Urgent axolotl owner looking for help: My axolotl tank has been taken over by some kind of bacteria or fugus

[KarmaWillow]

Ok so here's the situation. I've had two axolotls for around a year now, one female and one male. For reasons that probably don't need to be explained, about a year ago I had to separate them and since then they have been living in separate tanks. In the past (when both lotls were less than a year old), they got fungus probably two or three times. Because, I was new to having axolotls, I decided to give them salt baths (something I probably wouldn't do now) which each time got rid of the fungus.

Everything was pretty good with my axolotls until about a month ago, when I cleaned my filter and some white stuff came out of it when I turned it back on. A day or so later I noticed what looked like fungus on one of my axies gills and white stuff on the bottom of his tank. I did give him a salt bath, but after that decided I should probably stick with tea baths. Of course, when I noticed the white stuff on his gills, I put him in a quarantine tub. Because my other axolotl seemed ok, and her tank had much less of the white bottom stuff, I didn't decide to quarantine her.

The day I put my male axie in a tub, I did a major water change in his tank (probably about 50%) and tried to vacuum all the white stuff I could off the bottom. Then I checked the chemical levels in both the axolotl tanks and noticed, that in both tanks the nitrate levels were extremely high.

Since then I've been doing 25% water changes in both tanks twice a week. The problem is, in my male axies tank, the white bacteria/fungus or whatever it is has gotten worse and worse. It completely covers the floor of the tank and no matter how much I suck up there's always more.

My male axolotl has since then recovered from whatever he had on his gills but I am afraid to take him out of quarantine because of all the white stuff and the high possibility of him getting sick.

Here's some general information about both tanks:

Tank 1 (where my female axolotl currently is) and Tank 2 (where my male axolotl used to live but is now contaminated with some kind of white stuff) both have some rocks (no substrate though), a few live plants, usually an Indian almond leaf, and a cave. Additionally, I have a fluval 206 filter for each tank.

Also both my lotls just eat nightcrawlers (earthworms) and I give them each half a worm every two days.

Tank 1 parameters are: ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, pH 7.0, Nitrate 40, temperature 66 Fahrenheit

Tank 2 parameters are: ammonia 0 or maybe 0.5 but probably 0, Nitrite 0, pH 7.0, Nitrate 80, temperature 66 Fahrenheit

In this message I am attaching photos of the white bacteria or fungus or whatever it is that is infecting Tank 1.

If anyone knows what it is or has suggestions for anything I can do to help the situation that would be so amazing. I know my male axolotl has probably been pretty stressed out these last few weeks and I want nothing more for him to be able to return to his new tank.

 

[Calgarycoppers]

Hi

Sorry to hear you are having issue!!

What water conditioner do you use?
Do you add anything else regularily?

That is just debris and not related to the gill issues.

I suspect the Gill issues are related to high nitrates.

As soon as your nitrates are 40 you need to do a minimum 50% water change all at once.
Your female tank needs a 50% water change all at once.
Your male tank needs a 75% water change all at once.

I would recommend Johns solution in your tank to help prevent any further issue. My handout on it is HERE

You can search the forums to find other conversations about its use.
It helps balance the Hardness of the water as Axolotls love harder water from various minerals and Salt.
You can use Holtfreters as well but its harder to make and needs higher concentrations in your tanks.

I use 20% Johns Solution in all my tanks and it prevents any fungus issues even if I have a sudden spike.
I use 30% in tubs I am treating new surrenders in.

 

[KarmaWillow]

Hello
I use SeaChem Prime as my water conditioner.
I will do water changes in both my tanks.
I figured it was just debris at first too but I can clearly see rounded bacteria worm like things in the tank. Plus this is the first time this kind of bacteria has shown up in the tank. If it was just debris I would expect that I would have seen it many times before.
What exactly is the Johns solution? Does it change chemical levels in the tank? What is it supposed to help with?
Thanks for the response