Cycled tank suddenly .25 nitrite and not sure why . . . .

[tsrart]

Hello everyone - new axolotl owner here, and this board has been hugely helpful through the setup process! I've hit a minor snag, though, and could use some suggestions . . . .

We cycled our tank before putting the axolotl in - we were at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 20-40 nitrates for a week before he went in the tank. Over the next two weeks, exactly the same - 0, 0, and 20-40. All of a sudden, two days ago we got a .25 nitrite reading and the nitrates are down to 10-20. Did a 50% tank change, reading dropped to 0 (obviously not really zero but tested that way). Next day, back to .25 and 10-20 nitrates. Repeated the process. Today, still .25 and planning another water change. Ammonia has been zero the entire time.

We have a lot of large rocks on the bottom of the tank, and we did rearrange all of the those over the weekend to accommodate a new food dish. Did we somehow manage to disturb out nitrite "bugs" in the process and knock some of them out? Or should we be looking at something else?

Would be super appreciative of any thoughts/suggestions!

 

[wolfen]

how was the tank cycled and were the bacteria being fed during the week after cycling.

 

[tsrart]

For the cycling, we used Fritz TurboStart for the bacteria and their FishFuel for the ammonia. Every day we added ammonia until we hit 4 ppm. We considered the tank cycled when that 4 ppm would drop to 0 by the next day, with 0 nitrites and 20-40 nitrates. (Of course there was a period of nitrite spikes during the process.)

We continued to do this during the week after the tank was cycled up until 48 hours before the axolotl went in the tank.

 

[wolfen]

the period between the bacteria not being fed and the axolotl being introduced isn't that long so I don't think it was down to lack of bacteria, because you mention moving rocks is it possible that some waste was trapped and got disturbed.

 

[tsrart]

There was definitely some waste that got trapped and disturbed during the moving. We thought that might have caused an ammonia spike, but it seems like that should have passed and been normal after 48+ hours and two tank changes. Could it take longer than that to re-equalize?

 

[wolfen]

There was definitely some waste that got trapped and disturbed during the moving. We thought that might have caused an ammonia spike, but it seems like that should have passed and been normal after 48+ hours and two tank changes. Could it take longer than that to re-equalize?

it got changed to nitrites before the ammonia was noticeable, it all depends on how fast the bacteria can consume the nitrites. 6hrs after doing a water change add some bottled bacteria (ie. turbostart) then retest the following day, if you are scooping the poop and removing food waste daily then it is quite common to get spikes if there is any disturbed waste that has built up. if you are on the other hand allowing it to build up then doing weekly cleans having little cleaners in the tank will help get rid off all the muck/waste.

 

[tsrart]

Many thanks! We're about to do a change now, so we'll wait 6 hours and then add more turbostart. We've been scooping and removing daily - is it better to wait? And what kind of little cleaners would be helpful?

 

[wolfen]

Many thanks! We're about to do a change now, so we'll wait 6 hours and then add more turbostart. We've been scooping and removing daily - is it better to wait? And what kind of little cleaners would be helpful?

if that tank is natural looking then waste build up is fine, the problem is that the bacteria needs to build back up to cope with it so you might be stuck with scooping the poop.
as for cleaners there are scuds (gammarus), ghost shrimp, cherry shrimp, small snails, and of course small live bearing fish such as platy, guppy etc.. make sure any live animal has been quarantined before adding.

 

[tsrart]

Got it - many thanks! We're going to do change/bacteria today, and then I thought that if we were still at .25 tomorrow we'd maybe do a 50% change, wait three hours, and do another 50% change to try to get the nitrite and ammonia down enough to give the nitrite bacteria a chance to catch up. And will definitely look into the critters - sounds like they might be super helpful. Are any of those more or less likely to get eaten by the axolotl? He's about 6.25 inches now.

 

[wolfen]

Got it - many thanks! We're going to do change/bacteria today, and then I thought that if we were still at .25 tomorrow we'd maybe do a 50% change, wait three hours, and do another 50% change to try to get the nitrite and ammonia down enough to give the nitrite bacteria a chance to catch up. And will definitely look into the critters - sounds like they might be super helpful. Are any of those more or less likely to get eaten by the axolotl? He's about 6.25 inches now.

scud tend to get snapped at and escape, ghost/cherry etc.. will get eaten as will fish, snails though tend to be tried then spat back out.

 

[tsrart]

Roger that - thank you so much for the assistance!!