|
So over the past couple of weeks I've been setting up a tank (for an axolotl, but that's irrelevant). Today I did three things: put in an ornament (that was new and I washed), put in sand (that I bought, bagged, from an aquarium shop) and did a 20% water change ready to add an ammonia source to start a cycle. There is currently nothing living in the tank that I have put in there. After doing the water change, I was admiring the tank and noticed some new critters. A couple of tiny organisms - one looks kind of like a caterpillar and is about 5mm in length and then there are a couple of super wiggly worm things of a similar length. Now, I'm assuming these came from the sand since I would be concerned if poo poo like this was in my water supply, and I've never seen any before. I didn't rinse the sand before putting it in - which was perhaps my mistake - as I figured it was bagged and ready to go. What's the best way to banish these critters? If I remove all the water and the sand, will it be ok to wash the sand a bunch and then put it back in along with new water?
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2015 19:29
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 12:54 |
|
|
Cheers for the replies. I'll see if I can get any photos, when I tried last night the creatures were too tiny for my camera to focus. My main concern is that I've read that some worms can get into axolotl gills and cause problems. I don't want to hurt it when I finally get to put it in! I was actually considering buying a shrimp friend. Which types are benign to other tankmates and good for cleaning?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 10:47
|
|
|
I just sent off an enquiry about cherry shrimp, actually! I probably don't want a colony - I have a tiny flat and this tank is only 24x15x12in. I'm thinking 3-5 shrimp would be good? And I'm not really fussed if the axie ends up eating them, I just don't want him to get infested with worms.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 12:37
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Shrimp and... Hopefully a couple of weeks of shrimp will eliminate any more non-consensual critters. This is the only photo I managed to get, this is the caterpillar-y thing I was talking about : 
Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Mar 23, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 23:29
|
|
|
Got me some shramp, cheers for the tip, guys! How quickly do cherry shrimp grow? How often do they need feeding (I figure once the axolotl's in there, any survivors will live off its leftovers so won't need their own food...)?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2015 19:42
|
|
|
I'm not interested in them breeding, really. But in terms of the tank, there's a submarine fish hide thing and some rocks and plants (an elodea bunch and some fake ones), as well as those moss balls. I think they're all good for hiding places!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2015 21:00
|
|
|
It's not even summer and my tank's water is getting up to 20°C. I need to keep it below 18 and stop frequent, extreme changes. Any tips?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2015 23:07
|
|
|
The largest and reddest (so I'm assuming female...) of my red cherry shrimp keeps frantically kicking her back legs and arching her back. It's been a couple of days now and the internet suggests eggs, but she certainly doesn't look like she is carrying any - to my untrained eye at least. I think she moulted a couple of days ago, based on the size of the moult I spotted on the floor of the tank. Any ideas what might be going on? None of the other shrimp are acting any differently.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2015 21:47
|
|
|
Inevitable posted:She wants you, man. Go for it! drat, a gay shrimp is sure gonna gently caress up my idea of getting a colony started...
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2015 08:22
|
|
|
r0ck0 posted:Get a chiller and a temp controller for your heater, program both to stay within 2°C of your target without overlapping. Or get a fan and and a two way temp controller, turn the fan on when its too hot and the heater on when its too cold. I don't have a heater (though if the tank's temperature is changing so much now then I evidently will need one come winter) and I am having real trouble finding coolers that aren't extremely expensive. What should I be looking for?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2015 12:38
|
|
|
I've posted on the Caudata forums to see what folk have to say. I just figured I'd check here first since the other forum moves much more slowly. I hope I can get this sorted, I don't want to abandon my axolotl plan. I really miss having one.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2015 15:35
|
|
|
I'm moving house. How much water do I need to retain so as not to shock my creature or gently caress up the cycle? I know to keep the filter sponge submerged in tank water, and I've got sand as a substrate.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2016 20:20
|
|
|
