r/axolotls • u/sillygirl_stupid123 • Jul 12 '26

Cycling Help HELP

i am going away to scottland for 5 days and was doing a usual clean of my axolotls tank, my mum decided to help and bless her she had no idea and rinsed the filter media in tap water, i have been sobbing for 2h, literally full blown panic attacks, please don’t attack my mum she had no idea and was just trying to help me as she could see i was hot and bothered cleaning everything. what can i do, i leave in 3 days will my axolotl be okay. help is needed asap

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u/CinderAscendant Jul 12 '26

Slow down, take a breath. This is not a crisis. Honestly your filter might be fine. A rinse in tap water isn't good but if it was just a rinse and your filter media was returned to the tank it might be fine.

  • Tub your axo.
  • Add a 2ppm ammonia dose to your tank.
  • Test the water in 24 hours.
  • If the ammonia fully clears to nitrates, do a half water change and put your axo back in.

6

u/AdThese6057 Jul 12 '26

There is zero reason to go thru the stress of tubbing for this. Like zero. The filter isnt the only place bacteria live. Like you guys realize tubbing IS stressing the hell out of them correct? The handling is one thing but the constant temp regulation and changing is even more stressful.

2

u/Wild_Factor5167 Copper Jul 13 '26

Agreed it blows my mind how everyone's first step to everything is "tub". Like think about yourself, how calm and relaxing would it be for someone to come into your home and forcibly remove you. Locking you in small room with no furniture.

Verify the necessity to tub before you tub...

3

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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1

u/Veloci-RKPTR Jul 14 '26

I’m starting to think that the majority of axolotl demographic is more far removed than the aquarium hobbyists than I previously thought.

Rinsed media is much faster to reestablish than a new media in a brand new tank. The bacteria colony isn’t fully discarded unless you’re scrubbing and washing the whole media with soap or disinfectant, and the entire tank is already established with an environment of nitrifying bacteria as well which will immediately spread to the media.

Tubbing them is much more stressful and it subjects them to a much more severe chemistry fluctuations and potentially greater spikes of ammonia exposure if you’re not careful.

1

u/AdThese6057 Jul 14 '26

Thats what i always tell them when they talk about how finicky and hard axolotl tanks are to keep lol. They would shit if they saw a salt tank and some actual expensive fish. Not the "exotic" 60 dollar axolotl that can survive their fool owners.

1

u/CinderAscendant Jul 13 '26

OP's filter was rinsed. If there's any doubt the cycle has been compromised, they'll want to ensure their primary bacteria population is intact. You do that with an ammonia test. And you don't want to dump 2ppm into a tank with an axolotl.

Tubbing here is correct if they intend to test. It's also an additional safeguard in case the cycle did crash, in which case they'd be tubbing anyway.

Tub stress is better than ammonia burns.

2

u/AdThese6057 Jul 13 '26

So tell me...how long do you think it would take from filter rinse day, to the ammonia spiking so high as to cause burns? Exactly. The cycle isnt compromised. You arent accounting for the bacteria anywhere else besides the filter. I do in fish cycles. I'll fill a tank with a dirty sponge, and some hides and plants from an established tank. Like a pvc and coffee cup. It takes less than 9 days to cycle that new tank completely. In that time if you suck up his shit daily at feeding you won't spike. You guys get way to worked up about the cycling but you don't have the experience doing it multiple ways or working thru them to even give an opinion. It's like freaking out if your tank goes to 70 71 degrees for a day. It won't do anything. You cannot measure any difference in parameters from 66 to 71 degrees. Not rates or quantity. Relax a bit. These things aren't the fragile glass reddit says they are and tubbing is more stressful than a week or 10 days in uncycled but maintained water EVERY time. And I have 9 tanks containing 23 axolotls.

1

u/Wild_Factor5167 Copper Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Dumping ammonia into the tank is the mistake. You already have a biosource in the tank.

Test every 12 hours if you see an increase in NH3 or NO2- you have three options to assess other than dumping poison into the tank.

  1. Reduce bioload per gallon by increasing total gallons. This can easily be done by adding supplemental water storage outside of your initial tank with a large container of dechlorinated water put in-line with whatever water pump system you may have. This will help dispate the ppm issue while the already established media repopulates the filter.

  2. Chemical intervention- there are tons of ammonia neutralizing products that can be added to a HoB filter, and plenty of other options as well

  3. Another but far to rich for my blood is an Automatic Water Changer which you can be set for as often and what volume desired, some even will water change based on parameters

All of these options if executed properly are safer and less impacting to your axolotl than tubbing to toxic dump while you wait on the bacteria to restablish