Question: Nearing the end of my cycle?

[jessicaanne]

So as a few people may know, my tank has taken forever to cycle and I believe this is probably my 3rd post in regards to cycling It really has been beyond stressful.. The great news is that I've had 2 nitrite spikes in the past 2 weeks so hopefully there aren't many more to come AND I have nitrates showing (reaching a maximum of 5 on the chart). The bad news is that Ammonia is still present on a daily basis but doesn't exceed 0.5 yet doesn't drop below 0.25 regardless of how large the water changes are. Does this mean that there is too much Ammonia being produced for the bio load to handle? If so, is there a way to help with this? (It's probably due to a filter that doesn't do the job properly but I'm upgrading very soon!)

I promise that once my tank is cycled, you won't have anymore annoying questions to answer

 

[DeniseD]

If you're upgrading you may want to do it sooner rather than later as you'll have to cycle that filter all over again. (but you can do that quicker with squeezings from your original filter, cycle takes about a week)
How much water have you been changing?

 

[jessicaanne]

I was planning to transfer the ceramic rings from my current one while also running the new and old one at the same time. But yes I agree, the sooner the better! The water changes depend on how high the nitrite is but generally 50% and one day last week I did 75% because nitrite had a spike.

 

[DeniseD]

I'm sure other people do it differently but when I have a spike, I usually change about 10% every day rather than a large change in order to help the cycle keep going without too much new water.
Are you using water conditioner to remove Chlorine?

 

[jessicaanne]

Yes I'm using API Stress Coat+

Okay well both ammonia & nitrite were between 0.25 / 0.5 so I did a 50% wc to see if that would bring the ammonia to 0. Nitrite went to 0 but ammonia stayed at 0.25.. I can only assume it's because of the filter so I'm buying a new one next week.

Oh I also added more ceramic rings and objects to the tank so that there is more surface area for the bacteria to grow. I'm not sure if it'll help but I thought it was worth a shot.

 

[DeniseD]

Have you tested your water straight from the tap? It is possible to get a positive ammonia reading from taps (or so I've heard). Other than the filter, you could try using Prime instead of Stress Coat, Prime removes ammonia as well as chlorine and chloramines.

 

[jessicaanne]

Yeah I've already tested my tap water and it's 0. I might buy a small bottle of Prime and see how it goes, thanks :happy:

 

[jessicaanne]

Wow so I began cycling my current tank on the 7th of April and it's finally finished cycling today. That's 5 months!! I must've done all the no-no's and crashed my cycle or slowed it down a few times.. I feel like chucking a huge party because 5 months is a long time to be doing almost daily water changes At least I now have biceps as a result hahaha :wacko:

 

[KingCam]

Yes I'm using API Stress Coat+

I was told by the breeder I bought my axolotls from to never use any water conditioner that promotes slime coat growth. I don't know why, I just thought I would share that.

From what I've read one of the safest water conditioner to use is Amquel+

 

[jessicaanne]

I was told by the breeder I bought my axolotls from to never use any water conditioner that promotes slime coat growth. I don't know why, I just thought I would share that.

I've read that on the forums but one of the moderators cleared it up for me and said it was safe to use. I now use Seachem Prime anyway.