Nitrate poisoning help

[Quentari]

So I had some axies in a tank and one of them started peeling off their slime coat. I took her out and put her in the fridge and have been giving her daily tea baths to try and soothe her skin. After testing the water I found that Ammonia and Nitrite were at 0, good. nitrate was so high I had to do half tank water, half tap water then double it to get an accurate reading.

I've taken EVERYTHING out of the tank, the plants, hides etc are in tubs of water (so i don't kill the bacteria) the filter got a rinse out and is now working away furiously and the tankmates are in tubs of water getting daily water changes.

I just pulled out like 70% of the water from the tank and replaced it, but the nitrate is still at 80ppm, so I'll be doing that again tomorrow.

A couple of things I wanted to mention though,

1. Smiley (the lecustic who's in the fridge) isn't getting any better. She's still very pink and I think she's getting pinker. How long before I can expect her to start looking better? I've attached some pictures of her. is there anything extra I can do for her? (luckily she's very fat so should be okay for a while in the fridge)

2. Since I've taken them out I've been able to better monitor their poop, and my goodness there's lots of sand in it. I'm thinking I should probably take the sand out of the tank sooner rather than later (was planning to change to slate when I moved, but that's a LOT of sand).

3. Today while changing Fury from his old tub to a new tub he wriggled at the wrong time and I dropped him. He fell quite a way but he landed on carpet and I got him back in the water very quickly. He's eaten since then and doesn't appear to have any injuries (although he does have carpet fluff). I'm keeping a close eye on him, but he should be okay with cool fresh water right?

 

[pookiewn]

Hope they get better soon, poor lil things a few thoughts, I've only just woken though, so sorry if it doesnt quite flow.

Have you tested the nitrates out of the tap? It might be that you have high nitrates in your water supply. If you do, no amout of water changes are going to bring it down. The fast growing floating plants are great for sucking up nitrates, I'm sure there are chemicals to do the same just don't have much faith in them. There are also nitrate removers for filters, on their own they don't do a lot but if used with plants they should have some affect.



Could you use bottled spring water for a bit to see if that makes a difference? I think I would leave her in a tea solution all the time rather than giving her teabaths, that way she's only moved once a day probably beneficial if she's losing her slime coat already.
There are dechlorinators with aloe in them, this is meant to helpful to them. Not sure if you use these already.

 

[Quentari]

Hope they get better soon, poor lil things a few thoughts, I've only just woken though, so sorry if it doesnt quite flow.

Have you tested the nitrates out of the tap? It might be that you have high nitrates in your water supply. If you do, no amout of water changes are going to bring it down. The fast growing floating plants are great for sucking up nitrates, I'm sure there are chemicals to do the same just don't have much faith in them. There are also nitrate removers for filters, on their own they don't do a lot but if used with plants they should have some affect.

Could you use bottled spring water for a bit to see if that makes a difference? I think I would leave her in a tea solution all the time rather than giving her teabaths, that way she's only moved once a day probably beneficial if she's losing her slime coat already.
There are dechlorinators with aloe in them, this is meant to helpful to them. Not sure if you use these already.

Yeah today I just put some tea straight into her tub, less moving around for her. I didn't think of testing my regular water for nitrate, I'll do that now. I do have a couple of live plants but one of them's got no leaves at the moment (lots of roots though) I have some duckweed I can put in, if you think that would help? I haven't seen any dechlorinators with aloe, but then I haven't been looking for them. I'll go take a look tomorrow and see it the local pet store has some.

Thanks for your input

 

[Mortimer]

I think Fury will probably be okay. I didn't mention this on here when it happened, but I dropped Astrid (my leucistic) when I was moving her from the tank to a tub. She actually flew through the air, landed on an electrical outlet, and was covered with dog hair. It was mortifying. The poor thing had bruises all over her.

She fully recovered in about a week. Thank goodness. I just kept her in clean cool water and did nothing else....

As far as your nitrates go...how frequently have you been doing water changes? How much do you change each time?

 

[Quentari]

I think Fury will probably be okay. I didn't mention this on here when it happened, but I dropped Astrid (my leucistic) when I was moving her from the tank to a tub. She actually flew through the air, landed on an electrical outlet, and was covered with dog hair. It was mortifying. The poor thing had bruises all over her.

She fully recovered in about a week. Thank goodness. I just kept her in clean cool water and did nothing else....

As far as your nitrates go...how frequently have you been doing water changes? How much do you change each time?

