Cycling results, help requested

These are my reading results from the entirety of cycling our tank (our axolotls are NOT in the tank, they are in their own containers getting 100% daily water changes waiting for this cycle to finish - I think we're all equally stressed over it in the house!)

April 20th:
PH: 7.6 (we did not do a high range test)
Ammonia: in between 4 and 8 ppm
Nitrite: .5 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

April 21st:
PH: 7.6
High range PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: .5 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm

April 23rd:
PH: 7.6
High range PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: .5 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

April 28th:
PH: 7.6
High range PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

April 30th:
PH: 7.6
High range PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: .5 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

May 6th:
PH: 7.6
High range PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrite: 1 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

We are using this filter
Amazon.com: Penn Plax Cascade 300 Internal Filter for Aquariums: Pet Supplies

I have back up carbon packs but have not switched them out yet. I also have not cleaned the filter media out for fear of crashing the cycle even more.

What are we doing wrong? Me, the boyfriend, and all our axxies are so done with this tank. What can we do at this point to help? Should I add pure ammonia? It seems redundant when the ammonia level is already so steady.

There are some live blackworms living in there from before the ammonia level spiked (they were dinner) and I've tried to get them all out but they're really good at hiding out in their decorations and I find a new little pile here and there. Are they effecting it at all?

Please someone help us figure this out. I'm afraid the poor babies are going to get extremely stressed out really soon from these constant change overs

We leave for vacation on the 24th and I really need to have this tank cycled before then. It's hard enough to find someone willing to feed our babies worms, much less find someone I trust to do three 100% water changes for three days!

What is your ammonia source?
There needs to be a source -
Drops of pure ammonia if fishless

Have you tested your tap water?
You need to know what your base is,
with high readings like that check tap water
1. fresh from tap
2. let stand for 24hrs then test
3. let stand for 48hrs then test

The high Ph is the only result you need to read - the 7.6 on normal test just indicates that you have to do a high range test for accurate reading (which you've done)





<3 >o_o< <3

Nikki71 said:

What is your ammonia source?
There needs to be a source -
Drops of pure ammonia if fishless

Have you tested your tap water?
You need to know what your base is,
with high readings like that check tap water
1. fresh from tap
2. let stand for 24hrs then test
3. let stand for 48hrs then test

The high Ph is the only result you need to read - the 7.6 on normal test just indicates that you have to do a high range test for accurate reading (which you've done)





<3 >o_o< <3

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Thanks for the reply! I added frozen bloodworms to the tank but straight ammonia was my next step if you guys thought it would be a good next step.


Water quality here is awful. Our ammonia base without the water being dechlorinated is at 1 ppm. I haven't tested it with the water sitting out.

Contact the local water authority to find out what is added to the water in your area.

Having high ammonia to start with isn't going to make water changes easy.

Someone with more expertise than I might be able to advise best avenue to go down. I'm pretty sure you can remineralise purified water (reverse osmosis) but that might be a total pain in the bottom.



<3 >o_o< <3

Wow, 1ppm ammonia is quite high. My water is only at .25 so I add it to the tank and the ammonia gets removed a while after been added.

It looks like something is happening there because your Nitrite and Nitrate are slowly climbing.

Nikki71 said:

Contact the local water authority to find out what is added to the water in your area.

Having high ammonia to start with isn't going to make water changes easy.

Someone with more expertise than I might be able to advise best avenue to go down. I'm pretty sure you can remineralise purified water (reverse osmosis) but that might be a total pain in the bottom.



<3 >o_o< <3

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We have a fish store that sells R/O water that you can fill into tubs, but I had been told that R/O water was no good for axolotls?

snuggly time said:

Wow, 1ppm ammonia is quite high. My water is only at .25 so I add it to the tank and the ammonia gets removed a while after been added.

It looks like something is happening there because your Nitrite and Nitrate are slowly climbing.

Click to expand...

Yes, our water here is awful. When we first moved in we thought all of our soups and oatmeals had goen rancid because the water we added to cook it made it taste like mold. Also our ice maker produces some pretty foul ice cubes. Thank god for Brita and PUR filters.

I found out from the local fish store that 1 ppm is one of the lowest in the area. Gross!

I did mention "remineralising" the purified water.

Apparently there are products like
R/O Right that are specifically designed to be added to purified water to add back vital minerals.

I wish you were closer by I have a full
RO Aquarium set up that I was given with my 6'ft tank - I don't need to use it.
Would gladly give it away.




<3 >o_o< <3

Nikki71 said:

I did mention "remineralising" the purified water.

Apparently there are products like
R/O Right that are specifically designed to be added to purified water to add back vital minerals.

I wish you were closer by I have a full
RO Aquarium set up that I was given with my 6'ft tank - I don't need to use it.
Would gladly give it away.




<3 >o_o< <3

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Ack, my apologies. So if I could find a similar product to add to R/O water, I should go about that for water changes?

If I were to buy pure ammonia, where would I want to raise my levels since its already so high? Is that going to help?

Ahhhh I wish I lived closer as well, that would be amazing!

This might sound silly, but since the ammonia is a constant 4 across all of the tests, is it possible that your ammonia testing kit is faulty? It might be worth buying a new one to see if the readings are accurate.

If you're worried about ammonia in the tapwater, you can test that, too.

jclee said:

This might sound silly, but since the ammonia is a constant 4 across all of the tests, is it possible that your ammonia testing kit is faulty? It might be worth buying a new one to see if the readings are accurate.

If you're worried about ammonia in the tapwater, you can test that, too.

Click to expand...

Its definitely accurate because we tested our tap water with the kit and that's how we know the tap is it 1 ppm (which is low for the area)

I just spoke to one of the employeers at the lfs that gave me some advice since they don't carry any R/O right.

He said the carbon of the filter I have is preeeettttyy awful at removing ammonia. He advised that I should just get another nicer filter while it cycles and then remove the **** filter before I put the babies back in.

I'm also considering running an empty tank I have from the beginning and seeing if that will cycle faster since the axxie's won't have been in there at all.

Agh!

Well, we just went to feed our little guys and unfortunately we lost our Toothless He was definitely the smallest and we'd had to fridge him in the past due to fungus and floating. He seemed like he'd stopped growing as well, and his feet were curled inward with red toes.

Hoping the tank sorts itself out soon so Falkor and Figment can go back to their tank and not be stressed out with daily water changes :'(

I just feel awful because I did everything I could.

ForeverGarzone said:

Well, we just went to feed our little guys and unfortunately we lost our Toothless He was definitely the smallest and we'd had to fridge him in the past due to fungus and floating. He seemed like he'd stopped growing as well, and his feet were curled inward with red toes.

Hoping the tank sorts itself out soon so Falkor and Figment can go back to their tank and not be stressed out with daily water changes :'(

I just feel awful because I did everything I could.

Click to expand...

Aw im sorry you lost a little one

I'm sorry to hear you lost one of your babies

As for ideas for cycling....I'm having issues with mine as well so I don't know how much help I'll be (on paper it looks so easy!), but as far as having water that already comes heavy with ammonia, you could try buying Prime as a dechlorinator since it claims to "neutralize" ammonia so at least when you have to do water changes you won't be adding a TON more ammonia into the tank (and would be cheaper than purchasing bottled water or water made to go into freshwater tanks). I haven't tried it myself since I don't have a high ammonia content in my tap water, but that's what I've read about it.

As far as cycling...at this point I'm going to try taking some gravel from a friend's cycled tank and hope that kick-starts it for me so see if you have any friends with already cycled tanks?