cycling questions???

[TheWaterBoy]

My LFS will not give me any media. So I got Bio-Spira instead. I added it yesterday and then checked the readings today and there is no change. My ammonia is still not going down. It must be something I am missing. Here are the details:

I am doing fishless cycling

Its a 55 gallon

I used pure ammonia, no bubbles no fragrence and clear

Its been 36 days

I used Jungle Start Right water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramine

I saw no need to add ammonia cause my ammonia levels are staying high

I couldnt find a expir. date on my test kits, they a aquarium Pharm. Liquid test.

Except for the Nitrite test it is Dry-Tab as they had no liquid nitrite test

I added Bio Spira yesterday.

I have done no water changes(dont think I was supposed to)

Water us cloudy and was cloudy weeks before I added Bio-Spira

Ammonia is around 8ppm and my nitrite is at 1ppm it was also like this weeks before I added Bio-Spira

I am seriously considering emptying the tank and trying again.

 

[tstenback]

I know it seems wierd but you have to continue to add ammonia as this is what will build the bacteria. It seems strange that you are looking at a 8ppm reading and thinking should i add more? the answer is yes.
What should have happened is you should have measured the amount that you used to cause the original spike(i usually shoot for 5ppm). Then EVERY day add the same amount until the niTRITES appear. At this time cut the ammonia in half but keep adding daily. Once the ammonia and nitrites are 0 you are cycled. I usually add one more dose of ammonia at this point to prove the tank is cycled(it should go to 0 within 8-24 hours)
Adding any bacteria is good for the process but it still needs ammonia to be added daily to keep it active and alive. Also the more ammonia you put in initially the longer the cycle and all of the parts therein. HTH and Good Luck

 

[TheWaterBoy]

I did have a hard time reading my ammonia test. I dont know if it is 4.0 or 8.0 on the card at first I thought it was 4.0 but it seems like here recently its taken the test longer to turn green. I thought maybe it had maxed the test out above 8.0 and now that its taking longer to turn green it may mean its coming down. I dont know?

I will keep adding ammonia, origanaly I added 100ml in the begining and it went to high so I did a 75% water change and tested it again and the shade of green seemed to lighten some so I thought it was at 4.0, if this is the case then I should add 25ml from now until I see a peak in nitrites.

I am just having a hard time matching the colors on the chart.

 

[tstenback]

My ammonia chart is kind of difficult to read as well (how many shades of yellow can you get on a card anyway) . But 25 ml seems like an awful lot of ammonia for that size of tank. I used 5ml on a 30 gal and the ammonia spiked to over 5ppm. Regardless of this you should keep adding the ammonia until the nititres come and then cut the dose to half until both nitrites and ammonia are 0.

 

[TheWaterBoy]

Should I do a water change to lower ammonia even more?? It seems that it may take out my benificial bacteria I added yesterday. My tank has evaporated some i could prolly add about five gallons to it would this be good or bad?

Edit: Thank you so much for the help.

 

[tstenback]

It wouldnt hurt to top off the tank. May even bring down the ammonia level a bit.

 

[TheWaterBoy]

Ok I will do that and add 10ml of ammonia. Thank you again.