Help With a Frustrating Cycle

[Shaxx_on_a_Sax]

Hi everyone!

I've been having some issues with finishing the initial cycle in my aquarium. I have a 40 gallon breeder and have been struggling to get it to cycle properly over the last couple of months with fish flakes. I've had everything from algae blooms to stalled cycles and inconsistent readings. While I thought it was finally done early this morning, I tested the water again 20 minutes ago and found there was still some ammonia left in the tank (0.25 ppm ammonia, with 0 ppm nitrites and about 40 ppm nitrates).

I'm kind of at a loss on what to do here. The ammonia is only 0.25ppm, is that still a no for letting my two axos in today?
I also noticed more algae growing on the sponge filters I have and squeezed them out in the tank as well (using only tank water, no external tap water or clean dechlorinated water) and was going to do another 50% water change to get the algae out. Would that help things along?

Below is the water test results I took this afternoon.

 

[kaixingin]

So there will be ammonia readings in cycled tanks BUT they will be temporary. If you want to know if your tank is cycled, then your tank must be able to process 1ppm of ammonia within 24 hours minimum. As it becomes more established, it will be able to handle more than that. There should pretty much never be any nitrite though. Good luck! It seems youre either cycled or right at the cusp! Kudos to you for going the fish flake route, I was impatient so I went with straight ammonium chloride lol.

Also, you might want to get an ammonia alert to put in your tank when you do decide to introduce your axolotls. I like them because they only show you the amount of free ammonia (the toxic kind) as opposed to the master kit which shows total ammonia.