At first I was changing one bucket twice a week (maybe 10%?) then I got an extra lotl in the tank. A bit later I started doing 2 twice a week (around 20%) but obviously I have messy axies. Not to mention when I was cleaning out their tank I found SO MUCH **** under their plants and in their hides

Got a turkey baster for spot cleans the other day though, hopefully it doesn't get that bad again. More plants, more water changes, and more spot cleans.

 

[pookiewn]

Duckweed will work! Lots of roots sound good, what happened to the leaves, lol!

How long ago did you add your new axie and has the filter had time to catch up? What is your filter ? Have you got the filter for your new four foot yet? It'll be worth putting it in your three foot to cycle, it'll also help with the water parameters in the mean time

When I rescued the extra three I have I had to put an extra filter in the tank to cope with the load for a bit, as you said they are messy, going from five to eight put too much pressure on the filter. I also did 50% water changes for a bit. Great fun on a 6x2x2 tank

 

[Tephra]

Something that's also good for the slime coat and can be kept in the tank at all times... Driftwood. It leeches some tannins into the water; which is the beneficial part of the tea used for tea baths.

I have plenty of driftwood in my tank. Whenever one of my axies gets a bruise (they bump into stuff, it happens ) it heals so quickly, I barely notice. My ghost shrimp (the little cleaners) also love the driftwood, plenty of small hiding spots.
Do know that if you add new driftwood you'll get some white fungus on some pieces in the first few weeks, but it goes away and is completely harmless.

 

[Quentari]

Well I just cleaned out my old filter for the first time since I put it in the tank and it's so filthy it was disgusting. Rinsed it in a bowl of tank water and the water had to be replaced it went so dark.

Filter is working heaps better now, going to get a sponge filter to sit up the other end and help with the bio-load. Hopefully that can tide the tank over till the 1st of August when I'll be able to give them a bigger tank.

I have some driftwood in my smaller tank but I've been thinking of getting a nice big piece for the larger tank, it's just so expensive!! In the meantime I've been brewing lots of tea and just pouring the extra in the other tanks. Figure it can't hurt them.

The 4ft isn't cycled yet, it's at my parents though. Got one of those hang-on filters suitable for that sized tank plus a bunch of ornaments and fake plants from my cycled tanks so it's going nicely at the moment. I go back every couple of days to test the water but my brother's doing most of the work (he put his guppies in it to cycle it. if he forgets to take them out in time my axies get a snack!)

 

[Quentari]

Smiley is looking worse. I think she's not liking the fridge, whenever I check on her she's contorted into strange positions. She straightens up when the tub moves but I'm still very worried about her

 

[Mortimer]

Oh no. Is she just looking pinker? I wish I knew something that would be helpful for you to do.....

 

[Mortimer]

What kind of dechlorinator are you using? Do you let it age for a while after treating it?

 

[Quentari]

What kind of dechlorinator are you using? Do you let it age for a while after treating it?

I'm using API dechlorinator, aging it for 24 hours in a bottle in the fridge ready for her water changes. It's hard to judge if she's getting pinker but she keeps putting her head out of the water and floating on her side. As soon as I shift the tub she straightens herself but she just seems really uncomfortable and stressed.

 

[layna]

API stress coat is a dechlorinator with aloe in it, it adds extra slime to them to protect their slime coat

 

[Quentari]

I'm home now so I can double check the dechlorinator brand. API Tap Water Conditioner. I took a look out for stress coat or aloe yesterday but the pet stores didn't have it. I might have to search further.

 

[Quentari]

Well I have some good news on Smiley! She's still looking a bit red and veiney so she's not 100% obviously but I took the temp of her water in the fridge and it was about 2-3 degrees! I've since turned the fridge to "warmer" and wrapped her tub in some towels and her water's now at about 8 degrees and she seems heaps better. I think the nearly freezing water was making her much worse than she was. The tea treatment shall continue and I'll let you guys know when she's better, fingers crossed it happens soon!

 

[Possum63]

That's great news to here she is on the mend!

 

[Quentari]

Thanks everyone for your help, but Smiley passed away last night.

I still don't know why she got so sick and her tankmates are perfectly fine, but there's nothing I can do about it now other than make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[ClaireNZ]

Sorry to hear about Smiley. Hope the others are strong and well (and you too)

 

[pookiewn]

Sorry to hear about smiley, may she rest in peace with the earthworms in the sky.

 

[Kaysie]

That's too bad. I'm sorry!

As far as dechlorinators go, a simple dechlorinator is your best bet. By using one that has aloe or 'slime coat' additives in it, you're only adding to the bioload.