Kiruru
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- Jun 24, 2015
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Hello, I forgot this forum existed online and that I made an account years ago when my first axolotl got sick. Finally getting my butt in gear to ask some serious questions because I am seriously at my limit now.
I've had my newest axolotl, Captain, since July. His tank cycled for an entire month (June) before I got him and everything went smoothly. In October, I missed a week to do a tank change and it slightly messed up the cycle for a moment but I got it back on track pretty quickly. That was until the Middle of November when the entire cycle just suddenly crashed with no warning other than my axolotl being a zoomy boy. He didn't have any ammonia burns or anything that told of stress but his tank refused to go down no matter how many tank changes I did. I immediately tubbed him and did a 50% water change every week to help bring down the water. This did not work! I've done everything for this tank and now I'm biting a loss that I might never get my little guy back in before May or October (I have events out of town and I don't really know if anybody can help keep a good eye on him in his tub or even change the water in the morning.)
I've got two good filters in the tank (Fluval AquaClear and a Sponge Filter), an Aquarium chiller, Seachem primer and everything I believe to be axolotl safe essentials (Like Almond leaves!)
I tried to introduce Duckweed at one point but it died and forced me to redo the entire tank in general due to decaying matter causing problems (Gross gray sludgy dead stuff hidden everywhere!) but that shouldn't be another portion of the issue due to the amount of cleaning I did to get rid of it. So essentially, I started over on the cycle with fresh new tank, did not scrub the filters to keep any living bacteria (but did remove the decay if any was there) and left it alone for a solid 5 weeks. I decided to test my tank to see how far along I was and holy smokes, EXTREMELY high ammonia and everything else was fine.
I thought maybe a 50% to bring that down was a good idea but now I've just overwhelmed and hyperfixated on my tank again from doing that. I thought I knew how to cycle this tank but I guess I'm doing something wrong and I'm lost on what else to do. I don't want Captain to die or give him away, I just can't do that!
Can someone please give me some advice on this matter? Cycling tips, how to know that this ammonia spike isn't something worry about or why this axolotl-less cycle is being such a burden! Am I the problem?
I've had my newest axolotl, Captain, since July. His tank cycled for an entire month (June) before I got him and everything went smoothly. In October, I missed a week to do a tank change and it slightly messed up the cycle for a moment but I got it back on track pretty quickly. That was until the Middle of November when the entire cycle just suddenly crashed with no warning other than my axolotl being a zoomy boy. He didn't have any ammonia burns or anything that told of stress but his tank refused to go down no matter how many tank changes I did. I immediately tubbed him and did a 50% water change every week to help bring down the water. This did not work! I've done everything for this tank and now I'm biting a loss that I might never get my little guy back in before May or October (I have events out of town and I don't really know if anybody can help keep a good eye on him in his tub or even change the water in the morning.)
I've got two good filters in the tank (Fluval AquaClear and a Sponge Filter), an Aquarium chiller, Seachem primer and everything I believe to be axolotl safe essentials (Like Almond leaves!)
I tried to introduce Duckweed at one point but it died and forced me to redo the entire tank in general due to decaying matter causing problems (Gross gray sludgy dead stuff hidden everywhere!) but that shouldn't be another portion of the issue due to the amount of cleaning I did to get rid of it. So essentially, I started over on the cycle with fresh new tank, did not scrub the filters to keep any living bacteria (but did remove the decay if any was there) and left it alone for a solid 5 weeks. I decided to test my tank to see how far along I was and holy smokes, EXTREMELY high ammonia and everything else was fine.
I thought maybe a 50% to bring that down was a good idea but now I've just overwhelmed and hyperfixated on my tank again from doing that. I thought I knew how to cycle this tank but I guess I'm doing something wrong and I'm lost on what else to do. I don't want Captain to die or give him away, I just can't do that!
Can someone please give me some advice on this matter? Cycling tips, how to know that this ammonia spike isn't something worry about or why this axolotl-less cycle is being such a burden! Am I the problem?