Urgent advice needed!! I added sand to my tank, and I didn't realise I had no dechlorinator.

[ZayneSantos]

Hi guys. I made a HUGE mistake, I'm beating myseld up so much over this. So a few hours ago I put both my Axolotls in a 5 litre tub with treated tank water whilst I cleaned some sand I bought today in the bath. I added the sand to the tank, went to grab my dechlorinator and then remembered I had ran out... I cannot go and grab any as all stores closed hours and hours ago. The store opens at 10 am, in roughly 8 hours. Both axolotls have pooped and the water hss gone disgustingand murky, will they be okay for another 9 hours or will the ammonia skyrocket so much that they'll die? One person has told me to put them in the tank as it only raised the water level by 3.9 litres, but I'm genuinely petrified to do so. Can anyone give me advice??? Please don't get at me for this, I know I messed up and did wrong.

 

[Murk]

Looking at the time, by now your store should have opened, so I guess the advice comes too late.

8 hours in a 5 liter tub is fine, even if the axolotls pooped.
What is the problem with putting them back in the tank? You only added sand, right?

 

[ZayneSantos]

I added sand that was cleaned out with tap water, so no matter how hard I tried to get rid of all the water I assume it's still added a lot of heavy metals and chloramine to the water

 

[Murk]

Ah yes, makes sense.
I guess if all your tap water needs to be treated before being safe, it's a good idea to keep a small quantity of bottled water shelved somewhere, in case of emergencies.

 

[ZayneSantos]

That's what I'm doing after this. I'm usually all prepared. I guess from stressing about day I just didn't think!

 

[Calgarycoppers]

in future have a bottle of spring water or a bucket of aged water - sitting more than 24 hours or distilled water with holtfreters.
order some seachem safe powder tat is used to treat big volumes

 

[MnGuy]

Letting tap water sit out for 24 hours will rid it of chlorine but not chloramine, which is chlorine and ammonia chemically bonded. If your municipality treats its water with chloramine, you need to use a chemical agent to break down and remove chloramine.

Good luck.

 

[EasternRomioi3]

@ZayneSantos

How is your axolotl doing? I keep learning that everything you do to their tank, is generally just wrong and harmful. So I don't know what advice to offer, I just hope everything is ok. When I purchased my axolotl's new tank and got her fresh sand, I sat in the bathtub and cleaned through it, sifted it around and all that then drained it and finally added the pre-treated water to it and let it sit for a few hours before I made my move with my axolotl. I only know to do that from my experience with reptiles, which is apparently woefully useless with axolotls.

 

[ZayneSantos]

@ZayneSantos

How is your axolotl doing? I keep learning that everything you do to their tank, is generally just wrong and harmful. So I don't know what advice to offer, I just hope everything is ok. When I purchased my axolotl's new tank and got her fresh sand, I sat in the bathtub and cleaned through it, sifted it around and all that then drained it and finally added the pre-treated water to it and let it sit for a few hours before I made my move with my axolotl. I only know to do that from my experience with reptiles, which is apparently woefully useless with axolotls.

Hiya. They're both doing perfectly fine. The sand was rinsed for hours anyway, but was rinsed in tap water. I had a huge stress out and posted this for some dumb reason. I woke up and went to the store to get some prime and added them and everything is fine. They seem to prefer their sand over a bare bottom tank.

 

[EasternRomioi3]

@ZayneSantos

Yeah, I know exactly how you feel. I have a lot of anxiety with that little stuff too.