Can low ammonia delay the start of a cycle?

[MikeMTL]

I started my fishless cycle 22 days ago. I dosed pure ammonia in my dechlorinated water. Added plants and decor. Jacked my heater to 80 and turned on my airstone. 22 days later, ammonia is the same, nitrites are 0, nitrates are 0. My cycle hasn't started yet. That damn API test kit is hard to read, especially the ammonia one.

So, i'm thinking it's possible I only ever dosed about .5 and 1 ppm of pure ammonia. Is it possible I didn't dose enough for it start building the colony of beneficial bacteria?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Yes. Especially if you have plants. Dose to 4 ppm. No fish yet, right?

 

[MikeMTL]

Yes. Especially if you have plants. Dose to 4 ppm. No fish yet, right?

No fish. I got about 4 plants in there right now.

 

[Essjay]

If you have live plants you need to be aware that adding ammonia can damage them. In a cyced tank ammonia excreted by the fish arrives in the water in tiny amounts every minute of every day so the level in the water remains very low; when we dose ammonia, we add the same amount all at one go so there is a lot of ammonia in the water until it is removed.

If you plan only a few plants, the best option would be to remove the plants and keep them somewhere safe then do a fishless cycle following this method https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ You will see that 3 ppm is the recommended dose of ammonia.
You could also get some Tetra Safe Start, the most highly recommended bottled bacteria product.

If you plan a lot more plants, get them now and stop adding ammonia. Once the plants are actively growing, add fish a few at a time, monitoring the levels of ammonia and nitrite every day until you are certain that they are staying at zero. This is called a plant or silent cycle.