Hello all you lovely people! I really need some guidance. I’ve been trying to cycle a 20 gallon axolotl tank for around 3 FRICKIN months now. I finally thought I was getting close to being done but now I seem to be backsliding. For reference, I am doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia. This might be lengthy, please bear with me!
So! Around October 23rd I finally figured out the correct amount of ammonia I needed to reach 2 ppm: 30 mL. So, I dosed with that for the first time. It took about 4 days for the ammonia to reach 0ppm and 1 additional day for the nitrites to read zero.
At the point, I began the process dosing with the 30mL ammonia and trying to get the ammonia and nitrites to process within 24 hours.
It was going well for quite a while, with the amount of days it took for both ammonia and nitrites to reach 0 lessening, slowly but surely.
Until recently. Now, the amount of days it takes seems to be going back up! To illustrate this I will post my parameter recordings from recent tests.
11/1/20: dosed with 30mL ammonia
11/2/20: ammonia at 0.25 ppm
11/3/20: ammonia at 0 ppm, nitrites at 2 ppm
11/4/20: nitrites at 0.5 ppm
11/5/20: nitrites at 0 ppm, dosed with 30mL ammonia
11/6/20: ammonia at 1ppm, nitrites at 2-5ppm
11/7/20: ammonia at 0ppm, nitrites at 2 ppm
11/8/20: nitrites still at 2 ppm
11/9/20: nitrites at 0.5 ppm
11/10/20: nitrites at 0.25 ppm
11/11/20: nitrites at 0 ppm, dosed with 30mL ammonia
See, in the above set I feel like I was already seeing be beginning of my cycle slowing. Now, here is the result from my most recent dosing.
I didn’t test on 11/12, but the ammonia definitely didn’t reach 0ppm by then, as you can see below.
11/13/20: I did the ph just to see, it was at 7.6, the ammonia was at 0.25ppm
11/14/20: ammonia at 0 ppm, nitrites at 2-5ppm
11/17/20: nitrites at 2 ppm
11/19/20: nitrites STILL at 2ppm
I’m losing my mind, I want to introduce my axolotl into the tank, I’m really not feeling good about still having to tub them! I really hope someone will help me because this took forever to type out!
TLDR: Tank took 4-5 days to process 30mL ammonia and nitrites to 0, respectively, about a month ago. Thought I was making good progress towards my tank being cycled. Fast forward to present day, ammonia still isn’t going to 0 after 24 hours and nitrites are taking almost twice as long to go down!! What am I doing wrong?!? What should I do next? Ahhh!
I’m going insane over here! I would appreciate any help so much!
So! Around October 23rd I finally figured out the correct amount of ammonia I needed to reach 2 ppm: 30 mL. So, I dosed with that for the first time. It took about 4 days for the ammonia to reach 0ppm and 1 additional day for the nitrites to read zero.
At the point, I began the process dosing with the 30mL ammonia and trying to get the ammonia and nitrites to process within 24 hours.
It was going well for quite a while, with the amount of days it took for both ammonia and nitrites to reach 0 lessening, slowly but surely.
Until recently. Now, the amount of days it takes seems to be going back up! To illustrate this I will post my parameter recordings from recent tests.
11/1/20: dosed with 30mL ammonia
11/2/20: ammonia at 0.25 ppm
11/3/20: ammonia at 0 ppm, nitrites at 2 ppm
11/4/20: nitrites at 0.5 ppm
11/5/20: nitrites at 0 ppm, dosed with 30mL ammonia
11/6/20: ammonia at 1ppm, nitrites at 2-5ppm
11/7/20: ammonia at 0ppm, nitrites at 2 ppm
11/8/20: nitrites still at 2 ppm
11/9/20: nitrites at 0.5 ppm
11/10/20: nitrites at 0.25 ppm
11/11/20: nitrites at 0 ppm, dosed with 30mL ammonia
See, in the above set I feel like I was already seeing be beginning of my cycle slowing. Now, here is the result from my most recent dosing.
I didn’t test on 11/12, but the ammonia definitely didn’t reach 0ppm by then, as you can see below.
11/13/20: I did the ph just to see, it was at 7.6, the ammonia was at 0.25ppm
11/14/20: ammonia at 0 ppm, nitrites at 2-5ppm
11/17/20: nitrites at 2 ppm
11/19/20: nitrites STILL at 2ppm
I’m losing my mind, I want to introduce my axolotl into the tank, I’m really not feeling good about still having to tub them! I really hope someone will help me because this took forever to type out!
TLDR: Tank took 4-5 days to process 30mL ammonia and nitrites to 0, respectively, about a month ago. Thought I was making good progress towards my tank being cycled. Fast forward to present day, ammonia still isn’t going to 0 after 24 hours and nitrites are taking almost twice as long to go down!! What am I doing wrong?!? What should I do next? Ahhh!
I’m going insane over here! I would appreciate any help so much!
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