water change, quarter cup for 25% water change and so on.

Fortnight?

 

[wolfen]

Fortnight?

14 days, basically if you do a normal water change on Sunday (ie.. 18th) do a fifty percent water change but don't add any salt, then the following Sunday (ie.. 25th) do a water change but add the amount of salt required, fifty percent water change equals half a cup, twenty five percent water change equals quarter cup. then just keep to a routine of adding salt when doing a water change.
if you have to top up the water due to evaporation just use dechlorinated water with nothing else added.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

So I put 16 capfuls of replenish in and my kh is up to 180ppm. The gh is still low at 40ppm. I thought with the salt the gh would rise? Any suggestions?

 

[Kevinjr0208]

My last post was wrong…after adding a total of 16 capfuls of replenish and testing the water with a test kit I get:

Gh- 280ppm
Kh- 50ppm

Any suggestions?

 

[wolfen]

your gh is at a good level 16° which means your gh is hard, your kh is very low still which is expected adding 4.5 tsp of bicarbonate of soda should correct that.
when you next do a water change (50% as suggested) adding 8 cap full will keep the gh at its current level.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

Kh- 110ppm now

 

[wolfen]

your kh is now 6° which is good, at next water change add 2.5 tsp.

 

[Kevinjr0208]

your kh is now 6° which is good, at next water change add 2.5 tsp.

Is it every water change add 2.5 tsp?

 

[wolfen]

50% water change 2.5 tsp, 25% change 1.25 tsp

 

[Kevinjr0208]

So my daughters axolotl is in the tank and is moving around a lot more…which is such an improvement. The only thing I have noticed is that he has not been eating his red worms? When I got him they said he was a juvenile and old enough to just eat worms. Is there something else I should be feeding him or is there something I should do to help him eat?

 

[Kevinjr0208]

I was looking on Amazon and saw they make pellets for Axolotl from Invert Aquatics on Amazon? It says the age range is from Juvenile to adult…should I invest in these too?

 

[wolfen]

although I used to feed my axolotls pellets many years ago I now only feed them live or frozen food, for information or peoples view on different pellets you may have to open a separate post, also reading through some of the posts here Food: Live, Frozen, Freeze-Dried, Pellets, etc may help.