Four Weeks Into Fishless Cycling - Have A Question

[jdubs]

Hi Everyone!

I am about 4 weeks into fishless cycling a 16 gallon tank. I am following the Fishless Cycling directions which have been pinned under the "Your New Freshwater Tank". I have been checking the values daily and keeping the ammonia at 4ppm. The nitrites have been off the charts as well as the nitrates. Finally I am seeing the ammonia and nitrite levels go down the last 3 or 4 days. But the ammonia has not dipped below 1ppm. The nitrites have gone to zero and then go up slightly (.25-.50ppm) when I add more ammonia. It does not spike really high like it did a week or so ago.

Should I just keep adding ammonia to bump it back up to 4ppm even though it is not yet to 0ppm? Or just leave it the way it is at 1ppm and wait for it to drop to 0ppm and then add the ammonia again? I am sort of afraid if I don't bump it up now some of the good bacteria will die because of lack of food.

Is there any benefit in doing a water change because of the super high nitrates?

Hopefully what I wrote makes sense.

I'm a newbie so be gentle

Thanks in advance!

 

[OldMan47]

Don't keep trying to hold ammonia at 4 ppm. Let it drop to zero and then just re-dose to around 2 ppm. If that is gone in 12 hours and nitrites at the same time are also at zero, you are done. Just do a huge water change to remove the nitrate build up and go get your fish.