Not sure what's happening?

I have been cycling a new tank for awhile now, probably a few months. It started with a no-life cycle, but nothing was happening, so I added a few goldfish. There are currently four feeder goldfish that have been in there the duration of the cycle, and everything seemed to be going great. Then, awhile ago, the filter broke, so I got a new one (an inexpensive one that is probably not the best choice, but it's what I could afford at the moment, and what was available.) I now have the Aqueon 10 gallon quiet flow filter. And, for the most part, everything was going well. There was still no readable ammonia, minimal nitrites, and around 30-40ppm nitrates. However, about a week after I put the new filter in, (and for awhile I had the old media in there, probably about two weeks, until everything seemed stable, then I took it out.) and now, I'd say for at least two weeks I've had no readable ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Is my cycle re-starting? Wouldn't there be at least ammonia build up if it was?

I'm just confused and not sure what's happening :/

I had kind of the same problem a while ago. The media in my old filter pretty much was disintegrating and making a mess so i took it all out and put new media in the filter.
My cycle crashed, but not completely as i still had levels of ammonia nitrite and nitrate, after about a month of daily water changing it sortef itself out again (i then changed to sponge filters in and left the old filter it for about a month while sponges built up enough bacteria).
So i imagine your cycle has crashed but not sure why theres no readings at all if youve got fish in there? Hopefully someone more experienced could shed some light on that!

AnnaBingham said:

I had kind of the same problem a while ago. The media in my old filter pretty much was disintegrating and making a mess so i took it all out and put new media in the filter.
My cycle crashed, but not completely as i still had levels of ammonia nitrite and nitrate, after about a month of daily water changing it sortef itself out again (i then changed to sponge filters in and left the old filter it for about a month while sponges built up enough bacteria).
So i imagine your cycle has crashed but not sure why theres no readings at all if youve got fish in there? Hopefully someone more experienced could shed some light on that!

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Thanks! And that's what I thought, but then there's also apparently no readable levels of ammonia... Which is the most confusing part. My only idea so far is that perhaps the filter is working too hard and not letting any nitrates build up? Or could all the plants be eating up the nitrates? I have one moss ball in there and then about three small free-floating plants (By small, all three of them float in about one corner of my 10gal and that's about all the space they take up.)

Still no news on what's happening... I felt like I should probably add that I haven't done a water change in at least two weeks, as I've been waiting to see if some nitrates or nitrites or anything would build up, but nothing has. I mean, I guess I'm just curious if it would be safe to put an axie in, even though I doubt it is. I'd just like to know if anyone has any advice on what I should do.....

Are you sure your test kit is ok?
You can test your cycle by adding some store bought ammonia and then testing the water every couple of hours to see how it goes.

keiko said:

Are you sure your test kit is ok?
You can test your cycle by adding some store bought ammonia and then testing the water every couple of hours to see how it goes.

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Can a test kit go bad? Mine's actually fairly new, I bought it when I started cycling this tank...

Kochebi said:

Can a test kit go bad? Mine's actually fairly new, I bought it when I started cycling this tank...

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Yes it can. For example freezing or becoming too hot might affect the solutions. If you leave the cap open it can evaporate and make the remaining liquid more concentrated. If you don't shake those bottles well that need to be mixed it can affect the concentration. There's a million ways it can go bad. And if it isn't a liquid test kit then there are a million other ways the test kit can go bad.

But the easiest thing to do would be to buy some ammonia and add it to the tank and do the testing. That way you can see that your test kit is working too.

keiko said:

Yes it can. For example freezing or becoming too hot might affect the solutions. If you leave the cap open it can evaporate and make the remaining liquid more concentrated. If you don't shake those bottles well that need to be mixed it can affect the concentration. There's a million ways it can go bad. And if it isn't a liquid test kit then there are a million other ways the test kit can go bad.

But the easiest thing to do would be to buy some ammonia and add it to the tank and do the testing. That way you can see that your test kit is working too.

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Alright, thanks. I'll test it out and see if it makes any difference.

