When has a tank cycled?

[oroxine]

I got my axolotls last Wednesday, and I have been doing two water changes a day, and from today I will hopefully be down to one water change a day.

I was just wondering how you know when a tank has finished cycling and you can stop the daily water changes?

Once the tank has finished cycling how often and how large should water changes be?

Thanks all!

 

[carsona246]

You need an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kit(liquid drip kind, the dip strips are inaccurate). When your tank has 0 ammonia/nitrite, and is only accumulating nitrate your tank is fully cycled. do some google research on the nitrogen cycle, and you'll get up to date on the particulars. Most waterchange schedule's are about 20% a week. Depending on your nitrates this may/may not be helpful. You want to shoot for less than 40 ppm's of nitrate in your tank, so you can base your waterchange schedule on how many ppm's of nitrate you get a week on that.

 

[yellowpebble]

Your tank will cycle slower if you do more than one water change a day, you need a little bit of ammonia to feed the good bacteria in the filter.

 

[iChris]

another great way to tell is to smell your filter box and tank. if it smells earthy like a freshly watered garden bed, it's a good sign that it's ready. this process usually takes a month or so in ideal conditions to complete.

the odour should not be offensive (ie, not gassy or smelling like spoilt eggs).

you will also probably start to get some algae too as the nitrate rises, but lowering the amount of light that the tank gets and adding some plants will help stop that.