Ammonia Dropping but 0 Nitrites

[Lady Hobbs]

Sometimes ammonia needs to be added 2 or 3 times before nitrites are seen. Nothing new here is going on. In a 15 gallon tank, you need no more ammonia that 1-2. Too much ammonia and you will end up with problems. It doesn't matter how long ammonia was in the tank. It only matters when he began to drop and you said that was a couple days ago.

Bacteria grows in 80 degrees just as well as in 88. No point in turned the heat up too high.

[ijankrom]

I've also done a 50% water change since then. I don't have anything from another tank, only a moss ball which was only added a couple of hours ago.

Don't need to complete water changes if doing a fish-less cycle. Also I wouldn't be adding anything additional if I was you, just more reason for issues to arise. Continue with cycling and once Ammo=0 Nitrite=0 and Nitrate levels present then you can complete a water change and add fish, moss/plants, etc. Don't mess with the filter media either while you're trying to complete the cycle.

[CrackFox]

Sometimes ammonia needs to be added 2 or 3 times before nitrites are seen. Nothing new here is going on. In a 15 gallon tank, you need no more ammonia that 1-2. Too much ammonia and you will end up with problems. It doesn't matter how long ammonia was in the tank. It only matters when he began to drop and you said that was a couple days ago.

Bacteria grows in 80 degrees just as well as in 88. No point in turned the heat up too high.

Ok thanks. I just figured the ammonia would only drop if and when nitrites develope, I suppose i'll just wait for the level to drop completely before adding some more ammonia.

Don't need to complete water changes if doing a fish-less cycle. Also I wouldn't be adding anything additional if I was you, just more reason for issues to arise. Continue with cycling and once Ammo=0 Nitrite=0 and Nitrate levels present then you can complete a water change and add fish, moss/plants, etc. Don't mess with the filter media either while you're trying to complete the cycle.

The water change was done because I originally overdosed with ammonia. Thanks for the advice, I was already aware of all the other things you mentioned, I've read countless articles on the fishless cycle

[CrackFox]

Another little update and unfortunately i'm no further forward. Ammonia dropped from 0.25/0ppm today so I dosed the tank up again. Now please don't think that i'm clumsily just pouring copious amounts of ammonia in. I put less than 1ml of ammonia in the tank again this morning and I did another test about an hour ago, the ammonia level was off the scale. I don't know that they count colours so dark, it was almost black. I added so little and I have no idea how the level climbed so high. Anyway, i've just done a 50% water change to bring the level down and i'm currently waiting for the fresh water to circulate before retesting the ammonia again. It's now day 11, no nitrites whatsoever. I'm feeling really unconfident now

[Cermet]

Just do a 90% water change and see if that gets you down to 1 ppm ammonia. Since you are doing a fishless cycle, no need to aim for 0.25 ppm.

[CrackFox]

I checked the ammonia levels after I had done the 50% water change last night and the level had gone from (who knows, it was off the scale) to about 3ppm. It was late so I thought I'd leave it at that and worry about it in the morning. I tested again today and the ammonia has dropped to 2ppm overnight. I had a feeling it would drop since everyday the levels have been dropping for about 5 days now. Did a nitrite test, came back as zero. I haven't tested for nitrates for about 4 days since i'm still waiting for the test kit to arrive that covers nitrate.

Just gonne wait and test everyday to see if I can finally get a nitrite reading. It's now day 12 since I officially started adding the pure ammonia. However I also waited 2 weeks using the fish flake method so it's been almost a month and no further forward whatsoever. The saga continues ;_;

[Goes to 11!]

Don't bother counting the fish flake time, You are on day 12 and it's not an out of whack cycle length so far by any means.

Be patient and ride it out.

Are you following the testing procedures to the letter? We have had people getting bad results before due to their not testing properly.

[CrackFox]

Don't bother counting the fish flake time, You are on day 12 and it's not an out of whack cycle length so far by any means.

Be patient and ride it out.

Are you following the testing procedures to the letter? We have had people getting bad results before due to their not testing properly.

I am. I'm using the api liquid kits and following the instructions exactly. I tend to extract the tank water from the top, should I bet reaching in a bit more to collect some of the deeper water in the middle or bottom, or does that not make a difference at all? That's the only thing I think I could be potentially doing wrong.

[jeffs99dime]

That should not make any difference at all. Your filtration should be turning your water over and creating flow so you should not have any or little dead spots in the tank. .

[CrackFox]

That should not make any difference at all. Your filtration should be turning your water over and creating flow so you should not have any or little dead spots in the tank. .

Thanks, that's what I figured.