Question: Settling Into A New Tank

[Kaini]

Had the water tested today and the ammonia was at around 1ppm with low nitrite and nitrate. The low nitrate suggests that a colony of beneficial nitrifying bacteria has not been established. I have ordered the API master test kit and will do daily water changes as advised. Would it be better to have more or less water in the tank, in terms of maximizing the cycling

Um, really the amount of water doesn't matter I believe, since the bacteria will live in your filter media and substrate. But I've heard smaller tanks are harder to cycle, so I suppose go with the most water your axie is comfortable with. More water will also reduce the impact of the ammonia on your axie since there's less of a concentration the more water there is.

 

[NadeZ]

Changed 30% of the water yesterday and then today the levels were
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 5.0
Can anyone interpret these result better than I?
To me the presence of nitrate suggests that the cycle formula has at least slightly sped up the cycling. I was under the impression that nitrate didn't appear until beneficial bacteria begin to establish?

 

[auntiejude]

Yes, you're getting there.
You still have some ammonia after 24 hours so you're not quite there yet, but it's a good start.

 

[NadeZ]

Ordered quite a lot of kit in the last week to make sure her conditions are good. My water test kit arrived today and yielded 0.5ppm ammonia, 5ppm (or higher) nitrite, and 160ppm (or higher) nitrate. She has, however, seemed perfectly happy. Definitely settling in and much more active, although she seems to be most active when the lighting (from my room) is low. Obviously, I carried out a 50% water change with dechlorinated water but am curious what those numbers mean? Seems like the nitrate is spiking, signalling the cycle is almost complete, but the ammonia and nitrite (especially) are still a little high, is this normal?
Is there any way to acclimate axolotls to lighting? She tends to shy away and hide when I have occasionally turned on the hood light (15W fluorescent white tube) to inspect the tank, but would she be comfortable with a yellow LED light? I know axolotls aren't fans of light but i wonder if they are happy with specific colors?

 

[NadeZ]

Latest Test shows
Ammonia 0-0.25ppm
Nitrite 2-5ppm
Nitrate 80-160ppm
High pH 7.8

This is 2 days after my last 50% water change. Is it normal for the nitrite and nitrate spike to happen at the same time, and to go on this long? Both have been high for almost a week.

 

[Kaini]

You need to do more water changes!! Waiting 2 days while its cycling is too long! Those nitrite and nitrate levels are DANGEROUSLY high. We're talking a 50% change daily so the levels don't cause harm to your animal.

About the lighting, you just shouldn't have any lighting in your tank. You can't acclimate axolotls to light - they simply have no eyelids and can't tolerare it. Led lighting is better because it doesn't create heat but really there's no reason to light the tank unless you have plants and I'd still put the lotls needs above the plants.

 

[Boomsloth]

its REALLY important to check your water everyday until you're 100% certain its cycled. My tank was reading that it was cycled after about a week with a new filter. Today I noticed that only one of my axolotls (moody judy) was acting weird (frilled gills etc) I checked the water and my nitrites had spiked up A LOT. I just finished a 90% water change. My best guess as to what happened to me was that I switched their diet to blackworms and a lot of the worms are hiding around the tank.

Best advice is its always better safe than sorry. I'll be doing at least 50% water changes until I'm absolutely certain its cycled.

 

[NadeZ]

@Kaini, yeah I've just gone with no lighting

Will go back to daily changes. She's seemed much more comfortable this week, with no signs of stress so I thought she'd be okay with a changeless day to get an accurate test. I assumed that with daily water changes, I wouldn't get accurate test results as any drop in ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates, could be attributed to the water change.

Edit: How can the nitrate and nitrite be spiking simultaneously? Shouldn't high nitrate be caused by a reduction in nitrite, as it gets converted?

 

[Boomsloth]

Check your water before your do a water change. As for the nitrite/nitrate question. in a cycled tank that is true that nitrates go up as nitrites go down. I'm guessing that my filter has a good colony of bacteria that can convert ammonia into nitrite but not enough bacteria yet to convert all of the nitrite into nitrate. I wasn't doing water checks everyday and that's why my nitrates got higher than they should. most likely my nitrites spiked a few days ago then my nitrates started going up. Only moody judy showed signs of stress so you can't really rely on your axies as indicators. All my other axolotls seemed fine and everyone was still eating.

 

[Kaini]

You can't cycle your tank in a week if I'm honest. It's just impossible. It wasn't cycled then your nitrites spiked.

In a fully cycled tank your nitrites should never go up (readings should always be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and your nitrates will go up until you do water changes)