Tank cycling woes

[vak14]

Hello all, I am having some extensive problems with tank cycling and hoping anyone could be of help.

I have a 6 year old axolotl who I have had since she was a baby. When she was young, she was kept in a 20 gallon aquarium which I cycled with media from my freshwater fish aquarium in about a week. I had no issues for several years until she was too large for the tank and was continually experiencing ammonia and nitrite spikes, so in the past year she was upgraded to a 40 gallon tank. I attempted to cycle that tank with filter media from the fish tank and all seemed well for several weeks, but suddenly we are finding the tank is crashed or was never cycled properly to begin with. My axolotl has spent months in tubs and I am hesitant to tub her again, so I am wanting to attempt cycling the tank with her in it.

overall she is doing well. She is being closely monitored and we are testing the water daily. Currently, we are changing 60-70% of the water if we notice even a small amount of ammonia (0.25 or higher). It has been 3 weeks however and we have yet to see any nitrites and although we used to be able to go 3 days between water changes, we are now seeing daily ammonia spikes of 0.25-0.5 ppm.

The tank is 40 gal with 2 sponge filters rated for 30-40 gallons each. It is sand substrate. Tried live plants but the died due to it being a low light area. I bought a new sponge filter and put it in my freshwater fish aquarium with the hope that it would seed beneficial bacteria I could transfer to the axolotl tank but that will take several weeks to grow.

My questions are, is what we are doing even possible? We are monitoring her very closely and changing her water drastically so she doesn’t seem ill at all and is even still eating. Will changing the water to keep ammonia at zero even allow the tank to cycle? Should we be letting ammonia sit at 0.25 or 0.5 and only change if it is 1 or higher? Would this cause her harm? Feeling mostly at a loss as this has now been a several month/yearlong struggle

 

[minorhero]

Hello all, I am having some extensive problems with tank cycling and hoping anyone could be of help.

I have a 6 year old axolotl who I have had since she was a baby. When she was young, she was kept in a 20 gallon aquarium which I cycled with media from my freshwater fish aquarium in about a week. I had no issues for several years until she was too large for the tank and was continually experiencing ammonia and nitrite spikes, so in the past year she was upgraded to a 40 gallon tank. I attempted to cycle that tank with filter media from the fish tank and all seemed well for several weeks, but suddenly we are finding the tank is crashed or was never cycled properly to begin with. My axolotl has spent months in tubs and I am hesitant to tub her again, so I am wanting to attempt cycling the tank with her in it.

overall she is doing well. She is being closely monitored and we are testing the water daily. Currently, we are changing 60-70% of the water if we notice even a small amount of ammonia (0.25 or higher). It has been 3 weeks however and we have yet to see any nitrites and although we used to be able to go 3 days between water changes, we are now seeing daily ammonia spikes of 0.25-0.5 ppm.

The tank is 40 gal with 2 sponge filters rated for 30-40 gallons each. It is sand substrate. Tried live plants but the died due to it being a low light area. I bought a new sponge filter and put it in my freshwater fish aquarium with the hope that it would seed beneficial bacteria I could transfer to the axolotl tank but that will take several weeks to grow.

My questions are, is what we are doing even possible? We are monitoring her very closely and changing her water drastically so she doesn’t seem ill at all and is even still eating. Will changing the water to keep ammonia at zero even allow the tank to cycle? Should we be letting ammonia sit at 0.25 or 0.5 and only change if it is 1 or higher? Would this cause her harm? Feeling mostly at a loss as this has now been a several month/yearlong struggle

Sometimes you will get a cycled tank without seeing nitrites. Not that they didn't exist, just that they weren't detectable when you were measuring. If you are able to keep the ammonia undetectable, that's a win.

I would not tub, I would not let ammonia build up. What you are doing right now is the way to go. In a tank like this the only source of ammonia is what then critter poops and whatever leftover food there is rotting in there. That's fine but its not going to be as fast as a more heavily stocked tank or one where you add pure ammonia. Just keep monitoring and it will even out sometime in the next few weeks. At that point you will go a whole week or more without seeing ammonia. Once that happens just keep an eye on it and check every so often. Once a week water changes will be fine thereafter.

Also, just to be sure. Make sure your tap water doesn't have ammonia in it. Just test a clean glass of tap water to be sure. Some people have ammonia in their tap water and don't know it. Good luck.

