Hiya, I will try to answer all your questions!
The cycling process time varies depending on how many axies you have, how big your tank is etc. but with one axie in a 20 gallon tank, my cycle took 9 weeks from start to finish. You will need to test daily, and at first you will see ammonia levels rising, try to keep them as low as possible, but definitely under 0.5. A few times my levels got this high, so I did a larger water change. Then you will find that the ammonia levels start to tail off, and the nitrite levels start rising. Keep up with the water changes, keep the levels as low as possible again, and eventually, when you think the cycling will never end, you will start seeing nitrate readings, and then ammonia and nitrites will eventually read 0. Then you can drop down to weekly water changes, to keep the nitrates down - it is always a good idea to test the nitrate levels before you do your weekly water changes at first, just so you know how quickly the levels are building up. I change the water in my tank weekly, but my nitrates are always low as I have a large tank and lots of plants, so I know that I can get away with leaving the water change a few more days if I need to!
I order mixed Dendrobaena's from worms direct, as I tend to give them a large worm then a small one, but this is just a habit I have got into with mine. The man on the phone is very helpful, I always ask him a ton of questions, and when I first ordered from him he made me up a special pack of mixed Dendrobaena's and lobworms as mine were eating lobworms, and he said that some axies don't like Dendrobaena'sm but mine do! Lobworms are the normal garden worms, but dendrobaenas last longer and keep better, so I prefer them!
The worms come in a little plastic bucket, which I used to keep them in, but now I empty them out into a big plastic Tupperware and they seem to keep better in there, and I feel better as they have more space. I feed them a little mashed potato (no butter, slt or milk!) and put some damp shredded paper in with them. I used to keep them in the fridge, in the bottom salad drawer, but dendrobaenas are ok at room temp, unless the temp is hot in the summer, and my friendly worms direct man told me they will do better not being exposed to extremes of temp. Lobworms need to be kept in the fridge though.
when I am going to feed them I use tongs to pull them out, rinse them in some water, then put the in a clean pot and use clean tongs to feed them to the axies. You can't freeze them, they smell bad enough when one has did in the pot, they would be gross frozen and rethawed!!
Feeding them is trial and error. How big are they? Mine get roughly 2 worms every other day, sometimes more if they are peering at me and begging for food!
I would try with one feeding dish, and see how they get on. They might need one each. I tried using one at first, but found it went everywhere anyway, and now I use bloodworm more as an occasional treat, so I feed it the day before a tank clean and let them hunt around the tank for it, I figure it stops them getting bored! Mine eat everything in sight anyway, so there is never any bloodworm left the next day!
Sorry for the essay, I hope this helps a bit. Good luck with the cycling, API test kits will become your friends!! You will soon get so used to constantly testing the water!
I had a problem finding large rocks as I've got undergravel filters and aquatic centers take the p! Their large rocks are so ridiculously expensive! Large beach pebbles from B&Q, aquarium and pond safe...can't go wrong at £6!!
