New Axolotl Uncycled tank

[Newaxolotlmom]

I have done about 2 months of countless research before purchasing my tank set up for an axolotl. I got an aquarium sand substrate, a 20-gallon long tank, 4 moss balls, one java fern, a large tree-like hide, and fake plants. I am using a double canaster sponge filter which I learned was good for low water disturbance. My tank had been cycling for a little over two months. I did get a nitrite spike that went down to zero, and I had some nitrates, and still about 1pmm ammonia. Then all of a sudden my tank had 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, and 2 pmm ammonia. I contacted my local pet store and they suggested stability and a 50% water change so I did that about 3 weeks ago. I then got my water tested last Friday and I had 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. So I contacted another store for help who sold axolotls. The girl I talked to told me my tank was cycled I just didn't have nitrates due to my live plants. So I went up there and purchased my axolotl Onyx. He is 4 inches long and is on small pieces of earthworms which I feed him by hand once a day about 1/3 of the worm. He has been doing really well, pretty active. He was underweight when I got him so I have been vigilant in feeding him. He has pooped once and I immediately got it out with a turkey baster once I saw it. The biggest struggle for me is the back and forth with the information I am receiving from reading online, forums, pet stores, youtube axolotl owners, and axolotl owners at pet stores. I can never get information that isn't contradicted by another source. Two days ago I had gotten my water tested at the pet store and it had 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I freaked out and asked how much water to change and such. They said 20% every other day so I rushed home and did that. They also said to use stability. I got my water tested again today and it was 0-.25pmm ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. So its "okay" for my baby at the moment. I have been thinking about maybe tubing him and doing 100% water changes daily but I was advised not to from an axolotl owner at a pet store. Should I tub him until my tank is fully cycled? Any suggestions on how to cycle a tank faster, since it has been over 2 months? By the way, my water temp is 58F!

 

[EasternRomioi3]

Do you have a photo of your filter? I use two sponge filters, 1 in opposite, adjacent corners. I added the extra because my axolotl's tank cycle crashed in late August 2020. It took like 3 weeks and I had to be vigilant. I always added 1 gallon of clean water a day and every other day I did a 50% water change. If you're home all the time and able to be vigilant, you can keep your little guy in good health.

I wouldn't do more than a 75% water change and don't take out the filters at all, don't clean them, leave them in and let them take in the bacteria necessary. If you do have to clean them, what I do is siphon out like 5 gallons of tank water, generally when I do a water change, and then I take the sponge filter, remove the inside and I put the sponge into the 5 gallons of siphoned water, ring it out with them. Sometimes stuff gets stuck, so I need to rub it a bit but don't run any water through it that isn't directly from your axolotl's tank, at least till it's fully cycled. You may kill off the beneficial bacteria.

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

Do you have a photo of your filter? I use two sponge filters, 1 in opposite, adjacent corners. I added the extra because my axolotl's tank cycle crashed in late August 2020. It took like 3 weeks and I had to be vigilant. I always added 1 gallon of clean water a day and every other day I did a 50% water change. If you're home all the time and able to be vigilant, you can keep your little guy in good health.

I wouldn't do more than a 75% water change and don't take out the filters at all, don't clean them, leave them in and let them take in the bacteria necessary. If you do have to clean them, what I do is siphon out like 5 gallons of tank water, generally when I do a water change, and then I take the sponge filter, remove the inside and I put the sponge into the 5 gallons of siphoned water, ring it out with them. Sometimes stuff gets stuck, so I need to rub it a bit but don't run any water through it that isn't directly from your axolotl's tank, at least till it's fully cycled. You may kill off the beneficial bacteria.

Here is a photo of my tank. Onyx is hanging out on top of the filter! I am able to get some RODI water from a pet store so adding a gallon of freshwater will be no problem. I assumed a 20% water change wouldn't be enough to keep the ammonia at bay. I have no problem getting another filter if it is needed. I watched a lot of Frankie's aquatics on youtube and he swears by the double canister sponge filter for axolotls, so that's what I purchased.

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

His gills are a little curled as well which makes me nervous.

 

[Pigalit]

I have done about 2 months of countless research before purchasing my tank set up for an axolotl. I got an aquarium sand substrate, a 20-gallon long tank, 4 moss balls, one java fern, a large tree-like hide, and fake plants. I am using a double canaster sponge filter which I learned was good for low water disturbance. My tank had been cycling for a little over two months. I did get a nitrite spike that went down to zero, and I had some nitrates, and still about 1pmm ammonia. Then all of a sudden my tank had 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, and 2 pmm ammonia. I contacted my local pet store and they suggested stability and a 50% water change so I did that about 3 weeks ago. I then got my water tested last Friday and I had 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. So I contacted another store for help who sold axolotls. The girl I talked to told me my tank was cycled I just didn't have nitrates due to my live plants. So I went up there and purchased my axolotl Onyx. He is 4 inches long and is on small pieces of earthworms which I feed him by hand once a day about 1/3 of the worm. He has been doing really well, pretty active. He was underweight when I got him so I have been vigilant in feeding him. He has pooped once and I immediately got it out with a turkey baster once I saw it. The biggest struggle for me is the back and forth with the information I am receiving from reading online, forums, pet stores, youtube axolotl owners, and axolotl owners at pet stores. I can never get information that isn't contradicted by another source. Two days ago I had gotten my water tested at the pet store and it had 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I freaked out and asked how much water to change and such. They said 20% every other day so I rushed home and did that. They also said to use stability. I got my water tested again today and it was 0-.25pmm ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. So its "okay" for my baby at the moment. I have been thinking about maybe tubing him and doing 100% water changes daily but I was advised not to from an axolotl owner at a pet store. Should I tub him until my tank is fully cycled? Any suggestions on how to cycle a tank faster, since it has been over 2 months? By the way, my water temp is 58F!