 

[wolfen]

what ph and temperature is the tank? both ph and temperature can effect ammonia break down and its toxicity.
are you getting any nitrates? because nitrites are consumed/converted in the same area they are formed ie. filter they don't always get a water reading, if you have nitrates then there were nitrites.
ensure that there is plenty of filter media (the more porous the media the better) and that the water has good oxygenation, a healthy bacteria colony require plenty of room to grow and require oxygen to survive, although sponge filters (air driven ones) produce bubbles the bubbles tend to be too big reducing the amount of oxygen absorbed into the water so air stones are still required.
because most tap water contains chlorine unless enough time has past that all chlorine is neutralised (dechlorinated) some will get to the filter bacteria killing some, with normal weekly water changes the damage is minimal, with daily water changes the colony can be seriously damaged reducing chances of cycling.

 

[vak14]

what ph and temperature is the tank? both ph and temperature can effect ammonia break down and its toxicity.
are you getting any nitrates? because nitrites are consumed/converted in the same area they are formed ie. filter they don't always get a water reading, if you have nitrates then there were nitrites.
ensure that there is plenty of filter media (the more porous the media the better) and that the water has good oxygenation, a healthy bacteria colony require plenty of room to grow and require oxygen to survive, although sponge filters (air driven ones) produce bubbles the bubbles tend to be too big reducing the amount of oxygen absorbed into the water so air stones are still required.
because most tap water contains chlorine unless enough time has past that all chlorine is neutralised (dechlorinated) some will get to the filter bacteria killing some, with normal weekly water changes the damage is minimal, with daily water changes the colony can be seriously damaged reducing chances of cycling.

pH is somewhere between 7.6 and 7.8, temp is between 61 and 65 F. I have two sponge filters as well as another large airstone in the tank. I am using prime dechlorinator when doing water changes and dosing for the entire tank but they are large daily water changes. We are still seeing small daily ammonia spikes of 0.25 to 0.5 with nitrite 0 and nitrate between 0 and 5 ppm. Still attempting to seed a separate sponge filter in my community fish aquarium to transfer over to the axolotl tank in a few weeks

 

[vak14]

Sometimes you will get a cycled tank without seeing nitrites. Not that they didn't exist, just that they weren't detectable when you were measuring. If you are able to keep the ammonia undetectable, that's a win.

I would not tub, I would not let ammonia build up. What you are doing right now is the way to go. In a tank like this the only source of ammonia is what then critter poops and whatever leftover food there is rotting in there. That's fine but its not going to be as fast as a more heavily stocked tank or one where you add pure ammonia. Just keep monitoring and it will even out sometime in the next few weeks. At that point you will go a whole week or more without seeing ammonia. Once that happens just keep an eye on it and check every so often. Once a week water changes will be fine thereafter.

Also, just to be sure. Make sure your tap water doesn't have ammonia in it. Just test a clean glass of tap water to be sure. Some people have ammonia in their tap water and don't know it. Good luck.

Thank you. No ammonia in the tap water. Do you think it is still worth it to add a sponge filter from the community aquarium in a few weeks once some beneficial bacteria has seeded? Ideally would switch one of the filters currently in the axolotl tank for that one once things are established.

 

[wolfen]

pH is somewhere between 7.6 and 7.8, temp is between 61 and 65 F. I have two sponge filters as well as another large airstone in the tank. I am using prime dechlorinator when doing water changes and dosing for the entire tank but they are large daily water changes. We are still seeing small daily ammonia spikes of 0.25 to 0.5 with nitrite 0 and nitrate between 0 and 5 ppm. Still attempting to seed a separate sponge filter in my community fish aquarium to transfer over to the axolotl tank in a few weeks

with ph at 7.8 and temperature at 65°f even with TAN (NH3 + NH4) at 1ppm your NH3 being 0.0212ppm would still be in safe range (0.025ppm NH3 is the safe limit)
dechlorinate the water before adding to tank, prime is meant to dechlorinate and make ammonia safe which means that any free ammonia (the toxic form NH3) in the tank is locked into ammonium (the non toxic form NH4) the test will still show as having ammonia though and the filter bacteria will have a harder time at breaking ammonium down, also due to some tap water containing chloramines the dechlorinating process can leave some traces of ammonia behind and therefore give false readings, always wait at least 24hrs after a water change before testing to prevent erroneous readings although nitrites nitrates ph etc... can be tested straight after a water change.
if you are getting nitrates then your tank has a biological cycle running, it is just that the bacteria colony isn't large enough to cope.