Cycling, 0 Ammonia Very High Nitrite And Nitrate

[Deator]

So,I have a 90 gallon tank with live plants. I started my aquarium for a few weeks to establish plants, all readings were fine. I added 4 molly's to start the cycle. I had an ammonia spike then drop off as normal.Now my nitrites are through the roof high and so are my nitrates. Once this happened i did 20-30 percent water changes every other day. That did nothing to the nitrite or nitrate readings. My fish have all died. Now my questions is, what advice can the community give me to finish off the cycle. I was going to add seachem stability in hopes it will help establish my culture. I also have access to a perfect disease free tank. Do i add more fish? Do i add ammonia? What should be my next step? 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello and welcome.
 
Right, as to your cycling issues.
 
The first cycle you did was a Fish In Cycle, which we do not recommend on this forum unless there is no choice in the matter. Seeing you are from Canada, you should be able to obtain a bottle of ammonia to be able to accurately dose specific amounts of ammonia.
 
During that cycle, you were only changing 20 - 30 % of the tank water, that was nowhere near enough for starters and the build up of nitrite and nitrate continued, which are toxic to fish, caused their untimely demise. Thats in a basic nutshell.
 
Now, I'd recommend you try for a Fishless Cycle, this mean adding a source of ammonia which am sure you can get either at a hardware store or online (the easiest option imo) and follow the fishless cycle article found on this forum -
 
Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank
 
BUT, you say you have access to "a perfect disease free tank", what do you mean by this exactly?
 
1 - Another empty tank or is it an established tank that has been running with fish for some time?
 
If its access to an established tank, this will make things a LOT quicker, but a source of ammonia is still needed though.
 
SO, if you could reply back with a response to that query regarding the tank and whether you can obtain some ammonia.
 
You could try eBay for somethng like either of these for example -
(do bear in mind these links are UK related sites so you'd need to search USA or Canada sites for similar)
 
http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Concentrated-Aquarium-Ammonia-for-Fishless-Cycling-Fish-Tank-Use-High-Strength-/181130184497?hash=item2a2c334731:g:qb8AAOxy0NtTGIly
 
or
 
http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kleen-Off-Household-Ammonia-Suitable-for-fishless-aquarium-cycling-500ml-/230928834948?hash=item35c46e6184:m:md6R6rBSZaNmueoCkf9cSaA
 
Perhaps you could use a bottle of Dr Tim's One and Only Ammonium Chloride whihc is prefectly fine to use for cycling.
 
https/www.amazon.co.uk/DrTims-Aquatics-Ammonium-chloride-Aquarium/dp/B006MP4QG6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464793946&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+tim%27s+ammonia
 
 
And am pretty sure have heard there is household ammonia in Canada, ACE Ammonia from ACE hardware store if thats local to you, there are other examples am sure but i cannot remember at this point in time, sorry. But that should give you the general idea.
 
 
Oh, and one last thing, hopefully you will already have a water testing kit for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. API Freshwater Master Kit is a popular choice as is value for money. Do try to avoid getting these cheap strip paper test kit, a liquid or tablet based kit is more reliable and more accurate.