I had a similar problem when cycling my tank. When the ammonia dropped, did you feed it another dose of ammonia? It's important to keep feeding the bacteria, if it doesn't eat it will die basically. And curled gills are a sign of stress, which is probably due to the ammonia in the water. I'd suggest tubing the axie until your tank is fully cycled. Any amount of ammonia is bad for axie's because they are extremely sensitive. Having nitrate is a sign of a cycled tank because ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate. If ammonia appeared it's not a good sign.

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

I had a similar problem when cycling my tank. When the ammonia dropped, did you feed it another dose of ammonia? It's important to keep feeding the bacteria, if it doesn't eat it will die basically. And curled gills are a sign of stress, which is probably due to the ammonia in the water. I'd suggest tubing the axie until your tank is fully cycled. Any amount of ammonia is bad for axie's because they are extremely sensitive. Having nitrate is a sign of a cycled tank because ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate. If ammonia appeared it's not a good sign.

I did not keep feeding it. That step was never really clear in my research as well as water changes when cycling the tank. Onyx no longer has curled gills this morning and he's active. What do you suggest I use to feed the bacteria?

 

[Pigalit]

I did not keep feeding it. That step was never really clear in my research as well as water changes when cycling the tank. Onyx no longer has curled gills this morning and he's active. What do you suggest I use to feed the bacteria?

You have to feed it with ammonia. What I did was dose the water to 2ppm of ammonia, after around 2 1/2 weeks the ammonia level went down to 1ppm, that's when you dose it again with more ammonia. You need to keep feeding the bacteria or the bacteria will die. I was told wrong information as well, some say don't dose the water with ammonia until the ammonia is back at 0 ppm but that ultimately made my cycle start back from the beginning because I had no nitrate present. All the bacteria pretty much died because I wasn't feeding it anything. You should also do water changes every 1-2 weeks. Doing water changes will help with bringing down nitrites. I'll provide a spreadsheet of my previous cycling (before I had to restart) it's technically not correct but will give you a general idea of what to do. The weekly bacteria is me dosing Fluval biological booster which is basically beneficial bacteria in a bottle. I kinda stopped adding to it when I found out the cycling process I was doing was incorrect. Cycling

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

Could I used the water that I change out of the tub he is in for the ammonia? I’d rather not use anything unnatural or like additives. And like a 20% water change? What was the cycling method that best worked for you?

 

[Pigalit]

Could I used the water that I change out of the tub he is in for the ammonia? I’d rather not use anything unnatural or like additives. And like a 20% water change? What was the cycling method that best worked for you?

You usually use pure ammonia to start the cycling process altogether. I got Dr. Tim's ammonia from Amazon. If your tank is in fact uncycled then I suggest getting a bottle of ammonia which is pretty much all you need. I'm a bit confused about how you initially got ammonia in your tank though. I'm afraid tub water won't exactly be enough ammonia or give you an exact idea of how much ammonia you're dosing. The method you should do is dose your tank with at least 1 ppm of ammonia, when you see the 1 ppm ammonia go down to .50 ppm, dose it again with another 1 ppm ammonia. This will allow the bacteria to eat and won't die away like it initially did when you ended up with 0 ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I had the exact same problem (not feeding the bacteria) and I'm currently in the stages of restarting the cycling process.

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

You usually use pure ammonia to start the cycling process altogether. I got Dr. Tim's ammonia from Amazon. If your tank is in fact uncycled then I suggest getting a bottle of ammonia which is pretty much all you need. I'm a bit confused about how you initially got ammonia in your tank though. I'm afraid tub water won't exactly be enough ammonia or give you an exact idea of how much ammonia you're dosing. The method you should do is dose your tank with at least 1 ppm of ammonia, when you see the 1 ppm ammonia go down to .50 ppm, dose it again with another 1 ppm ammonia. This will allow the bacteria to eat and won't die away like it initially did when you ended up with 0 ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I had the exact same problem (not feeding the bacteria) and I'm currently in the stages of restarting the cycling process.

I used red worms for about 3 days in my take to produce ammonia. They lived the whole time because there was enough oxygen in the water. But I did remove them after awhile and never continued to add ammonia because there was always a reading of ammonia in my tank.

 

[Pigalit]

I used red worms for about 3 days in my take to produce ammonia. They lived the whole time because there was enough oxygen in the water. But I did remove them after awhile and never continued to add ammonia because there was always a reading of ammonia in my tank.

If that produced ammonia then when you see a drop in your ammonia levels add more red worms I guess. It's pretty much the same concept.

 

[AMurry24537]

Just to be clear, do NOT add ammonia/something that produces ammonia with your axolotl still in the tank. By themselves, they already produce ammonia, so if that's not getting taken care of already, adding another source will only make it worse for your little guy. Since you already have an axolotl, the least stressful option (for both you and it) is to leave it in the tank and make consistent water changes to keep levels down until it stabilizes, but you could also tub it and add ammonia yourself.

 

[Newaxolotlmom]

Just to be clear, do NOT add ammonia/something that produces ammonia with your axolotl still in the tank. By themselves, they already produce ammonia, so if that's not getting taken care of already, adding another source will only make it worse for your little guy. Since you already have an axolotl, the least stressful option (for both you and it) is to leave it in the tank and make consistent water changes to keep levels down until it stabilizes, but you could also tub it and add ammonia yourself.

I have talked to a fish expert who has had experience with axolotls at my local pet store. I am going to be doing 75% water changes for a week while double-dosing stability and triple dosing of seacum prime to deal with ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. I will be tubing my little guy during water changes. I definitely would not add any extra ammonia while he is in there! Thank you for your advice!