Desert Bus posted:Put the sand in a 5 gallon bucket, put the sponge filter on top of the sand, and fill with tank water until it's all submerged. If you're moving far enough away that the water from the tap is drastically different, fill a second 5 gallon bucket with water. This is instructions for 10-20 gallon tank. If bigger, the more water you can bring the better. Maybe pick up a battery powered air pump to keep the sponge filter going. I've got about 9 US gallons (35 litres) in my tank. The new place is only about a mile away so it will take 30-45mins maximum I'd say once everything's in the car to get it from there to the tank's new home, so I was planning on leaving the sand in the tank with enough water to cover it and just moving it that way, then putting the filter sponge in a ziploc bag filled with tank water. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? I was thinking to leave my axolotl in a small temporary tank with tank water overnight to let the sand and new water settle then move him in from there.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2016 13:00
|
|
|
My filter's motor keeps making horrendous noises, and I think it's time to change it before it dies a death. What's the best way to do this without loving my cycle? I have two years' worth of delicious filter bacteria and my parameters are great. I want to upgrade the filter so that the next one doesn't die in two years, which means I'm not certain the sponge will be able to fit neatly in the new one.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2016 18:16
|
|
|
My levels are all fine but for the last couple of months I keep waking up to a cloudy film that's skimmable and creates white strands. I assume this is some sort of weird bacteria situation but I don't know how to stop it, water changes don't seem to make any difference! What's going on?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2017 22:54
|
|
|
Azuth0667 posted:White hairy things? Could be fungi I'd have to look at it with my scope to tell you for sure. Stoca Zola posted:I have had some pretty gross jars of water in my time, from when I was keeping tons of flatworms (they make enough slime to foul a small jar very quickly) and trying to grow green water or infusoria and I've never seen anything like that form. It sounds kind of gross! Does it smell like anything? Have you got any kind of surface agitation in your tank? How big is the tank, and what livestock? Any plants that aren't doing well, or overpopulation of snails? Any kind of breeding activity? I've heard that penguin tetras produce enough milt when they spawn that it can foul up the whole tank, and a surface film could be from extra proteins in the water. Grossness that appears overnight does make me think it could be snail slime leavings or frisky fish proteins since both of those are from nocturnal activities rather than built up wastes that a water change would remove.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2017 15:43
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Clean the tank super well etc Thanks for the advice. I will move Max into his temporary tank and do a big clean. The substrate is sand but I can agitate that and scrub down the ornaments and see if that helps at all. A couple of photos to explain what I was on about as well - I came down yesterday to a pretty bad film.  
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2017 10:07
|
|
|
I can't move the filter any closer to the surface because otherwise the intake doesn't work properly or something and it starts making lots of noise and not doing so well! We feed salmon pellets every other day. I never see any left over but I suppose they could be breaking up and being mixed with the sand. I also wonder if Max sometimes poos in one of the ornaments (he has a submarine hide) but then steps in it and so that's mixing in and causing issues? His poos are fairly solid and easy to scoop, but if they happen in the night and get smooshed before they can be removed then I suppose that might be a factor.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2017 10:53
|
|
|
Facebook Aunt posted:Could you add an air stone? Since all it is doing is agitating the water the smallest and cheapest air pump would be fine, and you can turn it off once the problem is gone if the air pump hum bothers you. We had an air stone but it was really upsetting Max so we took it out. He seemed to think it was the enemy. Took out all the ornaments today and gave them a good scrub with dish soap and lots of tap water. I also agitated the sand and cleaned the filter, then did a big water change. It's all still settling now, but fingers crossed this helps else I don't know what to do! It's such a weird problem to have.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2017 22:27
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Hmm using detergent in an aquarium situation is usually a bad idea, it's extremely hard to rinse it all off. I hope you did rinse everything very well because detergents are a good way to kill everything in a tank not just the bacteria. It was well rinsed, and Max seems happy enough 24 hours in. And the film hasn't yet returned... What should we do since we hosed up? 
Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 22:06 on May 1, 2017 |
|
#
¿
May 1, 2017 20:51
|
|
|
Hoping for some freshwater aficionado top tips - I thought the cycle in my axolotl tank had crashed (so we removed him to a temporary tank), but there's zero nitrite and ammonia keeps getting down to 0-0.25ppm with big water changes... But then it's spiking again! We thought we could reintroduce Max on Saturday morning but today he was playing dead (freaked the gently caress out when I lifted him back onto the sick tank though!) and ammonia was back up to 1ppm. Any clever ideas about what is going on? Not had to troubleshoot this one before, the tank isn't behaving at all how I expect it to... Any advice appreciated!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2018 08:04
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:Number one thing I would recommend for mysterious ammonia is to check your source water to make sure there's no ammonia coming in that way. Some tests detect treated chloramine as ammonia too, I think API is notorious for this, so perhaps your water treatment has been switched from chlorine to chloramine for seasonal reasons, and that's what you're seeing? Thank for your response. Someone else I spoke to has me wondering if the substrate (sand) has built up an 'ammonia bubble' so I'm going to agitate everything whilst Max is out and do a couple of agitation-water change cycles to see if that helps. There's no ammonia from the tap, and we're using a filter with sponge that gets the occasional squeeze into tank water to clean. Max hasn't grown over the last year or so really so I doubt it's that he's producing more waste, but I do also wonder if the occasional bit of food is getting lost before it gets eaten or cleaned. Let's see if this ammonia bubble thing holds any water, if not then I'll be back for more mystery water issue troubleshooting!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2018 19:53
|
|
|
I'm back from a few pages ago when I had some mystery ammonia spikes. Thought the issue had been resolved but nope - after doing a bunch of sand cleaning and water changes to get the ammonia down to 0 it started climbing again. It's like the cycle crashed but it's been a good couple of weeks now and no nitrite has appeared - just ammonia. We're doing 30-50% water changes depending on the ammonia level as the tank is inhabited so it needs to be kept under control. What gives? Any clever suggestions?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2018 16:33
|
|
|
No, I'm not sure whether it's safe for axolotls.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2018 17:35
|
|
|
Sometimes axolotls can have reactions to additives in tank chemical stuff because they are amphibians and not fish. I know some nitrate remover really upset him. I don't know what's in the solution they use to suspend the bacteria or how that might affect Max. We've been using Seachem Prime as our dechlorinator for a long time now so covered on that one!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2018 19:07
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:That's true for API liquid test kits, since they are detecting ammonium and that might have come from chloramine or ammonia. What does your clean tap water test as, before you put it in the tank? I feel like for sure if you had lost your cycle you would have a clue why. Zero ammonia at source. I'm so baffled! We'd become a bit lax at testing because the tank's been running with no issues for three years, then a few weeks ago tested and the ammonia was really high so we removed Max and undertook water changes to seemingly little effect. Within 24 hours and with no animal in the tank ammonia was climbing from, say, 0.25ppm to 1ppm. Someone here diagnosed an ammonia bubble so we made sure to rifle through the sand as well. After a week or so of water changes and sand disturbing it seemed to settle, only to start spiking again not long after Max went back in. I know there needs to be ammonia to start a cycle, but at no point has nitrite appeared. We're using Prime to detoxify the ammonia but have to do daily water changes to keep it below 0.5ppm. I have no idea what's happening and it feels like there's no end in sight.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2018 09:18
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:How big is your filter, how often do you clean it, what filter medium do you use? How thick is your substrate? If its not from Max, if its not in the substrate, there's really only the filter left. The filter is only small (axolotls don't like fast flowing water) and uses a sponge. I give it a squeeze in old tank water... Once a month I guess? I last did that after the mystery spikes started up again after putting Max back in. Substrate gets shifted about but it's not very thick overall, maybe just half an inch at its deepest. No cats or other pets, no kids. Don't think my partner is pissing in there either.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2018 17:38
|
|
|
Interesting thoughts. But why would this happen now, after three happy years, at least half of which he's been pretty much the same size? And wouldn't urea have been blitzed by the week of huge daily water changes when he was out of the tank?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2018 19:19
|
|
|
Back again with my irritating, months-long by this point ammonia issue (click the ? under my name for the history!). We've cleaned, we've got a more powerful filter, we've now added extra bacteria (a week ago) and still the ammonia is spiking, no nitrite is appearing, and the two aquatics shops we've been to have tested the water with exactly the same results as we've had so it's not a testing kit issue. Daily water changes are getting to be a real ball ache now and we'll be away for nearly a week in the middle of March. It's increasingly looking like starting all over again is going to be the only solution but I wanted to make a last ditch effort to get some more advice. So... Any other suggestions for helping a (15gal I think) tank that's been perfect for three years get back to functioning as it should? Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jan 13, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 01:02