Just thought I'd post an update on this. I added ammonia, which ended up causing a huge spike (meaning, I probably added too much. ugh.) that killed my feeder fish. Ugh.
However, I guess the semi-good news is that almost immediately Nitrates and Nitrites appeared? I guess that means the tank was cycled initially? So I still have no idea why it wasn't reading any nitrates.

I'm waiting til the ammonia gets to a lower level. It's still around 8ppm right now, and then I'm not sure what to do after it goes down. If I should try again with some fish to see what happens or go ahead and get my axolotl.....??

I wouldn't get an axolotl yet or any more fish until you stabilize your cycle. It's never been recommended to add pure ammonia with any live animal in the tank which is why it's added in 'fishless' cycling. 8ppm is really high and you might need to do a pwc to bring it down. Once you see ammonia decrease and nitrites go up then you add more ammonia (small amounts!) you have a somewhat cycled tank but you haven't supplied a steady amount of ammonia which resulted in your results. You should only add an axolotl when you have 0 ammonia and nitrites. Goldfish are more tolerant of these so the fact that your died would mean an axolotl wouldn't stand a chance


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Ok you seriously need to learn about the cycle and cycling process. Not just for now but for future reference too. The cycle can crash even after it's been established for ages and then you need to know what to do right away or it will harm your axies.

Do NOT put any animals in the tank at the moment. You need to add ammonia little at a time every day to feed the bacteria. Then when you think your cycle is ready (ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates should have a reading) you do a water change and add ammonia so that you get a reading of about 4 ppm (test it right after adding it), then test it again 24 hours later and if the readings are ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and a reading of nitrates then your cycle is ready. Then you can put an axie in, but even after that you should test daily for a couple of weeks to make sure the cycle is still working like it should. If you can't get an axie right away when your cycle is done, you need to keep adding ammonia until you get one to feed the bacteria.

keiko said:

Ok you seriously need to learn about the cycle and cycling process. Not just for now but for future reference too. The cycle can crash even after it's been established for ages and then you need to know what to do right away or it will harm your axies.

Do NOT put any animals in the tank at the moment. You need to add ammonia little at a time every day to feed the bacteria. Then when you think your cycle is ready (ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates should have a reading) you do a water change and add ammonia so that you get a reading of about 4 ppm (test it right after adding it), then test it again 24 hours later and if the readings are ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and a reading of nitrates then your cycle is ready. Then you can put an axie in, but even after that you should test daily for a couple of weeks to make sure the cycle is still working like it should. If you can't get an axie right away when your cycle is done, you need to keep adding ammonia until you get one to feed the bacteria.

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I wasn't going to add anything right away. I have been keeping track of it and right now I'm trying to get the ammonia levels back down to 4ppm. I wasn't going to add anything until the ammonia levels were below 4ppm, at the absolute earliest.

Boomsloth said:

I wouldn't get an axolotl yet or any more fish until you stabilize your cycle. It's never been recommended to add pure ammonia with any live animal in the tank which is why it's added in 'fishless' cycling. 8ppm is really high and you might need to do a pwc to bring it down. Once you see ammonia decrease and nitrites go up then you add more ammonia (small amounts!) you have a somewhat cycled tank but you haven't supplied a steady amount of ammonia which resulted in your results. You should only add an axolotl when you have 0 ammonia and nitrites. Goldfish are more tolerant of these so the fact that your died would mean an axolotl wouldn't stand a chance


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I guess my update might have come off wrong... I don't plan on adding anything immediately. I'm gonna let the tank do it's thing for now, until I can get the ammonia levels back down below 4ppm.
I guess I was more so wondering when I should put things back in... Sort of.

Kochebi said:

I wasn't going to add anything right away. I have been keeping track of it and right now I'm trying to get the ammonia levels back down to 4ppm. I wasn't going to add anything until the ammonia levels were below 4ppm, at the absolute earliest.

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You can't put any animals in the tank if the ammonia level is at 4 ppm (or even below). Ammonia has to be 0. You can test your cycle by adding ammonia so that it is 4 ppm and if it's all gone in 24 hours, you can assume your cycle is ready. During that you can't keep any animals in there.