fishless cycling

[schizo_fish]

I started fishless cycling my tank 4 weeks ago, i did everything by the book, i halfed the ammoina i was adding when i had a nitrite spike, but no nitrates have appeared yet.
My ammonia levels still remained high, so last weekend i did a 10% water change to see if it would drop, but didn't make much difference.
I've also stopped adding anymore ammonia since then, but my results are still high (5+).
By now , in my opinion my ammonia levels should be dropping to 0 within a few hours of adding more. what could be wrong?

 

[schizo_fish]

can anyone give me any advice?
all help appreciated

 

[TorPeteO]

Sorry, I con't know what could be wrong. Have you added gravel or squeezings from an established tank? If you get a small colony in there, the nitrite spike would be intense. What're your current ammonia and nitrite readings?

 

[mrV]

Are you absolutely sure you did nitrate test right? Is your nitrate test working at all? Because you had nitrite spike, it means that other bacteria (Nitrospira sp. ) got food and they start to oxidize NO2- to NO3-. So, check nitrates again (read manual carefully) and if you still getting NO3- = 0, then your test doesn't work.