Hi Ava,
Firstly I would say that I have no experience with Axolotls & am just
giving you general opinion from fish keeping experience based on what you
tell us about your tank. Hopefully one of the experts can jump in shortly &
set you straight.
The higher pH would probably have been caused by the poor water quality,
using any of those products to raise or lower pH is a lottery because they
can have a cumulative effect & not kick in until you have put a lot in-then
it swings too far & you are forced to use another product to reverse the
process & so on all the time adding more & more chemicals to your water.
Certainly with fish a stable pH is far better than trying to keep a perfect
pH only to have it swinging around all the time which causes stress.
The cloudy water will likely have been a bacterial bloom caused by the tank
having a mini cycle. Large water changes will usually take care of that but
it seems your local water supply is high in ammonia which is unusual. Are
you on a mains supply or well water? Check the website of your local water
company, call them up & explain what you have found, try testing the water
of a couple of your neighbours & that should tell you if it is something
peculiar to your supply or in general.
Just a thought but when you went to your LFS did their water test high with
ammonia & did they test your water for ammonia? I'm wondering if your test
kit is old or perhaps not working properly. Do you have the strips or a
liquid test? strips are not very accurate.
John*<
*
On 20 February 2013 14:59, Ava aboswell91@gmail.com> wrote:
> **
>
>
> This may be long, and I apologize.
>
> When I first got my axolotl, my tank wasn't quite finished cycling, and
> ammonia was a tad high, but not at dangerous levels.
> After about a week, the water cleared up and my readings on test kits were
> normal. (I used water conditioner and a bacteria supplement)
> It's been over a month now.
> It's a 10 gallon tank, though I only have it filled up around 2/3 (7
> gallons worth about) of the way, my little guy isn't much of a swimmer, he
> prefers to crawl around the bottom.
> I do regular water changes about once a week I take out 2 gallons worth
> and replace it with tap water with some water conditioner, and I
> occasionally drop in a few crystals of aquarium salt. I'm really good with
> removing waste, and he always appears to eat all of his food.
> I have a standard 10 gallon HOB filter (not a bio one), and an air stone
> in there to keep a little water movement.
> Around 2 weeks ago, I realized that my little guy wasn't very active and
> his appetite had lessened. Following a simple pH test, I realized that my
> pH was high. I couldn't fathom why, but I simply put in some pH down. After
> about a day, he was back to normal.
> A few days ago, I realized his water was a tad cloudy. At first I assumed
> that he was playing and kicked up some sand (it's really fine so takes a
> while to settle), but once the cloudiness didn't go away I did an ammonia
> reading. IT WAS CRAZY HIGH. Around 8ppm! It was so high I literally looked
> at my little guy and asked him how he wasn't dead yet! Freaking out, I
> immediately put in some more water conditioner and a few crystals of
> aquarium salt.
> I then went to test our untreated tap water. The ammonia was high, around
> 2ppm, but not AS high as in my tank. I then set two buckets of tap water to
> the side, treated them with water conditioner, and let them sit overnight.
> I tested the ammonia in the buckets the next morning, and it barely budged!
> I went to my local pet store with a water sample for a free test to see if
> anything else was out of wack. She said my nitrates (or nitrites, one or
> the other, she didn't seem too sure of herself) were a tad high, but not at
> dangerous levels. At the pet store they basically told me to do everything
> that I've already been doing... But that's obviously not working.
>
> Currently I'm doing daily water changes of about 2 gallons, and treating
> my water with water conditioner, and a little extra bacteria supplement.
> ...Did my cycle crash? Am I doing something wrong? Ideas as to why this
> happened?
> I have no live plants in there because I hope to move him to a bigger tank
> soon, and don't want plants to root themselves and have to be torn out. I
> was hoping I could achieve the same thing by just adding the bacteria
> supplement.
>
> The thing that confuses me most, is that my axolotl seems perfectly fine.
> I never would assume something was wrong with him by the way he looks or
> acts. I know with fish you can tell easily that water levels are off
> because of their behavior. Everyone is telling me to calm down, that
> axolotls are hardy and he'll be fine, but I can't help but be afraid that
> I'll lose him. Am I freaking out too much?
>
> Again, sorry it was so long, I just want to be sure that all detail is
> there. Any ideas or tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (2) |
Please, DELETE this line and EVERYTHING below it when replying, Thank You.
���`�.��.><((((�>.���`�.��.���`�.�><((((�> �.���`�.�. , .���`�..><((((�>
PLEASE, when you REPLY to a post, DELETE all TEXT that is NOT important to the reply & if CHANGING the TOPIC of the original message MODIFY the SUBJECT LINE -> i.e. "new subject (was re: old subject)" <-
<�((((><.���`�.��.���`�.�<�((((><�.���`�.�. , .���`�..<�((((><���`�.��.
We Thank You in Advance for Your HELP in this matter.
If you do not want all of the groups emails, instead of unsubscribing, you can change your delivery option by clicking on "Edit My Membership" on the home page.
Or e-mail aquaticlife-digest@yahoogroups.com to receive the digest, which includes up to 25 posts at a time in a single email
Or email aquaticlife-nomail@yahoogroups.com for the No E-Mail option where you will still be able to read messages on the group and post replies.
Or email aquaticlife-normal@yahoogroups.com to receive individual e-mails.
No comments:
Post a Comment