cycling questions

[iceywind]

So this is the end of my third week of fishless cycling in my 3gal. My ammonia levels keep dropping but my nitrites have been staying around the same. I am getting readings of nitrates though.

I'm also not quite sure the exact reading of my nitries either. The color I get is very similar to two colors on my chart. It's either 5.0 or it's 1.0. I keep getting a pretty constant reading of 5.0 for nitrates. These numbers are all from this week.

Is this normal? I really don't want to start over if I messed up somewhere. :help:

[Heliwyr]

That happened to me too. That chart needs to be reworked.

Anyway, your nitrites might be so high they are stalling your cycle. Try a 30% water change, test the water, and see where it is. Try to get them to around 3ppm. Shouldn't be too high for the bacteria.

[Sharon]

All sounds normal...have you been keeping the Ammonia bumped up to 3ppm?

[iceywind]

Yup, I keep adding ammonia daily. I did a small water change two days ago. I guess it just takes some time hehe.

[iceywind]

I'm just checking here on the progress of my tank. It's been five weeks since I started.

Monday I tested and Nitrites were still around 5. I pretty much decided to give up getting a fish for my dorm since the university semester is almost over. I continued to add ammonia since I still want a fish, just not here at the dorm.

Tuesday I didn't test for the reason stated above.

Today, Wednesday, I decided just for laughs to test. I put in the drops and the test tube stayed blue! I thought it would still turn pink, just not immediatly like it usually does. I waited the 5 minutes and it was still blue. Just to make sure I did a second test. Still blue - 0ppm.

ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates ~7ppm

Does this mean its cycled? That would be so cool.

[ko4000]

I would think the NitrAtes would be a tad higher, when was your last water change?
Im no expert but I'd say you have fishless cycled successfully!! thumbs2:

[iceywind]

I did several very large water changes last week. The nitrites weren't lowering at all so I did a bunch until it looked a little better.

I probably started the cycle in a bad way by adding fish food instead of pure ammonia (no stores nearby sold it). I finally found some at my home Publix. The water changes I did were mainly cleaning up the left over fish food.

I've had nitrate readings for weeks now. I think my cycle would've finished sooner if my nirtites hadn't been so high.