Fishless Cycle Specifics

[Hoagii]

Hey all. I need some advice. I'm doing a fishless cycle of a new tank for my axolotl. My ammonia spiked up to 0.5ppm at its max. I just checked for the first time in a while and my ammonia is at zero. This makes me think that the cycle has started. My question is this: do I need to have my ammonia peak at a certain value? I'm assuming 05ppm is not enough.

 

[AxolotlChris]

Check your Nitrite to see if has increased.

Ammonia converts into Nitrite, Nitrite converts into NitrAtes.

Once you start seeing an increase of NitrAtes you know that the beneficial bacteria exists to complete a full converstion (cycle) of Ammonia > Nitrites > NitrAtes

Eventually you will have enough beneficial bacteria to continuously convert Ammonia and Nitrite, leaving you with only NitrAtes which you can keep below 40ppm by performing 30% water changes every week or two.

When starting a cycle ammonia betwen 0.5 > 1.0 is good, this is enough for the bacteria to feed on to convert it to Nitrites.

 

[LSuzuki]

I agree the tank will cycle at the lower ammonia ppm, but if the axolotl is big, as a final check, I would still suggest spiking it higher to make sure it can handle the bioload of a big axolotl.