Bacteria Bloom

[SamR0se]

Hi, we got an Axolotl 4 weeks ago. We set up a 20-Gallon tank with a SICCE Shark ADV 600 filter. The first 7 days, I used SeaChem Stability to cycle the tank… the tank was looking good that first week, but then we noticed the water was cloudy, so we changed the filter and did a 20% water change, that only made it worse and now we know not to do water changes during a bacteria bloom.

That said, we’ve left the water as is since then (except we’ve continued to use Stability and we did clean the filter a few days ago since it wasn’t working great) , but it’s been over 2 weeks and the water is still not looking good. I’ve attached a picture.

We’ve been testing it every other day and the Nitrate and Ammonia levels are fine, plus our axolotl seems to be doing great, but again, the water clarity not so great.

Can anyone please share any advice on what you think could be wrong? We are cleaning out his poop and doing our best to not over feed him. Any help would be truly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Biological bloom is normal in newly established tanks. They tend to clear up as the tank cycles and the nutrients balance out. This normally takes 2 or 3 weeks.

What precisely are your water parameters? What test kit are you using?

Stability wont do anything to help you cycle the tank. These bacteria in a bottle products are hit and miss, usually miss. Stability is one of the poorest of these types of product you can buy and i dont see it being any benefit.

What do you mean by "change the filter"? Replacing filter material is one of the worst things you can do. Every time you do this you throw away the bacteria that are responsible for your cycle. What precisely did you change?

 

[SamR0se]

Thanks for your quick reply!

NH3/NH4 has been at 0. We’ve been using API to test the Ammonia, but using the strips to test the rest. I’m gong to get the API master kit since I don’t know how accurate the strips are, but for the interim, below are the parameters based off a strip I just did:

NO3 and NO2 - 0
Carbonate - 180-300 (high)
Alkalinity- 300 (high)
pH - between 7.6–8.0

I can send an update once I get the API master kit to confirm water parameters.

RE: Stability — do you recommend a different product to use? Everyone in the axolotl community recommended this product , so that’s why I went with it. I am open to suggestions!

Regarding the filter, we changed out the sponge (which we now know was the wrong move), and that definitely made the BB worse, but that was 3 weeks ago. Since then, we’ve left everything as is (we haven’t done any water changes either— is this the right move?) but we did clean the current filter sponge recently only because the filter wasn’t working properly (there were barely any bubbles coming out). It seems to be working better now, but I just read on a different thread that we should have cleaned the sponge with tank water (which we didn’t do, but we will moving forward when it needs to be cleaned).

I really appreciate your help! I’m so new to this and I’m determined to get the water looking better! Do we just need to wait it out, or is there something we should be doing differently? Thanks!

 

[SamR0se]

Here are the results from the API master test kit
pH- 8.2
NH3/NH4 - 0 ppm
NO2 -0 ppm
NO3 - 0 ppm

Picture attached

 

[Aiken Drum]

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all being zero is essentially impossible. The nitrogen cycle consumes waste (ammonia) and produces nitrate. If you are cycled you will detect nitrate. If you arent cycled you will detect ammonia and/ or nitrite depending on how far progressed your cycle is.

To see zero across those 3 parameters either.
- There is nothing in the tank producing ammonia.
- There is something wrong with test.
- You are doing massive water changes and testing the clean water immediately after the water change.
- Plants are consuming the ammonia and nitrate.

We can rule out 1, 3 and 4. There is something wrong with your testing. This could be hiding a water quality problem you arent aware of. Test strips are not accurate, dont trust them. Until you are able to test accurately changing half the water every day is a reasonable precaution to take to ensure that water quality is kept good until you are able to verify things with a test.

These bottled bacteria products contain a variety of bacteria in them, most of which are the wrong type of bacteria. Going back years, the bacterias thought to be responsible for the nitrogen cycle came about through studies on sewage processing, and these bacteria simply dont occur in aquariums. These bacteria where put in bottles and sold. Most people in the hobby quickly worked out that they didn't actually work, or at least didnt work to quickly cycle tanks. But new people to the hobby kept buying them, youtubers peddle them to earn £, so the manufacturers will keep selling them. There are some product that work better than others. Dr Tims One and Only, Tetra Safestart are considered good ones. Fritz #7 and Fritz Turbostart come with good recommendations. Stability in particular is poor because instead of denitrifying bacteria that consumes ammonia and turns it to nitrate, it contains a different bacteria that consumes ammonia and uses it to fuel growth, which is the bacterial bloom you see and is of no benefit to your nitrogen cycle. Once your cycle establishes and the denitrifying bacteria start to compete for the ammonia your bacterial bloom should end.

As to whether i would advise a different product, i would say just stop using them as mostly its a waste of money. But, its your money. The products listed above are better than stability and might help speed things up a bit. But your tank will cycle whether you use them or not.

Its a patience thing. Your tank will cycle if you just let things be, and until its cycled monitor water quality and change water whenever things elevate.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Here are the results from the API master test kit
pH- 8.2
NH3/NH4 - 0 ppm
NO2 -0 ppm
NO3 - 0 ppm

Picture attached

There looks to be some ammonia in there, and no nitrite or nitrate to me. That says your tank isnt cycled.

Make doubly sure you are doing the tests correctly. Really shake the heck out of bottle #2 of the nitrate test. Like bang it really hard on a countertop.

Edit. Based on what i see, no real concern at the moment. If you havent done a water change for a while, change some. If ammonia and nitrite get any worse than they currently are, change 30% of the water. If you otherwise dont need to change water due to elevated ammonia or nitrite then change 30 to 50% every week.

 

[SamR0se]

Understood — I will do the Nitrate / Nitrite tests again. If there is Ammonia detected, should I be doing a small water change? Thank you so much for your help!!!

 

[SamR0se]

Also, one more quick question, how should I handle evaporated water? I’ve been adding more water in, but should I not be doing that?

 

[SamR0se]

Thanks again for your help and expertise!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Ammonia is more toxic at higher pH and temperature than lower pH and temperature. Your photo looks a little greenish to me, but you will be a better judge than me looking at the actual test tube.

I work with colour, so i understand quite well that if i set something up on my office workstation with the colours i want, if i take the image home and look at it on my laptop screen it looks totally different. So i dont really trust colour representation on screens. So my judgement of your ammonia could be way off, and someone else looking at the image on a different device will see it differently.

At your pH and room temperature ammonia starts to get toxic for fish at around 1ppm. I honestly have no idea if axolotls are more or less tolerant to poor water quality than fish. Your ammonia looks around 0.25ppm to me. If it looks 0.5ppm i would do a water change, same for nitrite at 0.5ppm. You say you havent done a water change for over a week, so i would do one anyway.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Also, one more quick question, how should I handle evaporated water? I’ve been adding more water in, but should I not be doing that?

Topping up water from evaporation is fine. Depending on how much you might want to dechlorinate the top up water. If you really want to do it properly, then top up should be done with reverse osmosis (RO) water to prevent disolved solids building up. Thats probably a bit OTT, most people will just use tap water to top up. But if you really want to do it right use RO for topping up evaporation.

Just be aware that topping up doesnt replace a water change. There are 2 parts to a water change. Removing water that contains waste products and replacing it with clean water. When water evaporates waste and disolved solids are left behind and they build up without a water change.

Unless you get a lot of evaporation, then topping up isnt needed and a weekly water change will suffice to keep your water at the desired level in the tank.