Tank Cycling, Not Working?

Hi,
I've been cycling my tank now for 2 1/2 weeks, doing partial water changes everyday. I took a sample of my water into the pet store today so they could do ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test with the drops. Ammonia was 0, nitrite was elevated and it appeared that there was nitrate in the water but it wasn't very high. (Sorry I didn't get the exact numbers) They told me the nitrite isn't converting to nitrate. Their suggestions were that I feed the axolotls less often and I do the water changes every OTHER day. One guy also said to use "cycle". I have some but I stopped using it because I heard it might not work.

Are these good suggestions & does anyone have any others? Thanks

Why hasn't anyone written back?!

Sorry, sometimes threads get lost in the shuffle and go unanswered.

As to cycling your tank, it can take up to two months to completely cycle. If your ammonia is near zero but your nitrite is readable you are probably on stage 2 of the cycling process. There are two colonies of bacteria that need to form in your tank. One converts ammonia into nitrite, which you appear to have. The second converts nitrite into nitrate, which needs to colonize your tank.

Water changes every other day should be fine if your tank isn't too highly stocked or if you don't feed too much. The idea is to keep some level of nitrite to get the bacteria but not enough to poison the axolotls or keep the bacteria from growing.

Cycle products you buy at the store (except for one product) are useless. They are tubes of dead bacteria and all they will do is add to the bioload of your aquarium which can make it more difficult to cycle. The one product that does work has a "born on" date and is refrigerated to ensure the bacteria you add to the tank are still alive.

You shouldn't need the live bacteria cultures though, from the sound of it you are nearly through with the cycle process. As with most things in keeping aquatic animals, all you need is patience!

My Axolotls Are Swimming Around Frantically

I've been doing the partial water changes every day this week and today my axies started swimming around their tank frantically. I know this is a sign of stress but why would the water all of a sudden be stressful? The temperature is fine because its at the same temp. as always.
Is the cycling process some how speeding up or something?
I'm worried about them because I've never seen them swimming like this.

Also--the pet store guy said nitrite is dangerous even to humans, but HOW dangerous? I get a little bit of the water on myself when I do the partial water changes. Obviously I'm not going to drink it but is just getting it on you bad?

THANKS

Nitrite is toxic to humans, but only if you ingest a lot of it. You have no worries about nitrite that you get on your skin or even if you accidentally get some in your mouth.

As to the frantic swimming, it is hard to say. With how often you are doing water changes their should be no way that their is any danger of ammonia or nitrite poisoning. I would guess it might have to do with you adding new water. It is either a small shift in water chemisty that is irritating them or the water flow when you dump water in. Axolotl's do not like flowing water. Is that when the frantic swimming happened? During or immediately after the water change?

No I woke up and came downstairs and I've been sitting here on my lap top and I just noticed this frantic swimming out of no where. I did an immediate water change but they are still swimming around but less.
Could it be that they are hungry? Ever since I started feeding them by hand they "beg" for food now. I fed them yesterday but I've been trying to feed them every other day to avoid too much toxic build up.
Could it be that they are swimming around looking for food? Should I feed them??

They probably are not hungry, but they may still be begging for food. Axolotls and a few other caudates become very used to their keepers and will beg when their owner is there. My fire salamander does it all the time, even if I just fed him an hour ago. If they don't show any other signs of stress then I wouldn't worry about it too much. You can up their amount of food when the tank is properly cycled.