Trouble cycling

[bunny27]

Hey guys. I'm really new to cycling as I have never cycled before, even when I had my bettas, which were fine.

I currently have a baby axolotl that is 2 inches long in a 10 gallon tank and have read on the forum that it was okay to cycle a tank with an axolotl, but I would just have to be careful and change the water 20% daily.

Well, I have been doing that and testing my water. The ammonia was zero, but the Nitrite was really high like 0.2-0.5 ppm. I've been changing the water daily but it seems like the nitrite is still the same level.

Would the nitrite level irritate the baby axolotl? It seems to swim around a lot in the tank.

Would it be a good idea fridging the baby axie until the nitrite lowers? I haven't heard of people fridging baby axies, so I'm unsure if I can fridge a baby axie.

I have a larger axolotl in a 20 gallon tank and it had gotton fungus on its gills from my poor water quality so he's currently in the fridge as well. I don't want this to happen to the baby one.

If there are any advice about cycling and fridging, please tell me. It would help me out a lot. Thanks in advance!!!!!

 

[melfly]

If you remove the axolotl from the tank you remove the source of ammonia so the tank would stop cycling.
That amont of nitrite could irritate your axie.
Maybe try cycling without the axie in the tank using pure ammonia or food.
You could keep him in a container and do 100% water changes daily without having to fridge him (provided you can keep the tub temp low enough)

Are you salt bathing your fungused axie??

Mel

 

[bunny27]

Hi, yes, I've given her salt baths already and the fungus have disappeared. She's only in the fridge because her gill feathers were slightly damaged due to the salt baths and the fungus. She's also in there until the 20 gallon tank is done cycling.

I think I will also stick the baby one in the fridge if that's safe.

At this point, since you mentioned that once the axolotl is out of the tank, the cyling will stop, should I still add food/pure ammonia to the tank? The Nitrite levels are both high in the two tanks and the Ammonia is zero for both tanks.

 

[melfly]

Hi
I think the baby should be ok in the fridge but i would just wait for confirmation on this.
I personally have fridged a baby and he was fine. How big is it?

The tank needs a source of ammonia to continue the cycle if you remove the ammonia the cycle breaks down as the bacteria have no food to eat.

If you get ammonia you need to make sure it is pure, no chemicals added to it.


Mel

 

[bunny27]

The baby axolotl is 2 inches long.

Do you recommend pure ammonia or food. What kind of food would I be using for cycling? I heard from other people that frozen brine shrimp was a good source...

Thank you so much, you've been a great help!

 

[Darkmaverick]

Actually both methods can be performed quite successfully. It just depends on personal preference. I prefer the brine shrimp method. You can just put a piece of the shirmp in a net and suspend it in the water. That would make for easy retrieval and replacement. I just feel safer with this method.

The other method is excellent if you can get hold of the right product. Sometimes they come mixed with other compounds like detergents that can be harmful and worse still difficult to identify on the label (complex chemical names and all).