Is my cycle finished?

Hi, so I've been cycling my tank for a few weeks now and cross referencing with a couple of cycling pages in terms of what's happening etc.

Currently, my levels are as follows:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 10ppm

Temperature: 25 degrees Celsius

pH: 7

Do I need to dose my tank fully again with ammonia until both ammonia and nitrite read 0 or is this an acceptable amount? Do I need to drop my pH?

As most sites seem to contradict each other, I am struggling to find a straight forward solution to this.

Thanks,

Rhys

Your temperature is WAY too high for an axolotl. It needs to be closer to 20 Celsius.

I also have questions about cycling. I had my tank at 65 degrees for weeks and nothing was happening so I turned off the chiller and added a heater and right now the tank is at 74 degrees. I do not have anything in it as it is supposed to be cycling. I check the levels every day and today I am at .50 ammonia, .50 nitrite and 5.0 nitrate. When do I add more ammonia?

Hi Rhys.
Drop the temperature of your tank, but do not alter the pH of your tank - pH 7 is fine, axolotls prefer neutral to harder water, so you are doing well there. Personally I would add more ammonia, and consider my tank cycled when the bacteria in the filter can convert an appropriate amount of ammonia (3 to 4 ppm for axolotls) in 24 hours. I would expect to see results of 0 for both ammonia and nitrite the day after adding ammonia, and the day after that, then I would do a large water change (do not clean filter) before adding an axolotl.

Hi Ryanne.
It is fine to run your tank warmer during cycling as this can speed the cycle, but make sure that you drop the temperature to an appropriate level before adding axolotls.
I have attached some information on cycling. I hope that it helps.
Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling
You can add more ammonia, no more than 3ppm. How far through the cycle are you? Has your ammonia peaked yet? If so, has your nitrite peaked yet? Both of these will happed during a cycle, then (as mentioned above) I'd expect to see ammonia converted within 24 hours towards the end of a cycle.

Good luck to both of you.
Let us know if you have any more questions.

Hi Donna001!

Here are my numbers for the last couple days:

2/4/17- Ammonia-.50
Nitrite- .50
Nitrate- 5.0
dosed the tank with ammonia again

2/6/17- Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - 1.0
Nitrate - 5.0

2/7/17- Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - 1.0
Nitrate - 5.0

2/8/17- Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 5.0

2/11/17- Ammonia - .25
Nitrite - 2.0
Nitrate - 5.0

When the instructions say spike, what am I looking for? Is my tank doing what it is supposed to? I wait for all the numbers to be 0 correct?