Pls help I need advice!!

[bluemoon3622]

Ive been dealing with a big cycling issue the past month & a half. Before this, my axolotl tank was established for almost a year. In august, I moved to my new apartment & during that move, we had 3 boxes misplaced, & one of them had the filter I used for the past year. I had no choice but to buy a brand new filter, which completly reset my benificial bacteria. Ive been dealing with many ammonia & nitrite spikes, & since I have my axolotls in the tank I have no other choice than to do water changes or else they will die. Unfortunately, im unable to set up & cycle a new tank due to me living in a one bedroom apartment that already has a 55 gallon with discus, 37 gallon that has my axolotls, 32 gallon biocube, 13 gallon fluval & a 10 gallon betta tank. Im continuously doing everything I can to get my cycle back to normal, but it seems like its never going to get there. Ive tried Quickstart, different brands of nitrifying bacteria, Seacheam Prime, filter media, literally everything. Please let me know ways I can get this to go away I cant stand seeing my axolotls unhappy.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Cycling a tank typically takes 2 to 3 months. You have been going a month. It takes time.

You appear to be doing the right things. Taking filter media from those established tanks is the best thing you could be doing.

What are you water parameters like at the moment and how long since you last did a water change?

 

[bluemoon3622]

Cycling a tank typically takes 2 to 3 months. You have been going a month. It takes time.

You appear to be doing the right things. Taking filter media from those established tanks is the best thing you could be doing.

What are you water parameters like at the moment and how long since you last did a water change?

I did a water change yesterday when I tested the parameters because ammonia was at 4.0, nitrite was at 0.25, nitrate was 5.0, & pH was at 8.0. My parameters are horrible & idk how to get it back on track. I will be testing the parameters after I get out of work tonight, but from whats been happening all my parameters will be through the roof

 

[Andy Sager]

You have a couple of options moving forward but the first thing you need to do is large volume water changes daily if necessary, to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels acceptable for the Axels. That will get the levels down quickly but they won't stay there for long. I see you said you tried a number of bacteria in a bottle products but if you haven't tried Fritzyme #7 or Fritz turboStart 700, I have had success with the #7 (https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fritzzyme-7-freshwater ) since it came on the market back in the 1980s(?) and the 700 is just a higher volume of the bacteria in the bottle.
If you have an overflow style or canister filter, Polybiomarine makes the Poly-filter ( https://www.poly-bio-marine.com/ ) which will absorb organics which can help keep your levels under control.
The big thing is getting nitrifying bacteria into your system to help recreate that biological filter bed. If you get filter material from a healthy established tank and place it in your filter, that can help inoculate your tank and get the bed going again. I see you have a few different tanks so if you take some filter material from one of those, you want to use it from one with the same Ph as your Axel tank. I would not use it from the betta tank however because that will have the smallest biological bed so taking away some of that bed could create a problem in the Betta tank. ( I would take some from the tank with the most fish or highest bioload and just cut back on your feeding for that tank for a few days while the bacteria repopulates itself. )
So those are your best choices. IMO.

 

[bluemoon3622]

You have a couple of options moving forward but the first thing you need to do is large volume water changes daily if necessary, to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels acceptable for the Axels. That will get the levels down quickly but they won't stay there for long. I see you said you tried a number of bacteria in a bottle products but if you haven't tried Fritzyme #7 or Fritz turboStart 700, I have had success with the #7 (https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fritzzyme-7-freshwater ) since it came on the market back in the 1980s(?) and the 700 is just a higher volume of the bacteria in the bottle.
If you have an overflow style or canister filter, Polybiomarine makes the Poly-filter ( https://www.poly-bio-marine.com/ ) which will absorb organics which can help keep your levels under control.
The big thing is getting nitrifying bacteria into your system to help recreate that biological filter bed. If you get filter material from a healthy established tank and place it in your filter, that can help inoculate your tank and get the bed going again. I see you have a few different tanks so if you take some filter material from one of those, you want to use it from one with the same Ph as your Axel tank. I would not use it from the betta tank however because that will have the smallest biological bed so taking away some of that bed could create a problem in the Betta tank. ( I would take some from the tank with the most fish or highest bioload and just cut back on your feeding for that tank for a few days while the bacteria repopulates itself. )
So those are your best choices. IMO.

Thank you! I will try out the fritzyme #7 I havent tried that one yet. Im unfortunatly back to square one now because as I was out of town for the past 2 days, I came home to my filter not working & everything dried up & started forming mold & I dont thinks thats good for the axels so I had to go out & buy a new filter. Hopefully, since I purchased a better filter ill have more luck getting this under control. I was also wondering how I should go about using the other tanks filter material. I plan on using the filter material from my 55 gallon discus tank, but it scares me because they are sensitive fish. Would I take the whole filter cartrige & put it in my axels filter then put it back in the 55 gallon filter after a few hours? I feel like if I do that, itll throw off my parameters for my discus tank. I used to have a piece of filter mesh in my 55 gallon filter for these situations, but that also dried up & was forming white mold. Ive never had cycling problems until now, so im not familiar with how to properly use filter material from my other tanks safely.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you! I will try out the fritzyme #7 I havent tried that one yet. Im unfortunatly back to square one now because as I was out of town for the past 2 days, I came home to my filter not working & everything dried up & started forming mold & I dont thinks thats good for the axels so I had to go out & buy a new filter. Hopefully, since I purchased a better filter ill have more luck getting this under control. I was also wondering how I should go about using the other tanks filter material. I plan on using the filter material from my 55 gallon discus tank, but it scares me because they are sensitive fish. Would I take the whole filter cartrige & put it in my axels filter then put it back in the 55 gallon filter after a few hours? I feel like if I do that, itll throw off my parameters for my discus tank. I used to have a piece of filter mesh in my 55 gallon filter for these situations, but that also dried up & was forming white mold. Ive never had cycling problems until now, so im not familiar with how to properly use filter material from my other tanks safely.

Just keeping the used pad in the tank for a couple hours will probably not do much for the axel tank. What you can do is take some tank water and squeeze the pad from the discus tank into the water then pour the "juice" into the axel tank . That would be a better inoculation method. When I inoculate tanks with a sponge filter, I just use the squeezin's and BINGO, no issues as long as the tank isn't overpopulated.