Been Cycling For A Month Now

[Flare]

I've been cycling a 20G for a little over a month now. I'm now to 0 nitrites but still have ammonia. Am I supposed to continue adding the ammonia? Or do I wait until that is at 0? If I am supposed to keep adding the ammonia, am I to keep it at 5ppm still?

Thanks,
cj

 

[FroggyFox]

The idea is to get the tank up to 5ppm once, measure the amount it took to get there...and add that every day. As soon as your nitrites hit 0...you stop adding ammonia and it should be dropping to 0 after less than 24 hours. If this is the case then you're finished!

If you're not going to add fish right away, you might test to be sure by not adding any ammonia for 24 hours and testing and then start adding that ammonia every day. As long as you add ammonia every day your tank is processing that "bioload"...so it will be ready for fish as soon as you're ready to stock it!

 

[Avalon]

Ammonia => nitrites ==> Nitrates. Nitrates are the end result of the cycle, the resulting product. What are your nitrates? If they are present >10ppm, you are done. You should stop adding ammonia and add fish (after your ammonia levels go to zero).

 

[Flare]

My Nitrates were about at 8.

I will need to add new water before the fish, right?

Wow, I've been waiting so long to add fish that I'm almost afraid to add them! I would hate for anything to go wrong. Yikes!

cj

 

[JWright]

The idea is to get the tank up to 5ppm once, measure the amount it took to get there...and add that every day. As soon as your nitrites hit 0...you stop adding ammonia and it should be dropping to 0 after less than 24 hours. If this is the case then you're finished!

I beg to differ there Froggy, if you add the same amount of ammonia everyday, you're gonna end up with a _ton_ of ammonia in the tank.

The cycle doesn't start right away, and you'll see no noticeable decrese in ammonia for at least 5-6 days, that's 25-30ppm ammonia. By that point you'll be stunting the bacterial growth.

I do however agree that the best way to make sure your tank is cycled is to dose it with 3-5ppm ammonia and see if it metabolizes it in a reasonable amount of time. Overnight or waterever...

 

[FroggyFox]

eh...they said they thought they were in the last stage so I oversimplified...sorry. Yeah, for the first few days until the ammonia starts disappearing you dont add that initial amount back in...but once it starts disappearing you should add it every day to keep things moving along.

I would do a BIG water change before adding fish...probably as close to a complete 100% change as possible. Did your ammonia drop?