Nitrate spike? Water changes?

[Colettem]

Hi everyone!
I was looking at my big guy tonight and noticed he looked a little veiny. He’s had a couple issues lately (last week he cut his tail on part of the tank lid that was hanging down. That part of the lid has been removed since then and he’s all healed. He also has had one gill frill that continually grows a strand of algae. It’s not fungus and doesn’t seem to bug him. Usually I can get it off with a turkey baster. This time it’s being a little tricky. He has gone to the vet for it and he’s had it for 4 months. It seems harmless. Just not entirely sure why it keeps growing on him. And finally there is one tiny bone at the end of his tail that looks to be dislocated. He’s a lucy so it’s pretty clear. It hasn’t seemed to bother him and it’s been like that for several months) I figured I should check his water levels just to be safe. Ammonia was 0, nitrite was 0. pH was 7.6-7.8ish. And Nitrate was between 40 and 80!!! I hadn’t checked the tank in about two weeks because it had been pretty consistent levels and I was doing (what I considered) 2-3 10-20% water changes every week. I immediately did a 50% water change and double dosed the tank in prime. I considered tubbing him, but he absolutely hates being tubbed and almost always sustains an injury trying to escape. I’ll keep checking the levels and looking at him to see how he’s doing.

Here’s where I’m thinking I might’ve gone wrong. So on his tank, I have a pretty strong fan blowing on the water. The water evaporates quickly, so that’s why I was doing such frequent “water changes” but it wasn’t really water changes. It was just adding clean water and dechlorinator to replace what has evaporated. I’d assumed that adding the new clean water so often would be enough to keep nitrates down. But now I am wondering if the nitrates would just keep building up since I wasn’t actually removing any water.

What do you guys think? Would that cause the nitrate spike? Also if anyone has any ideas about the algae (long, clear and stringy. Not cottony or white) on the frill please lmk! I have only ever been able to find one post in the forum that looks similar to his growth and the person guessed it was algae but I don’t think they confirmed. The vet wasn’t sure either and thought it was some type of mucus.

 

[Murk]

Hi. Refilling evaporated water would indeed keep nitrates steadily building up, since nitrates don't evaporate.
Water changes are enough to solve nitrates issues, so no need to tub. Just test for nitrates a little more often until you've found a water change schedule that works for you and that should be fine.

The "algae" is pretty hard to tell without a picture. Pretty sure it's not algae, though - plants don't usually grow on axolotls.
Could be fungus growing on a weak spot, but could also just be a strange growth that produces more mucus than normal.

 

[Colettem]

Hi. Refilling evaporated water would indeed keep nitrates steadily building up, since nitrates don't evaporate.
Water changes are enough to solve nitrates issues, so no need to tub. Just test for nitrates a little more often until you've found a water change schedule that works for you and that should be fine.

The "algae" is pretty hard to tell without a picture. Pretty sure it's not algae, though - plants don't usually grow on axolotls.
Could be fungus growing on a weak spot, but could also just be a strange growth that produces more mucus than normal.

Thank you!! I will definitely test for it more! Maybe it is just a weird mucus thing then. I’d also thought algae because it only really appears again after I scrape the algae that grows on his tank. I’ve tried to get pictures, but it’s clear and you really can’t even see it unless you’re shining a light on him (which he also hates haha) Very odd. I have another lotl who has had pretty chronic fungus issues since I got her. (She is in a different tank and I’ve found she is just extra sensitive). And the mucus type thing doesn’t at all look like any type of fungus I’ve ever seen. It’s very clear and skinny and grows longer but never thicker. I even wondered if it was an abnormal gill frill at one point cause it almost looks like one, but longer and clear and more susceptible to moving from water flow