I am going crazy and LOATHE the cycling process.

Kelly

Kelly

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ph 7.8
ammonia 1.0
nitrite 1.0
nitrate 5.0

I started with my axie in the tank for the cycle then moved him out. I just did a 50
% water change and will test it again tomorrow. He's not in there now of course.
There is no filter so is it actually cycling? The numbers have moved like they are supposed to.
I am utterly confused.
I have a hide, a couple of large river rocks (not as substrate) some decorations and a bubbler in there.
I was feeding black worms to him while he was in there too.
I lost my notebook with everything in it so I have no idea the numbers before these.
I stink at this.
Part of me wants to sell him to someone that knows what they're doing.
 
Hi Kelly,

You need to have a filter, otherwise your tank will not cycle. Think of the filter as the heart of your tank. It does with water, what your heart does with blood. I hope you don't give up, cycling is a pain for everyone!

About your river rocks - out of curiosity - how did you prep them for your tank? What is your substrate?
 
Ooookay. So I am an epic failure at this then......
I used a 5% bleach solution to scrub them and then rinsed really well then boiled them. Same as I do for my frog tanks.
I did have an elite mini filter in the tank but it consistently kept the water spinning...I blocked it and tried to re route it but no dice.
Well, I have no idea what to do now.
I have a bare bottom.
 
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hi kelly
hang in there they are worth the trouble........you are able to cycle your tank with your axie in there you know, you just have to do keep a very close eye on your water parameters and do water changes.
good luck
lea
 
I have no idea what made me think that I could do it w/o a filter, probably the same thought that made me think I could keep an axolotl. I remember reading somewhere that a filterless tank is okay and likely assumed that the required bacteria would build up w/o one.
Another issue that I had with the elite mini is that it warmed the water way too much.
 
No, not at all. The rocks were cleaned well so they shouldn't pose a prob. Now, that filter is supposed to have an adjustable flow control and an output diverter so you should be able to make that work for you. My concern would be about the affect it has on your temp. What size is your tank and what is the temp?

edit: Okay, you answered my question.
 
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You can do it w/o a filter if you can commit to doing daily water changes. What do you use as a dechlorinator and how big is your tank?
 
I use novaqua and it's a 10 gallon tank.
 
Hang on in with the cycle process, our axie tank is still cycling at the moment and i know its a pain
 
I found that when I cycled my second tank, using old filter media from my original aquarium nearly halved the time it took to cycle.
 
I hated cycling my tanks. My last one took nearly 5 weeks. I had my 3 axolotl in the tank at the time , plus all their old tank decorations. The daily 20- 30% water changes where a nuisance, once the ammonia levels started to drop it was great . Keep going, it'll be worth it.
 
I have just been through what people are calling 'the worst cycle in recorded history';)

Seriously I understand how frustrated you are my cycle took 2 months but as soon as nitrite peaked it was over pretty quickly.

Be patient I hope the tank cycles very soon
 
What have you decided about your filter situation? Without a filter, there is no cycle. If yours is heating the water, perhaps you can try to get another, a used one? A Tetra 3i is a very small filter that is air pump driven and is inexpensive. (approx. $10 Wal- Mart) Hope this helps. If you have any questions, please ask! Don't give up - As everyone here has said, cycling a tank can be a nightmare, but you can get through it. We're here...

Maybe this will give you some helpful info: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml
 
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Cycling is awful!! For everyone, not just you. Stick with it, I just finished cycling my first axolotl tank (over 40 gallons) and I wanted to rip my hair out. The article that Shannon posted is really helpful. Good luck and stick with it, in the end it's worth it!
 
Bacteria can grow in other places, aside from a filter (though you can get special filter media designed solely to house the bacteria). From what I've learned with keeping fish tanks for a number of years is that any porous substance or places with lots of little nooks and crannies work great for making places for the bacteria to stick to. This includes a substrate (biggest contributor), the sponges in filters, biomax (little porous stones that you can put in your filters that do nothing else but house bacteria), and textured ornaments. What I used to do when I was setting up new tanks was take some gravel from one of my tank that was already established and use it to kick-start the cycle. I also prep my filter sponges this way too - let them hang out in an established tank for a couple of weeks to get the different kinds of bacteria growing in it before I transfer it over.

I hope that's helpful!
 
if cycling really frustrates you, you can always just go filter-less and commit to frequently changing water.

this is my approach. i have koi, goldfish, and glofish in 3 other tanks, and those are all cycled with filtration, but it just didn't seem the right approach for my axolotls.

my axolotl set-up is as low-tech as it gets. 12"x12"x4" of water per axolotl, since mine have no interest in swimming, only walking. water changes are every 24 to 72 hours, depending on their appetites and temperature. zero detectable ammonia every time i've checked, using multiple testing methods. and i just keep double the number of containers, so there are always containers of tap water sitting and naturally de-chlorinating. works like a charm!
 
you can buy live bacteria bottles and squirt double the recomenbed dose in because over-dosing on live bacteria is not harmfull (i do not recomend over-dosing on anything that is not live) !!!!!!!!
 
Isn't the live bacteria in a bottle just a scam? I seriously doubt the bacteria would still be alive after a few weeks of sitting in a bottle on the shelf. Has anyone had success with it?
 
There is no shelf life given on these bacteria in a bottle products. Bacteria requires oxygen and food in order to survive. Bacteria cannot thrive in a sealed bottle sitting on a shelf. There is minimal success using these products if any at all. What you are dumping in the tank is actually dead good bacteria, possibly with a living colony of bad anaerobic (without oxygen) bacteria. This bad bacteria is exactly what you don't want in your tank so you could be introducing additional toxins into your water that could actually increase not decrease the amount of time it takes for your tank to cycle. Even if you do have success in the beginning, chances are that your cycle will crash later. All in all they are a waste of money and time.
 
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