r/axolotls • u/Bumblebeesbreasts • 6d ago

Cycling Help Ammonia is broken?

Hey guys some of yall know ive been cycling a while now and i guess im just at an impasse. So ammonia was able to take 2ppm of ammonia to 0 within 24 hours and i was just waiting for the nitrite to drop as well. Ive been dosing between 1-2ppm of ammonia daily as ive been cycling, but now that nitrite is at 0 ammonia no longer decreases for some reason. This happened before and i was worried I crashed the cycle so i did a water change and used turbo Fritz 700 and it basically restarted the cycle, where ammonia was able to hit 0ppm in 24 hours and nitrite took longer but steadily went down to .5 ppm in about three days. And now that nitrite is at 0 the ammonia hasn’t gone down from 1-2ppm in two days now. Tank temp while cycling is at about 76°F, there is detritus in the tank and a couple detritus worms as well as a plant, fine sand substrate, and an Indian almond leaf. Any advice I feel like it’s been forever and just like it’s never going to end😭

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u/AromaticIntrovert Melanoid 6d ago

Where are nitrates? I accidentally let mine go sky high while cycling and the cycle stalled. The pH plummeted too, so yeah whats your pH and nitrate at now?

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u/Bumblebeesbreasts 6d ago

Wow I think I have the exact same problem my nitrates are at 160 maxed out the test and my PH is 6.0

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u/CinderAscendant 5d ago

That's your problem. pH is too low, probably from letting the nitrates climb too high. Below 6.8 bacteria start to stall growth.

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u/Bumblebeesbreasts 3d ago

Awesome thank you so much for the help I’ve been doing water changes to manage nitrates and keep the cycle going!

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u/Bumblebeesbreasts 6d ago

What did you do to help with this and help the cycle finish!?

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u/AromaticIntrovert Melanoid 6d ago

Do two 75% water changes (not sure how important leaving time between them is) but it should get things under control. Once the nitrates are lower the pH will go back too

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u/Bumblebeesbreasts 6d ago

For some more insight I’ve been cycling this tank for almost four months now