Need some serious cycling help

[michigan]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to fish keeping all together. I am in the process of cycling my new aquarium and I'm starting to think something is going wrong. I hope you guys can help me out. I am currently cycling a 37-gallon aquarium. I have been cycling now for little over a 4 weeks now using the "add and wait method". I initially started by adding enough ammonia to my aquarium it get it to 5ppm. It only took a week to come down and the nitrites spiked from there. I was all happy, thinking that everything was going just fine. I started to add enough ammonia to get it at 2-3 ppm after each time it came back down to 0. My nitrites have been at 5 ppm for over 2 weeks now and I haven't seen a drop in them. I saw Nitrates before at around 20-30 ppm...but now they are at 5-10 ppm. Before when I added extra ammonia it would take just a day or maybe two days to come down to 0. Now it's taking at least 3 days to come down. I have no idea what is going on now...it seems like everything is slowing down drastically. I this usually normal? Why would my nitrates just suddenly come back down to 5-10ppm? I've been trying to do research on this, but I really cannot find much on troubleshooting the cycle. Could the cycle be at a mere 'halt' because I keep adding access ammonia to the aquarium each time it comes back down to 0? Or am I doing everything right and just need to give it time.

I'm really sorry this post is quite lengthy, I'm just starting to get a little paranoid about my aquarium.

Thanks again for everyone's help

 

[MissFishy]

It sounds like everything is going to plan. Just be patient. What temperature are you keeping the tank at? Are you doing any water changes? Was the water treated with water conditioner?

 

[michigan]

Thanks for the reply, I see you are from Michigan as well!

I never added any chemicals, I did use de-chlorinated water initially when I filled up my aquarium. I never made any water changes seeing that that could disrupt the cycle. Like I said in my previous post, everything was going well until I saw a drop in my nitrates and how my ammonia levels are taking much longer to go down now then they did a couple weeks ago.

 

[MissFishy]

What temperature are you keeping the the tank at? Upping the tank temp to 85-90 will speed it up, I'd give it another week and see if it's just a bump in the road.

 

[michigan]

It's set at 85 degrees...

Should I just ignore the thing for a week? Or keep adding ammonia to it to feed the bacteria? Like I stated, there still are trace amounts of ammonia in the aquarium still.

 

[MissFishy]

Keep feeding the tank ammonia, if you don't feed it the cycle will just stop and bacteria will die. Throw a few drops in there everyday and let it sit for a week. Your water temp is good.