Water Parameters- I’m confused

[13kayrose]

My tank has been cycling 4 weeks

The parameters are:

Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40

What do I do? At the minute there’s decaying fish food at the bottom to produce ammonia, should I remove this?

Any advice is much appreciated

 

[JoshBA]

Considering you have considerable nitrate reading and zero nitrites, I'd say your tank has an active nitrogen cycle going. To rule out the possibility that the ammonia is transient and just awaiting breakdown, I'd remove the fish food and wait a little while longer. If the ammonia doesn't go down then perhaps your tank needs some more time to build up bacteria. It may just be a matter of the bacteria density not yet high enough to be able to rapidly oxidize the ammonia (hence the reading).

What's your aeration/water circulation like? Nitrification is an aerobic process, so oxygenation may speed up the whole NH3 to NO2 to NO3 thing.

 

[13kayrose]

Okay, I’ll do that

other than the filter and the fact I leave the lid open sometimes, that’s about it in terms of oxygen

water circulation is there, but not too strong because the tank is for my axolotl and strong water cirlculation would stress him

 

[13kayrose]

I’ve removed the fish food and my ammonia has dropped to 0.25

should I risk adding my axoltol? I don’t want to be hasty but I hate seeing him in a tub would 0.25 be alright if I spot clean and do small water changes every day?

my nitrate has also dropped slightly to 20ppm because I siphoned the bottom of the tank to get rid of the fish food and had to top up the water afterwards

 

[JoshBA]

That sounds like a good amount of aeration in the water.

I'd probably give it a bit more time to ensure the ammonia continues dropping to zero. But if you need to add the axolotl now, it would be a good idea to do water changes to bring the ammonia to zero, and then frequently test to water to ensure the cycle is able to compensate for the bioload.

Edit: if the alternative is a tub with frequent water changes, then adding the axolotl to a tank with at least the beginnings of a full nitrogen cycle would probably be better. Might still be a good idea to keep up with frequent water changes though.

 

[13kayrose]

okay, I’ll add him but I’ll keep on doing partial water changes and keeping an eye on my ammonia

Thank you