marinacat
New member
Hi! First I want to say that my tank is empty while I get this figured out. Second, I am autistic, and this has become an unexpected special interest for me, so please bear with me because IDK how to be brief about it but will try.
My 12-year-old son has been obsessed with axolotls for about five years, and I had the grand plan of making his dreams come true with a critter for his birthday, which was back in May. I gifted him the tank and the tank stand with one of his plushies inside as a clue to his present, and we worked out a plan for him to research and learn how to set up and maintain a tank and care for his pet before he went to pick one out. Well. Tomorrow it's December. Luckily, I have a very patient child. I have tried all the troubleshooting I can find, and I am now at a loss.
We set up the tank -- 20 gallon (long) to start, sponge filter, tile bottom, fake plants, and some hides. We are in Texas and keep our house at 70-72 during the summer, but I bought fans to cool once everything else was worked out and was open to lowering the AC temp if needed to keep the axolotl cool. We filled the tank on 7/16, dosed with Dr. Tim's ammonia to 4 ppm, and set out for a fishless cycle, which we knew might take a while. We do regular (more often than necessary) water tests, so gaps are just stable readings with little/no change. The tank stayed around 73 degrees during the first months of the cycle.
Through the rest of September and into October, I continue to dose the tank as the ammonia cycles, and then the nitrite spikes. I do a water change any time the nitrite reads above 5. It’s taking around 3-4 days for the tank to cycle completely after I re-dose with ammonia. I add a heater to get the tank temp up a little because it is starting to cool down outside and the tank is sitting around 70 – the heater has held the tank at 76. The kH bottoms out and the pH drops to 6 at the lowest. Everything stops happening, so I assume all of my bacteria is dead, but I add crushed coral to try to help stabilize the pH. Since I added the coral on 10/28, the pH has stabilized.
Ammonia is now taking about 2-3 days to cycle out as I re-dose to 2. Nitrite hasn’t read anything other than 0 since, but nitrate continues to climb (now ~100), so something MUST be happening, right? … right?
Any tips on what I do next? I am super bored of maintaining an empty tank. Any help is so greatly appreciated.
My 12-year-old son has been obsessed with axolotls for about five years, and I had the grand plan of making his dreams come true with a critter for his birthday, which was back in May. I gifted him the tank and the tank stand with one of his plushies inside as a clue to his present, and we worked out a plan for him to research and learn how to set up and maintain a tank and care for his pet before he went to pick one out. Well. Tomorrow it's December. Luckily, I have a very patient child. I have tried all the troubleshooting I can find, and I am now at a loss.
We set up the tank -- 20 gallon (long) to start, sponge filter, tile bottom, fake plants, and some hides. We are in Texas and keep our house at 70-72 during the summer, but I bought fans to cool once everything else was worked out and was open to lowering the AC temp if needed to keep the axolotl cool. We filled the tank on 7/16, dosed with Dr. Tim's ammonia to 4 ppm, and set out for a fishless cycle, which we knew might take a while. We do regular (more often than necessary) water tests, so gaps are just stable readings with little/no change. The tank stayed around 73 degrees during the first months of the cycle.
- 7/19 -- ammonia 4, nitrite 2, nitrate 20, pH 8
- 8/6 -- readings are the same, so we go to a local expert, who gives us some Turbo Start, which we add to the tank
- 8/7 -- ammonia 2, nitrite 2, nitrate 10-20, pH 7.6
- 8/8 -- ammonia 1, nitrite .25, nitrate 10-20, pH 7.6, dose ammonia to 4
- 8/26 – ammonia 2, nitrite .25, nitrate ~100, pH 7.6. I do a 25% WC after reading forums and contacting the aquarium shop
- 8/26 – ammonia 1.5, nitrite <.25, nitrate 5, pH 7.6
- 9/5 – same readings as 8/26, both before and after 25% WC
- 9/8 – nitrate back up to 100, advised to do a 50% WC
Through the rest of September and into October, I continue to dose the tank as the ammonia cycles, and then the nitrite spikes. I do a water change any time the nitrite reads above 5. It’s taking around 3-4 days for the tank to cycle completely after I re-dose with ammonia. I add a heater to get the tank temp up a little because it is starting to cool down outside and the tank is sitting around 70 – the heater has held the tank at 76. The kH bottoms out and the pH drops to 6 at the lowest. Everything stops happening, so I assume all of my bacteria is dead, but I add crushed coral to try to help stabilize the pH. Since I added the coral on 10/28, the pH has stabilized.
- 10/28 – I do a 50 water change to help the pH adjust. ammonia 1, nitrite .25, nitrate 5, pH 6.6. After the water change and every day since, the pH reads between 7.6-7.8.
- 11/6 – readings are the same, so we go to a local expert, who advises us to re-dose with Turbo Start and re-dose ammonia to 4
- 11/9 -- ammonia 4, nitrite .25, nitrate 20, pH 7.8
- 11/11 -- ammonia 1, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, pH 7.6
- 11/12 -- ammonia .5, nitrite 0, nitrate 20+, pH 7.8, dose ammonia to 2
Ammonia is now taking about 2-3 days to cycle out as I re-dose to 2. Nitrite hasn’t read anything other than 0 since, but nitrate continues to climb (now ~100), so something MUST be happening, right? … right?
Any tips on what I do next? I am super bored of maintaining an empty tank. Any help is so greatly appreciated.