Ballsing Up A Fishless Cycle

[carrera]

right, im in a slight pickle.. ive put way too much ammonia in my tank which im trying to cycle (first time). problem was, my test kit arrived late (by like 2 weeks) and i wanted to get started, so i pretty much guessed how much ammonia to put in.

also to keep digging my hole much deeper, i decided i didnt need to read instructions on my test kit and saw "Ammonia test #1" and "Ammonia test #2" and thought 'huh.. they must give you 2 lots of it because u do a lot of ammonia tests?', then only used #1 and was getting no results, so was thinking 'doh, not enough ammonia!'.

after realising what an impatient, instruction-skipping fool i am, i discovered my ammonia levels were off the scale (8ppm+), even after trying to dilute it with several water changes, im still getting a dark green result.

the first ammonia went in the tank about 2 weeks ago, yet i still have zero nitrite reading, so im guessing the bacteria still hasnt settled.

would i be best doing a 100% water change and starting over? or continue trying to dilute it?

should i just leave it and let the bacteria grow and feast, or will it take forever?

thanks

 

[Tolak]

Change out 100% & fill again. Way too much ammo will extend the cycle. You really won't be starting from scratch, the bacteria have been started, though it would take them quite a while to grow to process that much ammonia.

 

[carrera]

righto thanks for the advice

 

[mark.w.jones]

Change out 100% & fill again. Way too much ammo will extend the cycle. You really won't be starting from scratch, the bacteria have been started, though it would take them quite a while to grow to process that much ammonia.

Agreed.

Start again. To much ammonia inhibits bacterial growth I read somewhere on here. 5ppm is all you need.