Tank won’t cycle

[MrEnder1103]

Hi! I adopted a two-year-old axolotl who has been living in a tub over the last four months while I have been trying to cycle his tank, and I’m getting frustrated that it’s taking so long.

The tank I’m trying to cycle is a twenty gallon with sand, lots of live plants, drift wood, and a standard fluval filter. Things I’ve tried:

• Using Fritz
• Adding water from a cycled fish aquarium
• Adding plants and substrate. I did deal with a detritus worm issue shortly after adding the sand, but got that under control.
• Adding a heater a month ago - Before adding the heater the temperature was around 60.

For the last several days the ammonia has stayed completely the same at around three, the nitrite has been zero for two weeks (before it was .75), and the nitrate is at 90. I have done a couple water changes to bring this down. There is also a small algae bloom. Any suggestions to get the cycle moving?

 

[wolfen]

what is your ph?

 

[MrEnder1103]

what is your ph?

Well would you look at that, 6.5! Thanks for the help!

 

[TheOMan]

Hi! I adopted a two-year-old axolotl who has been living in a tub over the last four months while I have been trying to cycle his tank, and I’m getting frustrated that it’s taking so long.

The tank I’m trying to cycle is a twenty gallon with sand, lots of live plants, drift wood, and a standard fluval filter. Things I’ve tried:

• Using Fritz
• Adding water from a cycled fish aquarium
• Adding plants and substrate. I did deal with a detritus worm issue shortly after adding the sand, but got that under control.
• Adding a heater a month ago - Before adding the heater the temperature was around 60.

For the last several days the ammonia has stayed completely the same at around three, the nitrite has been zero for two weeks (before it was .75), and the nitrate is at 90. I have done a couple water changes to bring this down. There is also a small algae bloom. Any suggestions to get the cycle moving?