|
|
|
VelociBacon posted:You added extra bacteria last week but are doing daily water changes? Are you re-adding the quick - start bacteria after your water changes? In your situation I would. We've gone from 50% changes to 10% on the advice from the aquatics shop. The bacteria are in these squidgy balls that go in the filter, the guy assured us the water changes wouldn't wash out the bacteria and said we should add two balls each week. He also reckons we should've expected to see some parameter shift within a couple of days or so. Currently running two filters.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 01:14
|
|
|
Thing is, this is a well established tank. The water conditioner detoxify ammonia to an extent but beyond that I don't know if it would do much else?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 09:03
|
|
|
Ah, I understand now... We've had the same water and conditioner since April with no issue until October. We have slightly overdosed water since the issue began but it doesn't seem to have helped, and dechlorinator aspect of the conditioner dechlorinates beyond the levels of chlorine that are acceptable in drinking water in the UK.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 12:36
|
|
|
Back again. Please feel free to click on my post history for this thread. Our tank's cycle seemed to have crashed ages ago (end of October is when problems started). Ammonia spikes constantly despite water changes. Bought a new, more powerful filter, ran it alongside the old one. Added extra bacteria. We thought we'd solved it after seeing a cycle start again. Barely had a week of stability and the ammonia started climbing again. Still running both filters. Still having to change the water every ~3 days to keep the ammonia under control. Today's Tuesday and the ammonia had gone from 0.25 post-water change on Sunday to 1.0 today. Is there any other diagnostic to use or is it time to just try a whole new, fresh tank with a new cycle? Completely baffling. Everyone seems to be scratching their head with this one. I'm completely confused as to how a tank that's been stable for three years is now unable to hold a cycle.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2019 23:23
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:I think I remember, axolotl tank, 10 gallons, too much ammonia? All I can think of is that you just need a much bigger tank so that you have more water to dilute the wastes that your dude produces, and to do enough water changes to keep the waste levels down. The only factor that seems to be changed from when everything was fine is time, and time means livestock has grown bigger. I think I hosed up working out the gallons and it's more like 15, but yeah. I suppose I'm just surprised it happened so quickly (seemingly...) Azuth0667 posted:We always use 30 gallon tanks for the axolotls at my lab. For a single creature? Absolutely prepared to do this to keep him happy, but I want to make sure I'm not pouring money into another failed solution!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2019 19:14
|
|
|
Stoca Zola posted:I think a bigger tank is absolutely never a waste of money - assuming you buy as big a tank as you can afford or can reasonably fit in your space. It is a waste of money to buy a slightly bigger tank each year as your animal grows. I think also if you had a bigger tank you could safely get a canister filter and have much more filter media and the flow could be more easily dispersed via a spray bar, for the comfort of the axy. You can reduce the flow on most canister filters by using a valve on the outlet side anyway. I think there's only one place for the ammonia to be coming from and that's the axolotl itself; it's only going to get worse over time until they reach maximum size. As a temporary solution you could try feeding less, but I'm not sure if that's advisable for an axolotl. Azuth0667 posted:Yeah we used one 30 gallon per axolotl. Cool, will get on it then and buy a bigger tank. Both my partner and I had axies before with no issues in similarly-sized, if not smaller, tanks - which is why we thought it'd be fine. I guess ours this time around is just a messy boy. His shits have been way sandier than they used to be for a while now, which is probably contributing. Is there any way of kickstarting a cycle in a new tank (other than trying to seed from the substrate/filter medium) or is any hope of that futile and we just have to hope it takes less than two months? It's been a while! Here's a photo of weird axolotl acrobatic resting: 
Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Mar 14, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2019 23:58
|
|
|
mango sentinel posted:That sure is a thumbnail. Hm, was working fine for me but I've removed the timg tag now.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2019 08:33
|
|
|
We are going to move house in a month or so with a big, well established axolotl tank. I think it's 200l? But a bit underfilled. How's best to do this without upsetting the cycle? We will keep the old filter medium, won't wash any ornaments etc... We can probably transport some of the water but not much because, well, transporting water.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2020 19:01
|
|
|
Had a pretty catastrophic incident at home, which means we're likely without power for 2+ days. Any ideas for how to keep an established tank (with one axolotl) from getting hosed by having the filter off for that long? Putting the axolotl into a temp tank is tricky because we're also without running water for at least 24+ hours so no way to keep up with daily water changes.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2024 17:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 12:54 |
|
|
Great, thanks for the reassurance! Max was overdue a water change but another couple of days will hopefully be ok. We are lucky to have a bunch of great friends who've offered us somewhere to stay in the meantime, so humans are all sorted  Thanks for your well-wishes.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2024 19:21
|
|