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I tested again yesterday and they both read 0ppm and nitrate was between 80 and 160ppm. I wonder if its because I miscalculated with the first dose by putting in 32ml when I should have only used 20ml of ammonia and that's why I have SO MUCH nitrate. You think? Anyway, I went ahead and did the maintenance feeding of 1/3 and I will test again tomorrow. 
 
Check your pH when you get a chance.  As nitrates rise, kH and then pH will fall crashing the cycle.
 
If both are zero though, you want to do a full dose and test in 24 hours.  If both return zero again, then its cycled.
 
Unless one has nitrate in their tap and/or is adding it via plant ferts., to produce 80 - 160 ppm of nitrate it takes 23 - 46 ppm of ammonia going in.
 
1 ppm of ammonia --> 2.55 ppm of nitrite --> 3.46 ppm of nitrate when using the total ion scale typical of hobby test kits.
 
(If you measure on the nitrogen scale, 1 ppm of ammomia = 1 ppm of nitrite = 1 ppm of nitrate.)
 
Just tested.
pH 7.6
kH 4
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate over 60ppm
 
Following the article I should do a full dose of ammonia if I get the same results tomorrow right?
 
TwoTankAmin said:
Unless one has nitrate in their tap and/or is adding it via plant ferts., to produce 80 - 160 ppm of nitrate it takes 23 - 46 ppm of ammonia going in.
 
1 ppm of ammonia --> 2.55 ppm of nitrite --> 3.46 ppm of nitrate when using the total ion scale typical of hobby test kits.
 
(If you measure on the nitrogen scale, 1 ppm of ammomia = 1 ppm of nitrite = 1 ppm of nitrate.)
 
 
You know how finicky that test is though TTA.  
 
Yeah I am pretty much guessing on that because that red is a different hue than all the colors on the scale so I am guessing it is off the scale. Its not really darker but its brighter than the rest.
 
Good Morning Fish Keepers, 
 
I had a question in regards to my second tank I am cycling. 
 
I setup the tank on Aug 19th and I am doing the fish-less cycle. 
 
Here are the readings:
 
Reading Aug 20:
Am: 2-4ppm 
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm 
 
Reading Aug 21:
Am: 3ppm
 
Reading Aug 22:
Am: 1-2ppm
Nitrite: .5-1ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
 
Aug 23:
Am: .5 - 1ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
 
Aug 25:
Am: 0
Nitrite: 5ppm
Added ammonia dose 1.2cc
 
Aug 26:
Am: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Added ammonia dose 1.2cc
 
Aug 27:
Am: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm
Added snack dose 1/3 of 1.2cc
 
Now my ammonia is processing over a 24hr period but my Nitrite isn't dropping. 
 
Am I doing something wrong or do I need to just wait this out?
 
I did a full dose yesterday and a 1/3 snack dose today because both days the ammonia was reading below 0.25ppm
 
Any advice would be appreciated. 
 
You are adding too much ammonia as far as I can tell. For those not sure how much a cc is, since the ammonia calc. is in ml, they are equivalent. But the normal fishless cycle using the directions here get two full additions of ammonia and then the snack dose, you have done 3 additions and the snack and that is the problem. The directions for the snack dose being added are that it should not go in until you have two consecutive readings of 0 ammonia when tested two days apart. So you did not meet this condition either.
 
The nitrate test works by converting the nitrate into nitrite and then measuring that. When one has nitrite in a tank it will show up as nitrate on that test. So unless you know your exact nitrite level, your nitrate results are pretty much useless. Stop wasting your time and money testing for nitrate at this point.
 
3 ppm of ammonia can turn into 2.55 ppm of nitrite. A 3 ppm addition produces as much as 7.65 ppm. Three additions plus a snack  produce about 25 ppm and at 16 ppm you are stalling or killing off the cycle. (Note, all these numbers are based on using hobby kits like the API ones.)
 
Next your test results are not making a lot of sense either. It should be possible to read ammonia more accurately than 2-4 ppm. So that number is not very helpful. There is no way a new tank can process close 9 ppm of ammonia to .25 ppm in 7 days unless it has been seeded with bacteria in some fashion or is very heavily planted. You do not provide any other info except what ammonia you added and what you believe the results to be. We need to know your tap parameters, the volume of your tank, the brand of dechlor you are using and what is in the tank besides water.
 
So what to do. Start by not adding ammonia until you should be and according the the directions here on the site. Then you need to get the nitrite levels down. You can either start by doing diluted nitrite testing to know how much you have and how much water to change or you can just start with a 50% water change and then test for it. The goal is to do whatever amount of water changes it takes to get the nitrite under 5.0 ppm for sure.
 
Either follow the directions here for diluted testing here http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433778-rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il/ and report the results back here or start changing water. Either way we need to know a bunch more info about what is going on to give decent advice.
 
Once you have posted the information requested i can make a suggestion of what curse to follow. I generally want to wait 24 hours after adding anything that detoxifies ammonia to a tank before resuming cycling.
 
TTA,
 
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I took waste water and gravel waste from my existing 3 month 15gal tank.
I also took bio material (slime) from the filter and placed this into the new 10gal tank i'm currently cycling.
 
The ammonia dose made yesterday which was a full dose was made by accident by a friend and was supposed to be a snack dose. 
I waited a full 24hrs to test and got these readings today:
 
Am: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
 
So I decided to do another snack dose which was probably a mistake.
 
The 2-4ppm readings I wrote down for myself was because the green level of ammonia was in-between the 2ppm and the 4ppm swatches on the API test kit.
So I was guessing that it was around 3ppm since I used the Ammonia calculator for this new 10gal tank. 
 
There is nothing in the tank other than gravel and the filters/heaters etc. 
 
I ran into carm in chat and got all this explained. And with a bit of back and forth we ended up in the same place as i posted in my suggestions. Get the nitrite to a level that is known for sure and then resume the cycle. She is opting for the water change and testing,  So as soon as she sees it clearly less than 5 ppm onher API kit, she will wait a day and then add 3 ppm.
 
But the lesson in all this for us all to see is that seeding a tank when cycling will change the test results one gets from those in the basic cycling article. Hopefully I have another article in me on this subject.
 
Thanks TTA for all your help!
 
I'll let you know how I make out
 
So, long story short... the problem that carm was having is that rather than adding a 'snack dose' every few days 2-3, and only after the nitrite was back down off the 5 ppm (incidentally the max of the test kit), she was adding it everyday, which can lead to a stall in the cycle.
 
 
Remember, you don't want to add a dose of ammonia unless you are getting zero ammonia AND less than 5ppm nitrite, preferably 2-3 or lower.  And if you get that, you add a snack dose of 1/3 of the original full dose.
 
The key is to be patient in the entire process and let the bacteria do their thing.  Patient in adding ammonia, as well as patient in adding fish.  The bacteria won't die immediately if they run out of ammonia.  They will be quite fine for several days.
 
My tank is very close to being cycled. My question is, how do I go about keeping it cycled if I'm adding shrimp/snails BEFORE my fish. Will their waste keep it cycled or will I still need to add a small dose of ammonia every other day until I add the fish?
 
Thanks,
 
Shrimp and snails are also susceptible to ammonia, so adding it after they arrive will potentially kill them.
 

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