How Well Is My Fishless Cycle Going?

[zesty]

Hi, I am in the process of doing my fishless cycle. I have an 80g tank and added some mature media to it 2 weeks ago but the media couldnt clear 5ppm of ammonia within 12 hours so I started off by adding 5ppm ammonia and waited till it dropped down to 1ppm a couple of days later.


I am testing for ammonia every 12 hours and always getting 0.25ppm readings using the API kit. I then top up ammonia back to 5ppm again every 12 hours.
Nitrites are dropping to 0.50ppm within 12 hours
Nitrates are steady at 5ppm
Ph is 7.6

My ammonia never reaches 0ppm within 12 hours, it only gets to 0.25ppm. Is this correct or should I be seeing 0ppm?

Have I made a mistake by adding ammonia every 12 hours? I seem to have read conflicting opinions with some people saying to test every 12 hours and top up ammonia back to 5ppm, and some people saying to test every 12 hours but only top up every 24 hours?


Any ideas ?

 

[OldMan47]

You should only top up once a day. By topping up twice a day you are pushing the bacteria very hard and are probably raising your nitrates more than you need to. The nitrate readings that you are getting are very suspect. Make sure that you are shaking the bottles at least as long as it says in the instructions. The instructions are very optimistic about how much mixing things will need. I always double the mixing times that they give to try to get a more accurate reading.

 

[zesty]

You should only top up once a day. By topping up twice a day you are pushing the bacteria very hard and are probably raising your nitrates more than you need to. The nitrate readings that you are getting are very suspect. Make sure that you are shaking the bottles at least as long as it says in the instructions. The instructions are very optimistic about how much mixing things will need. I always double the mixing times that they give to try to get a more accurate reading.

I will stop adding twice a day, but continue with my 12 hourly checks. I do follow the instructions to the letter including shaking for the required time but I will follow your advice and shake some more.
Thanks.