3rd day and no nitrites yet?

[ozziegt]

So I am doing a fishless cycle on my new tank. It's a 5g with biowheel. I set it up Sunday, set the heater to 83 degrees and put in enough ammonnia to be at 5 ppm. It hasn't gone down at all and I still don't have any nitrite. I'm wondering if my tank doesn't have any bacteria at all and I need some to get it started??? Or is this normal? The tank is slightly hazy and I've been told this is bacterial bloom but I still am not seeing any signs of ammonia processing.

 

[canarsie11]

patience

 

[ozziegt]

How long does it normally take before the first cycle is done (when the ammonia levels reach zero)?

 

[daza]

it varies, but generally 2 to 4 weeks. Mine took 21 days.

If you can get some filter media or gravel from an already cycled tank, then that can speed things up.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

It took my tank 7 days before I got a nitrite reading and it took 13 days (6 days after the first nitrite reading) for the ammonia to finally read 0.

 

[ozziegt]

I thought by adding ammonia and setting the temp to 83 degrees things were supposed to speed up drastically? I guess I am going to end up buying some bio-spira!